South Africa has temporarily withdrawn an expropriations bill to seize land from white farmers after U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted that he asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to look into reports of widespread murders of white farmers in the motherland.
President Cyril Ramaphosa ordered the forcible evictions of farmers who refused to give up their land to make reparations to South African citizens.
Ramaphosa targeted 130 farms and allowed the courts to determine what would be a “just and equitable” compensation to the farmers.
In some instances, farmers who resisted were massacred. In other cases, farmers were given nothing in exchange for their farmland.
On Aug. 22, President Trump tweeted:
“I have asked Secretary of State @SecPompeo to closely study the South Africa land and farm seizures and expropriations and the large scale killing of farmers. “South African Government is now seizing land from white farmers.” @TuckerCarlson @FoxNews”.
Some lawmakers in the Democratic Alliance (DA) party, along with agricultural economists, worry the land seizures could harm South Africa’s economy similar to what happened in Zimbabwe after former dictator Robert Mugabe ordered land seized from 4,000 white farmers.
A record number of farms in South Africa have been put up for sale.
