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Donald Trump, Elon Musk and AfriForum – an unholy trinity pushing back on land reform

Donald Trump, Elon Musk and AfriForum – an unholy trinity pushing back on land reform
Marianne Thamm
By Marianne Thamm
3 Feb 2025
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US President Donald Trump, Elon Musk and AfriForum have congealed into a trinity aimed at derailing land reform in South Africa.

This article has been updated with comment from Kallie Kriel.

Donald Trump’s spreading of the lie on his personal publishing platform, Truth Social, that land was being confiscated from white farmers in South Africa, has enlivened those who seek to derail the land reform process.

Meanwhile, John Steenhuisen, leader of the Democratic Alliance and Minister of Agriculture, noted “with deep concern President Donald Trump’s threat to cut critical aid funding in response to the Expropriation Act”.

He said while the Act did need to be amended to meet the sequencing requirements, as highlighted by Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Dean Macpherson, “there are also opportunities to deal with other concerns that have been raised in the public since the assertion to the Act”.

Steenhuisen said, “It is not true that the Act allows land to be seized by the state arbitrarily, and it does require fair compensation for legitimate expropriations in terms of Section 25 of the Constitution.”

‘Radical Left Media’


The US president blamed the“Radical Left Media” which “doesn’t want so much as a mention” of what he termed “a massive Human Rights VIOLATION, at a minimum and is happening for all to see”, to be exposed.

“The United States won’t stand for it, we will act. Also, I will be cutting off all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has been completed!” he thundered.

Read more: The big lie of the land — Ramaphosa politely schools ‘terrible things’ Trump on SA’s land reform

Musk, Trump’s meatpuppet, suggested on his personal publishing platform, X, that Ramaphosa’s government was being dishonest and that “land was being taken” under the guise of a “constitutionally mandated legal process”.

Later asked about cutting aid to Africa and why South Africa in particular, Trump ranted that “horrible things” were happening in the country.

“They are taking away land, they are confiscating land and doing things perhaps worse than that” – while providing not a single example of “the things, the horrible things”.

This is exactly the part where the Far Right – with Musk as its global Führer muppet and the Far Left in South Africa – with Jacob Zuma and his band of State Capturers leading the assault – get into a big bed together having found common ground dissing the country’s Constitution.

AfriForum’s Kallie Kriel


AfriForum CEO, Kallie Kriel has long sought to establish the narrative that not only was land being confiscated “Zimbabwe-style”, but there is mass politically motivated murder of white farmers.

Disregarding entirely the latest findings by criminologist Professor Rudolph Zinn, professor of policing and forensic investigation at the University of South Africa, that farm robberies and attacks were not political and perpetrators were in search of cash and other valuables.

Read more: AfriForum’s Kallie Kriel — there are land grabs in SA, not major land confiscations

“South Africa clearly has a problem with violent crime,” said Zinn, “You can find the same horrific instances of violent crime across the crime categories: You find people being assaulted for vehicles, residential robberies where people are tied up, and people on the street being stabbed more than three times for a few hundred rand, or a cheap cellphone.

“This kind of violence does not only occur on farms, but it is just more widely reported on through lobby groups,” he said.

Kriel, responding to Trump, posted on X that the organisation would be officially requesting the US “to directly punish senior ANC leaders and not the people of South Africa. We, as ordinary citizens, are already being punished by a hostile and foolish government and [the presidency of South Africa] and do not want to be punished as well.”

A road well travelled


In 2018, Donald Trump bruised into the land reform issue in South Africa, posting on social media that he had asked then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, to “closely study land and farm seizures and expropriations and the large-scale killing of farmers. South African Government is now seizing land from white farmers.”

His proxy for this narrative back then was Tucker Carlson, then a Fox News poster boy, who had criticised Pompeo the same week. Both statements coincided with a visit by an AfriForum delegation to Carlson.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) joined the 2018 fray, posting “We would hope that the President would try to understand the facts and realities of the situation in South Africa, rather than repeat disturbing, racially divisive talking points used most frequently by white supremacists.”

Trump’s SA connection


Meanwhile, former DA speechwriter for Tony Leon, Joel Pollak, editor-at-large for the alt-right Breitbart and a Trump supporter, correctly pointed out that “the issue of expropriation has been simmering for decades in South Africa, given the unequal distribution of land, most of which is owned by the white minority as a result of colonialism and apartheid”.

So far, so good.

Then Pollak adds, “But until now, South Africa has been reluctant to follow the example of Zimbabwe, which seized land from white farmers in 2000 and plunged the country into starvation, as few black farmers were successful and many farms were stolen by the ruling party.”

South Africa, like the United States, he said, already allowed the government “to seize land under an authority similar to eminent domain” though the preference was for a “willing buyer, willing seller” transaction at fair market prices. 

“However, radical black nationalist and communist politicians continue to demand that the government seize the property of white farmers. Though few black South Africans want to farm, the issue remains an emotive one,” Pollak warns.

He ends by editorialising that “South Africa also acts contrary to U.S. interests and alliances on the world stage, notably by cozying up to rival powers such as China and Russia, and also by backing Palestinian terror against Israel in international forums”.

Read more: Ramaphosa seeks Trump meeting to discuss SA’s land reform policy after ‘land confiscation’ claims

Unfortunate


Steenhuisen, in his statement, said that the United States had been “a longstanding and valued partner to South Africa”.

In 2024, South Africa had received $453-million in direct funding under the Pepfar programme, with a projected $439-million allocated for 2025, he said.

“This funding is vital to sustaining life-saving HIV/Aids treatment and support services for the most vulnerable members of our society. In addition, millions of US dollars flow into South African NGOs and government departments for humanitarian and environmental programmes that directly benefit our most vulnerable communities.

It would be a tragedy if this funding were terminated because of a misunderstanding of the facts.

“We successfully opposed any change to Section 25 of the Constitution, which protects property rights, and we will continue to work to ensure the Expropriation Amendment Act is constitutionally sound in every respect”. DM

Since the publication of this article, Kallie Kriel has sent a "Right of Reply". We have added his response which directly pertains to the substance of this article:

(Thamm's article) incorrectly blames AfriForum for President Trump’s statements against expropriation without compensation and against what he describes in capital letters as certain citizens being treated “VERY BADLY”.

With this opinion piece, Thamm is unfortunately assisting desperate attempts by the presidency and the ANC to excuse themselves regarding the negative consequences of their own policies by using misrepresentations to seek a scapegoat on which to place all the blame for the dilemma the country now finds itself in. In terms of this political strategy, lies are being spread to try to make AfriForum the scapegoat.

I state unequivocally that AfriForum’s efforts to protect property rights have consistently been and still are aimed at serving the interests of all South Africans out of loyalty. It is precisely because AfriForum has seen the devastating consequences of the disregard for property rights and the accompanying scaring away of investors for the people of Zimbabwe and Venezuela that we are doing everything possible to prevent respect for property rights from being systematically eroded in South Africa.

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