South African party charges a white gang with treason in connection with the Trump attack

Former South African President Jacob Zuma’s party accused AfriForum, an organization that supports the white Afrikaner minority, of treason on Monday after Donald Trump criticized the nation’s new law that aims to redistribute white-owned property.

As part of a larger campaign against Afrikaners, AfriForum has pushed against the bill in American political and media circles. Zuma’s MK party accused it in a criminal case of disseminating false material to sway Trump.

Citing the land expropriation legislation and Pretoria’s genocide action against Israel, Washington’s close friend, at the International Court of Justice, the U.S. president last week issued an executive order reducing financial aid to South Africa….

Trump’s administration said that Afrikaners, who are descended from mostly Dutch settlers from the 17th century, might enter the US as refugees, supporting AfriForum’s claim that they are being persecuted—a claim that the South African government and the majority of political parties deny.

By pointing out that no expropriations have yet occurred under the law, the administration has resisted what it claims is false information and defended the land reform law as an effort to right historical wrongs.

Although just 8% of South Africans are white, white farmers possess three-quarters of the country’s privately owned land.

Thirty years after apartheid ended, South Africa still has glaring racial differences, which Trump’s criticism has made worse, in part due to glaring disparities between ethnic groupings.

The incumbent African National Congress lost its majority due to the overwhelming support for land redistribution from MK, a populist opposition party that soared to third place in last year’s national elections.

When MK brought their grievance against AfriForum to the central police station in Cape Town, scores of party members dressed in the party’s signature green military camouflage uniforms performed songs about independence from apartheid.

PLOTTING

Shortly after the accusation was filed, the party’s legislative leader, John Hlophe, stated, “We contend that they have committed treason because they are conspiring against our government.”

“Based on those lies, those fraudulent misrepresentations, Trump decided to issue an executive order against South Africa,” said the president.

The CEO of AfriForum, Kallie Kriel, called the treason charge “ludicrous.”

“It is the duty of civil society … to put the spotlight on legislation and actions that threaten the welfare of citizens and the country,” he stated in a statement.

The National Prosecuting Authority will decide whether to charge AfriForum with treason after considering the evidence that the police have provided.

Although the ruling African National Congress (ANC) has not filed a lawsuit against AfriForum, it did blame the group for Trump’s actions last week.

Through the expropriation act, the government can take land from white farmers and, in some situations, transfer it to low-income Black people.

For years, AfriForum has been aggressively advocating in the United States against South African land reform initiatives, seeing the law as an attack on property rights.