3 February 2025
The Ivan Toms Centre for Health has been providing health services in Cape Town, mostly to vulnerable men, since 2009. Its services were stopped last week after the US government, which funds the centre, halted aid to South Africa. While a subsequent directive has been issued allowing aid to resume for some HIV and TB services, this centre was still closed on Monday 3 February. Photos: Ashraf Hendricks
President Donald Trump posted this on social media this morning:
“South Africa is confiscating land, and treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY. It is a bad situation that the Radical Left Media doesn’t want to so much as mention. A massive Human Rights VIOLATION, at a minimum, is happening for all to see. 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!”
This is a thinly veiled reference to the signing into law of the Expropriation Act by President Cyril Ramaphosa in January. As an act of punishment Trump says he will cut off aid to South Africa, pending an investigation.
Reuters reports that the US committed $440-million (about R8-billion) to South Africa in 2023. Most of this supports HIV and TB health services. It is life-saving aid that also employs thousands of South Africans. As GroundUp published last week, cutting this aid, which gives the United States soft power, weakens the US instead of fulfilling Trump’s campaign slogan to “Make America Great Again”. (By any reasonable measure the US was already great when Trump took office, close to the zenith of its power, but that’s another story.)
The Expropriations Act is controversial and emotions are running high in its wake.
We live in a constitutional democracy. It is imperfect but functional. South Africa is a country of numerous ethnicities and classes. It is highly unequal both in wealth and power distribution. All of us have to accept that in our political framework there are compromises and victories and losses. There are laws and policies that we like and others that we don’t like. Let’s be thankful for this vibrant democracy; the alternatives are not great.
Whether one agrees with its politics or not, Afriforum is part of South African democracy representing an important constituency, mainly conservative white Afrikaans people. It is also an organisation that has done some good work.
Al Jazeera reported in 2018 that Afriforum was in the “US to lobby government officials about the murders of white farmers and to warn investors about the ruling [ANC’s] proposed plan to expropriate land without compensation”. Afriforum issued a statement welcoming “President Trump’s announcement that the USA will investigate expropriation”.
In response to Trump’s post this morning, Afriforum’s leader Kallie Kriel posted on Twitter (X) that Afriforum “will officially request the USA 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.” (our emphasis)
Afriforum is opposed to the Expropriations Act. That is its prerogative. It is entitled to take any democratic action to try to stop the aspects of the Act it dislikes from being enforced, including protesting against expropriation of specific pieces of land, going to court, and lobbying Parliament to change the law.
But it is unacceptable to be lobbying the government of the most powerful country in the world to sanction South Africa in any way, irrespective of whether those sanctions target people who are dependent on HIV and TB programmes, ANC members or President Ramaphosa.
In contrast to South Africa under apartheid, differences can and must be resolved through advocacy, protests, Parliament and the courts without resorting to violence or foreign sanctions. While foreign governments may be asked to convey their views to the South African government, it’s wrong for any foreign government to punish South Africans for decisions reached through our constitutional democratic process.
It appears that the irresponsible behaviour of Afriforum, such as lobbying Trump’s Administration as well as US extremists in 2018, and Kriel’s statement today, has invited foreign interference in South Africa’s domestic affairs.
Kriel is not directly responsible for the actions of the US government. Trump is capricious and he is likely to exact revenge on anyone for any perceived sleight or difference in view. But Kriel should certainly not have found himself and his organisation in a position where they have contributed to this dreadful situation.
Kriel can show he is committed to the democratic process in South Africa by calling on Trump not to institute any sanctions against South Africa, including against ANC members or the president. That should not stop Afriforum from pursuing its political goals.