This article was first published by Business Day, South Africa on 7 April 2025

SA finds itself in a wrestling match with the white supremacist US administration of Donald Trump. This situation has been worsened by AfriForum and Solidarity delegations misrepresenting the plight of still privileged Afrikaners in Washington DC. Trump adviser Elon Musk has further stoked the fire by spreading lies of “white genocide” and “openly racist policies”.

Even during his first presidential term Trump had accused the black government of confiscating white land and talked of “large-scale killing of white farmers” (despite 69 murders a day in SA, a total of 26 white farmers were killed last year).

Trump more recently cut off US aid to Pretoria (17% of SA’s HIV/Aids programme). After inaccurately accusing Pretoria of land grabs, he offered refugee status to supposedly oppressed Afrikaner farmers (8,200 applications have been received). This is a cynical ploy designed to preserve America’s white Christian majority for “Make America Great Again” (Maga) cultists.

SA’s 2024 Expropriation Act seeks to redress past injustices: the 1913 Land Act dispossessed the black majority by reserving 93% of land for whites. Members of a 9% white minority still own 72% of all private farmland. The purpose of the 2024 act is thus to use land for the public good while protecting private property rights. Any land seizures are subject to judicial review.

Analyst Ruth Hall has insightfully noted, though, that the act has yet to address seriously the plight of the landless. Many black and white analysts have also criticised the government’s BEE policies as having largely benefited a small clique of ANC-connected business moguls. Journalist Max du Preez noted how Afrikaners benefited from similar affirmative action programmes under apartheid.

Last month, Washington expelled SA’s ambassador to the US, Ebrahim Rasool, for betraying his diplomatic calling by depicting Trump as leading a white supremacist movement. Though a former ambassador in Washington, as a pro-Palestinian, anti-Zionist Muslim, Rasool was always a dead man walking: a poor choice for a profoundly nativist administration. Trump’s decision to send as ambassador to Pretoria one Leo Brent Bozell, a rabidly pro-Israel right-wing media personality who previously described the ANC as “terrorists”, is a provocative signal that Washington has no intention of de-escalating this conflict.

America is SA’s second-largest trading partner and its largest importer in Sub-Saharan Africa. Pretoria’s response to Trump’s belligerence has thus been to offer a quixotic bilateral trade deal, send delegations to Washington DC to explain its policies, and seek to ensure a smooth handover of its current Group of 20 chair to America in November.

None of this has worked, because the real issue behind this diplomatic shadowboxing is that SA had the temerity to take Israel, a staunch US ally, to the International Court of Justice last year on charges of genocide in Gaza. Another Trump gripe is that Pretoria co-operated with its Brics+ ally, Iran, on nuclear issues.

As during the Joe Biden administration, American legislators are now seeking to sanction ANC leaders for these actions, as well as for its closeness to China — Pretoria’s largest trading partner — and Russia, with which Washington has started co-operating more closely. SA’s deputy justice minister, Andries Nel, would be an ideal choice to send to Washington as ambassador. Born in New Orleans to a diplomat father and married to African American development consultant Kim Robinson, this Afrikaner anti-apartheid lawyer could be trusted to represent the views of the majority of South Africans to America.

Former DA Tony Leon, in stark contrast, would be a Western Trojan horse. Nel may not change Trump’s mind, but could credibly argue Pretoria’s case. SA is correct to diversify its global commercial ties while strengthening Brics+ and intra-African trade. Harnessing the collective strength of the Global South — where Pretoria is widely respected — is the only viable option to resist Trump’s white mischief.

Professor Adekeye Adebajo is a professor and senior research fellow at the University of Pretoria’s Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Pretoria.