Analysis
Trump’s South African vendetta on behalf of Bibi and Musk
An inexhaustible source of inspiration for the president is the triumvirate of Musk and the other two moguls du jour, Peter Thiel and David Sacks, who all have South African origins as well as passionate alt-right convictions.
He did what he said he would. After recurring threats to do so, Trump signed the executive order freezing every kind of support for South Africa and launched it into the global infosphere.
The reason, as spelled out by Trump himself with his usual level of intellectual honesty, is twofold: first, the offense of lèse-majesté against Israel over the charge of genocide brought by Pretoria before the International Court of Justice in The Hague; second, the threat the white minority supposedly faces, as, according to Trump, their lands are at risk of being confiscated without compensation.
Two favors for Netanyahu and Elon Musk, in that order. And the target is a country trying to shake off the failures inherited from its own white supremacist era – and one that deems to do what is right and denounce the crimes of apartheid when committed by Israel against the Palestinians.
An inexhaustible source of inspiration for the president is the triumvirate of Musk and the other two moguls du jour, Peter Thiel and David Sacks, who all have South African origins as well as passionate alt-right convictions. Thanks to them, ever since Nelson Mandela was freed, the notion was popularized that if anyone in the world was at risk of genocide, it was the Afrikaners. On the same grounds, an additional measure announced by the White House grants them easier access to asylum.
Although this latest ethnically-based humanitarian scenario could only make sense in the realm of science fiction, the Afrikaners themselves have reacted to the developments with a mixture of astonishment and concern: “We have to state categorically: we don’t want to move elsewhere,” said Kallie Kriel, the director of AfriForum, one of the most representative associations among the community. “We are not going to ask our children to move to another country.”
Indeed, the position of landlords and rent receivers they have held on to in South Africa is not comparable to anything a refugee camp in Florida could offer, even a 5-star one. Nevertheless, the welcome promised by Trump on Friday night was confirmed on Saturday by a post from a State Department spokeswoman: “persecuted South African farmers and other innocent victims being targeted solely based on their race who choose to resettle in America will be welcome,” wrote Tammy Bruce.
In response, the Foreign Ministry in Pretoria did not mince words: “We are concerned by what seems to be a campaign of misinformation and propaganda aimed at misrepresenting our great nation,” also pointing out that “it is ironic that the executive order makes provision for refugee status in the US for a group in South Africa that remains amongst the most economically privileged, while vulnerable people in the US from other parts of the world are being deported and denied asylum despite real hardship.”
But Trump and Musk's strike against South Africa resembles a punitive expedition. It is as if the boss takes up a vendetta on behalf of a lower-level thug. On February 3, the tycoon already announced his intentions: “certain classes of people” are treated “very badly” in the country, he had claimed. But back in 2018 he had already become fixated on the expropriations and murders of white farmers (another phenomenon involving vanishingly small numbers, which is also being vigorously fought by the South African authorities).
But South Africans are “a resilient people” and will not be “bullied,” said President Ramaphosa. Accomplishing even a minimal redistribution of fertile land, which, as in the pre-Mandela era, is for more than 70 percent in the hands of 9 percent of the population, is an endlessly delayed necessity that has finally found a timid outlet in the latest Expropriation Act, which does provide for confiscations, but only in extreme cases. There are far more radical positions in the South African parliament, for example that of the Economic Freedom Fighters, but they have a meager 10 percent base of support and are in opposition.
The proletarian expropriation that the White House seems to be worried about didn’t succeed even under the feisty Mugabe in neighboring Zimbabwe. It’s least likely of all to happen in South Africa, the number one economy and top economic partner of the U.S. on the continent, led moreover by a president who went from defending the rights of the miners as a trade unionist to becoming a mining entrepreneur in turn, the highest exponent of the narrow Black elite that emerged with the African National Congress in power. At the same time, Ramaphosa is someone who can speak Trump's language and has a well-deserved reputation as a stalwart mediator.
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/sudafrica-la-firma-di-trump-sulla-vendetta-di-bibi-e-musk on 2025-02-09