President Donald Trump criticized South Africa again on Wednesday — hours after the South African government claimed that it had clarified “misconceptions” about the country in meetings with senior White House officials.
“They’ve got some bad things going on in South Africa — you know, we’re paying them billions of dollars, and we cut the funding because a lot of bad things are happening in South Africa,” the president said in the Rose Garden. “The fake news ought to be looking at it — they don’t want to report it.”
Trump made his remarks as he explained that South African goods would be subject to a 30% tariff, as part of the reciprocal tariff policy he had introduced.
His words directly contradicted the claims made earlier Wednesday by South Africa’s foreign ministry, which calls itself the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO). DIRCO claimed that a delegation, led by director-general Zane Dangor, had explained to the White House and other U.S. officials why previous claims by the administration about human rights violations and potential land expropriation in South Africa were, in fact, wrong.
A statement from DIRCO did not announce any compromises offered to the U.S. government. Instead, it read:
The delegation clarified key issues and misconceptions in meetings with the National Security Council’s Africa Director, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, as well as Treasury Department representatives. We believe that these dialogues will assist to refine the current administration’s understanding of South Africa’s position on critical matters, fostering a more nuanced perspective.
The delegation directly addressed the perception that the South African Government’s policies are designed to violate the human rights of minorities in post-apartheid South Africa. Amongst the issues addressed was the matter of how the Expropriation Act’s nil compensation clause is not designed to facilitate unlawful land seizures and undermine property investment but rather to ensure that:
(1) where the land is not being used and the owner’s main purpose is not to develop the land or use it to generate income, but to benefit from appreciation of its market value.
(2) where an organ of state holds land that it is not using for its core functions and is not reasonably likely to require the land for its future activities in that regard, and the organ of state acquired the land for no consideration.
(3) where an owner has abandoned the land by failing to exercise control over it despite being reasonably capable of doing so.
(4) where the market value of the land is equivalent to, or less than, the present value of direct state investment or subsidy in the acquisition and beneficial capital improvement of the land.
During the cordial discussions the senior officials addressed misconceptions on what has been presented by some as race laws designed to undermine minority rights in South Africa. To this end the senior officials presented information, which highlights the persuasive racial and structural inequality that continues to divide South Africa in all areas of the nation.
There was no readout of the meetings from the American side, presenting the administration’s version of events.
DIRCO’s statement repeats the stance taken by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa early in the diplomatic crisis, when he described Trump’s policy as the result of “misinformation.” Rather than make compromises on its foreign or domestic policies, South Africa apparently believes it must simply explain to Trump why he is “wrong.”
But efforts to explain away land expropriation laws, for example, have been undermined by the government’s own actions, such as a new bill to redistribute land by race, and a tacit acceptance of genocidal anti-white rhetoric.
Dangor is seen by critics as having surrounded himself with a cohort of anti-American, anti-Israel officials sympathetic to radical and Islamist causes, leading South Africa to side with Iran and Hamas against Israel.
South Africa is also seen as too close to China and Russia, earning rebukes from both sides of the aisle in Congress.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
