South Africa’s MK party filed a treason complaint on Monday against a group championing the white Afrikaner minority after Donald Trump attacked South Africa’s new law aimed at redistributing white-owned land, and signed an executive order last week cutting financial aid.
The group, AfriForum, has lobbied against the land law in U.S. media and political circles, portraying it as part of a wider onslaught against Afrikaners.
In a criminal complaint, MK, the party of ex-president Jacob Zuma, accused AfriForum of spreading misinformation to influence Trump.
Supporters sang anti-apartheid songs outside Cape Town’s central police station.
MK parliamentary leader John Hlophe:
“First of all, they lied and said their farms have been confiscated and there have been killings and their land was confiscated which is not true, to begin with, so based on that lies, those fraudulent misrepresentations, Trump decided to issue an executive order against South Africa.”
AfriForum’s CEO Kallie Kriel said in a statement the accusation of treason was absurd.
The Trump administration said the United States would welcome Afrikaners as refugees, lending credence to AfriForum’s complaint that they are being persecuted.
This is disputed by the South African government and most political parties.
The government has defended the land reform law as an attempt to rectify the injustices of the past and has pointed out that no expropriations have yet taken place under the law.
White farmers own three quarters of South Africa’s privately held land, while white people make up 8% of the population.
Trump’s criticism has exacerbated stark divisions on racial issues that persist in South Africa 30 years after the end of apartheid, partly because of yawning economic inequality between racial groups.
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