South Africa’s White farmers—and, face it, most of South Africa’s farmers are White Afrikaners—are facing difficulties.

Are they being subjected to a government-orchestrated genocide? No, that is a Trumpist calumny of the first order.

Are they being buried in their thousands along the road as show in one of the videos that Trump showed in the Oval Office? No, that was a five year-old video showing a temporary memorial to two Boer farmers.

What about all the newspaper cuttings that Trump produced in his ambush of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa? Those were all about fighting in the war-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo.

How about Julius Malema singing “Kill the Boers.” He is leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters which won 9.5 percent of the vote in the last election. Describing him—as Trump did—as representative of South African politics is akin to saying that Nigel Farage and the Reform Party determine British government policy.

In short, Trump’s attempted trap was riddled with obvious lies. Except one, President Ramaphosa in February signed a bill allowing for the confiscation of farmland.

Mind you, it is more nuanced than that. The bill allows for expropriation in “circumstances where it is just and equitable and in the public interest to do so.” And defines the just and equitable circumstances as when the land is not being used and stipulates that there should be no intention to either develop the land, resell it at profit or to use it such a way to pose a risk to other people.

This may sound fair, but it is also vague enough to worry the banks who are expressing concern about loans to South African farmers. And Boer farmers, like farmers everywhere, live from bank loan to harvest to bank loan.

Actual implementation of the new law is being held up by a legal challenge from the Democratic Alliance Party which is actually a member of the ruling coalition. The DA claim that the law breaches the constitutional provision protecting private property and is preparing its case for South Africa’s Supreme Court.

To understand the reason for the law you need a brief knowledge of South African history. To start with, the Afrikaner word for farmer is Boer. The vast majority of the Boers are farmers and they have owned virtually all of the farmland since the 1913 Native Lands Act. This law decreed Black South Africans were restricted to less than one-tenth of South Africa. Furthermore, that Africans were prohibited from purchasing or leasing any land outside these reserves.

Than in the 1950s, with the onset of Apartheid, came the Group Areas Act when any remaining land was taken from Black farmers without compensation.

Since the end of apartheid in 1994 there have understandable demands that the historic wrongs be righted with land redistribution. In 1996 the government promised to redistribute 30 percent of the land back to Blacks by 2010. This redistribution was based on the White farmers accepting compensation. The ruling motto was “No willing. No sale.”

Few White farmers accepted the offer; only a fraction of the land was redistributed and the issue remained at the top of the political agenda.

There were other factors behind Trump’s Oval Office ambush. One was South Africa’s push to have the International Crime Court charge Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant with crimes against humanity. From South Africa’s point of view, Ramaphosa is trying to project his country as a leader of the Global South and the Global South is largely opposed to Israel’s actions in Gaza.

At the same time, he needs to maintain close relations with the West. That’s where the money is. He particularly needs American aid. In 2024.The US provided $453 million in the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). South Africa’s has one of the world’s highest incidences of HIV/AIDS. USAID provided an additional $60 million for other projects.

All that aid was stopped by Trump, citing the alleged genocide of White farmers and the ICC warrants for Netanyahu as two of the main reasons.

America money paid about 17 percent of South Africa’s AIDs programme. It was initially thought that thousands would die as a result of Trump’s cutback. But the South African government has committed to making up the shortfall. The money for the reduced aid, however, was jeopardised by Trump’s tariffs which were initially 30 percent. And may still go back to that level.

Ramaphosa’s main purpose for visiting Washington was to secure trade concessions in order to maintain export levels. Trump’s main reason for inviting him was to score political points with his base.

One of the core conspiracy tenets of the MAGA base is the Great Replacement Theory. This notion is based on the belief that the Black and Brown races are growing in numbers and replacing the White race and will seek revenge for being oppressed for centuries. The political machinations in post-Apartheid South Africa are held up as proof of the veracity of the theory.

* Tom Arms is foreign editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and author of “The Encyclopaedia of the Cold War” and “America Made in Britain".