Trump’s SA executive order: The ANC, DA and GNU’s conundrum

US President Donald Trump’s signing of an executive order against South Africa has left major political parties with a domestic political conundrum, an analyst says.

The order, a guideline on the US government’s stance towards South Africa, alleges human rights issues and a land policy that allows the SA government to “seize ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation”. It also noted SA’s genocide case against US ally Israel at the International Court of Justice.

The US government said it would work to provide humanitarian aid to Afrikaans farmers and resettle them as refugees.

It follows the freezing of key humanitarian aid funding to South Africa last month and the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s decision to boycott the upcoming G20 Summit in Johannesburg, claiming “anti-Americanism”.

ALSO READ: Trump signs executive order against SA, promises to resettle Afrikaans ‘victims of racial discrimination’ as refugees

What will the ANC do?

While politicians and civil rights organisations have weighed in on the order and the larger strained relationship between the US and SA, political analyst Daniel Silke says political parties need to walk a fine line.

“Washington’s spotlight on South Africa presents a political dilemma. Either Pretoria softens her tone or digs in her heels.

“Either she seeks to keep the US on board, or she drifts further to the US’s geo-political rivals,” he said.

While the ANC has, by the time of writing, not yet commented on the order, Silke said it may gravitate toward whichever stance will win them votes.

“The US focus on South Africa provides the ANC with a domestic political conundrum. Aggressive criticism of Washington will only exacerbate diplomatic and economic tensions but can win votes from aggrieved voters whose nationalistic pride can be re-awakened,” he explained.

ALSO READ: Trump’s SA executive order: Government slams ‘propoganda’, takes shots at US refugee system

GNU partners also in a pickle

Silke said the order will also reverberate across the ANC’s partners in the government of national unity (GNU) coalition.

“The US spotlight is another awkward moment for the DA and Freedom Front Plus in the GNU as they grapple with both the ANC’s domestic and foreign policy leads and may have to defend them in the wake of pressure from Washington,” he noted.

Expropriation Act a thorn in GNU’s side

There is already tension in the GNU over President Cyril Ramaphosa’s recent signing of the controversial Expropriation Act into law, which allows for the expropriation of land with nil compensation if it is in the public interest.

The DA challenged the Act, claiming it contained concerning inconsistencies and threatened legal action.

Amid Trump’s actions over the Act, the DA has clarified that it does not support it but “South African citizens should not be punished by the US for bad policy”.

Government hits back at Trump

The Citizen‘s attempts to contact the ANC and presidency for comment were unsuccessful at the time of publishing. Any update will be included once received.

However, the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) has slammed the order, saying it “lacks factual accuracy and fails to recognise South Africa’s profound and painful history of colonialism and apartheid”.

“We are concerned by what seems to be a campaign of misinformation and propaganda aimed at misrepresenting our great nation. It is disappointing to observe that such narratives seem to have found favour among decision-makers in the United States of America,” the department added.

It also noted the alleged irony of the order given the criteria the US seems to employ when deciding who to take in as refugees.

“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.”

ALSO READ: ‘SA can’t afford to be fixing fake news engineered by traitors’- Mashaba on Trump’s executive order

Trump suspends refugee programme

The order comes weeks after Trump ordered the suspension of all refugee admissions into the US and the reconfiguration of the admissions programme.

He claimed his country “lacks the ability to absorb large numbers of migrants, and in particular, refugees, into its communities in a manner that does not compromise the availability of resources for Americans, that protects their safety and security, and that ensures the appropriate assimilation of refugees”.  

AfriForum: We are staying

Afrikaans civil rights organisation AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel told The Citizen it had noted Trump’s order but was committed to staying in South Africa.

“We have an appreciation for the fact that the US recognises the discrimination experienced by Afrikaners at the moment, but we do, however, see the future of Afrikaners in Africa.

“We were formed as a people in Africa and can only survive as a cultural community on the southern top of Africa.

ALSO READ: ‘We are here to stay’- AfriForum respond to Trump’s plans to resettle Afrikaaners as refugees