Trump Derangement Syndrome Alive and Well in South Africa.

Hannes Wessels,

It has long fascinated – and distressed me – how white journalists, reporters, editors, media proprietors and white led pressure groups in South Africa have seldom missed an opportunity to criticize people like Helen Zille, and the DA ,while consistently looking for ways to applaud, or defend the ANC no matter how badly the ruling party behaves. It has often struck me as yet another exercise in racially motivated ‘virtue-signalling’- the message to their political masters being – look how wonderful we are in the way we loathe other white people despite the fact the targets of their proclaimed ire are invariably well intentioned patriots, trying very hard to present a credible opposition to an administration seemingly determined to wreck the country.

This sentiment among the above-mentioned group, has morphed into an almost obsessive hatred of Donald Trump who, along with SA born Elon Musk, has been portrayed as a rapacious racist bigot of low intellect, who is hell bent of turning America into a dictatorship that is a threat to a world order thriving under the control of progressive globalism, exemplified by people like Joe Biden, Angela Merkel, George Soros, and Keir Starmer. They have in the main been telling their audience what they want to hear because most ‘enlightened’ white South Africans have long followed the widely held belief that Trump is a billionaire buffoon who has no place in the public domain and would probably be better placed in prison rather than the presidency.

What has set a cat amongst the ‘white-media pigeons’ is the Executive Order signed by President Trump on Friday titled “Addressing Egregious Actions of the Republic of South Africa” which aims at protecting specific ethnicities in the country from racially discriminatory laws. One would have thought this would be celebrated by genuine ‘liberals’, (who are supposed to believe in equality)  throughout the land, but absolutely not so.  The  ‘Boers’ deserve everything they’ve been getting since ‘Freedom’ for the sins of Apartheid. The fact that over 5,000 of them have been killed since 1995 and the number of white-owned commercial farms reduced from 130,000 to under 30,000 is far from enough to assuage the anger of the country’s rulers who are permitted to rally their supporters at political meetings with rallying cries to ‘Kill the Boer’.

Andrew Donaldson, a man I have so admired for his sharp wit and pen, is sadly at the forefront lambasting Trump whom he holds in utter contempt, while castigating Elon Musk, who is also outspoken in his opposition to Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) and racially based legislation in general.  Donaldson homed in on a recent photo to accuse Musk of a ‘fascist style salute’ (which appears to be a simple display of spontaneous exuberance), while expressing outrage at Musk for telling the German people recently that they should bury their collective guilt, and look to Alice Weidel of the AFD to save their country from self-destructing.

Similarly, Melanie Verwoerd is furious with Trump for cutting aid to the country in response to legislation that discriminates against her own people on grounds of race, while going on to defend the recently promulgated Land Expropriation Act.

Steven Grootes also defends the Act, but goes further, accusing Trump of ‘bullying’ and ‘lying’ about the Bill and using the issue as a ‘dog-whistle to his voters’. His decision to cut aid is criticised as ‘immoral’ showing Trump ‘is not concerned about the health of human beings’.  Mr. Grootes, conveniently ignores the fact the government he so stoutly defends is better known for corruption than competence and if it stopped squandering public money it might provide better health care to its own citizenry without taking American kindness for granted. Astonishingly, Mr. Grootes seems to lament the fact that anyone has questioned this legislation; ‘Here, while there was some fuss in the days after President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the Expropriation Act into law, the issue was fading from our politics. Now, because of Trump, it is centre stage again.’

AgriSA CEO Johann Kotzé slammed Trump, stressed that no land confiscation has taken place, downplayed the significance of farm-murders and insisted the new laws were essentially well intentioned and lacking in any sinister agenda.

Minister of Agriculture John Steenhuisen backed the government in stating “It is not true that the act allows land to be seized by the state arbitrarily”. Steenhuisen has chosen to ignore the fact that, In December 2021, then Minister of Justice, Ronald Lamola, stated, in reference to compulsory land acquisition, “Changing the Constitution was just one instrument we could have used … The matter is now ended. We will now use our simple majority to pass laws that will allow for expropriation without compensation.” Mr Steenhuisen also seems to have forgotten there are over 140 laws in place that are race-based, so this simply follows a troubling trend.

These interventions must have pleased the government. One ANC spokesperson issued a statement asking of the Trump administration; “How do you engage with this level of madness, which is just naked racism? It’s just unbelievable because at an intellectual level, you can’t engage because there is no policy, no politics, it’s nothing, the bottom of the barrel. Have you ever seen such lunacy and madness. “

For someone who lived through, and suffered considerable hardship as a result of legislation that violated property rights leading to the Mugabe-orchestrated ‘land grabs’ I can only conclude, the writer-views expressed above, notwithstanding their political proclivities, are astonishing and probably indicative of the fact that ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’ is real and very much alive and well.

Here is an American president speaking and acting on behalf of all South Africans who want a fair chance in life and for their property rights to be protected, and he is met with scorn, condescension and malice.

How I wish this man had been where he is now when we were purged simply on the basis of the colour of our skin; if he had been maybe we would have had a chance of saving ourselves and our country; but we were forsaken by a hostile, anti-colonial international community too bigoted in their worldview to confront a murderous campaign simply because the perpetrators happened to be members of a universally respected ‘liberation movement’.

It seems the above-mentioned apologists and their acolytes have chosen to ignore the fact that South African presidents including Mandela, Mbeki, Zuma and Ramaphosa have all recognised, and indeed in some cases applauded, the land seizures that destroyed the Zimbabwe economy and plunged millions into perpetual poverty. What makes them think these men have a different view of the same happening in their own country?

Prior to the commencement of the actual ‘invasions’ we too were assured by writers, newspaper editors and association-leaders, particularly those in high places in the Commercial Farmers Union, that legislation on land expropriation enacted in 1992 was, despite the ominous wording, essentially benign, and not to be opposed. It was in fact the opening act in a terrible tragedy that turned into a crime against humanity.

For the first time in the history of post-colonial Africa, a Western leader has taken a deliberate and determined decision to signal not only Pretoria, but the rest of Africa too, that America is watching, the days of kleptocrats plundering their countries in the cause of restitution and retribution while receiving financial assistance from USAID and other US organs of government, are over; God bless Donald Trump, God bless Africa, and damn the white ‘progressives’ of the Woke globalist order who seek to stop this new wind of change blowing through a continent in chaos and despair.