'Ridiculous and lame': South Africans mock Trump proposals

by Hillary ORINDE

'On the streets of Johannesburg's student district, U.S. President Donald Trump's offer to accept white Afrikaners as refugees landed as both "ridiculous" and "lame", among South Africans of all races.

On Friday, Trump cut off aid to South Africa and claimed, without evidence, that the Pretoria government is seizing white-owned land and persecuting Afrikaners, descendants of European settlers.

South African-born billionaire Elon Musk, the world's richest person and Trump's right-hand man, has in the past echoed far-right conspiracy theories about a "white genocide" in the country.

"Trump doesn't know anything about this. I feel like Elon Musk is pushing him behind and saying: 'There's something there. Go look at it,'" said Lulusuku Mahlangu.

"Its greed," the electrical engineering student said.

"When you have too much power, you think you can control everyone."

Many have expressed indignation and bemusement that whites could be assigned victim status in South Africa.

The white-supremacist apartheid government, headed by an Afrikaner nationalist party, ruled the country until 1994.

Whites still own two-thirds of farmland and on average earn three times as much as black South Africans.

"I find it funny because I live here and I don't see that sort of persecution in any way," said Lwandle Yende, 34.

- 'Borderline lame' -

"It's ridiculous, funny and weird," said Yende, a telecommunications specialist with neat black and brown dreadlocks and a chin-curtain beard.

"I think we've been quite accommodating with everything that has happened in our past," said Yende, adding: "There is no such thing like apartheid 2.0."

Trump's criticism centers on a new law that allows the South African government, in certain particular circumstances, to seize property without payment if this is ruled to be in the public interest.

The law mainly clarifies an existing legal framework. Legal experts have stressed it does not give new powers to the government.

Trump's offer to accept Afrikaners as refugees caught many off guard, including right-wing white lobby groups.

The suggestion "has some racist undertones," said Reabetswe Mosue, 22.

"It is uninformed and borderline lame."

Trump's executive order pulls the plug on all US funding to South Africa, including a major contribution to the country's HIV program.

"America has betrayed us by bringing him back," 56-year-old pastor Israel Ntshangase said of Trump.

"He messed up with Africa and he is doing it again," he said, warning that Trump's policies "will haunt him".

- Life in America 'not cheap' -

The South Africa government has sought to allay fears about the fallout from Trump's resettlement proposal, saying it was "ironic" that it came from a nation embarking on a deportation program.

"Who wants to leave this beautiful country?" posed Yende as he adjusted his designer shades, adding that his white friends found the proposal laughable.

Trump's scheme appears to offer much to Afrikaners but may ultimately deliver little, said Matthew Butler, a 62-year-old tax and insurance specialist.

"America is not cheap," the white man with a calm demeanor told AFP. "Are you going to have work? How are you going to make a living?"

Nonetheless, the South African Chamber of Commerce in the United States reported a surge in inquiries about resettlement, estimating that 50,000 people may consider leaving South Africa.

None of them should be stopped from leaving, opined University of the Witwatersrand lecturer Hannah Maja, on her way from shopping for a staff party.

"Let them do whatever they want to do in order for them to get the fresh air that they need and want," the 28-year-old said sardonically.

"I think there's something interesting when white people get together and decide to fight. Because at the end of the day, black people still suffer," she said.

It was a call that did not resonate with film student Clayton Ndlovu, however.

"We do need those Afrikaans. As much as we don't get along, we actually do need them," said the 22-year-old.

"Trump is just trying to scare people."

© Agence France-Presse