South Africa’s Democratic Alliance (DA), the second-largest party in the country’s governing coalition, went to court on Monday to challenge the land expropriation law that US President Donald Trump cited last year as justification for suspending aid to Pretoria.
According to Reuters, the legal action has deepened tensions with the African National Congress (ANC), the coalition’s dominant partner, at a sensitive moment as South Africa prepares for municipal elections in November.
The Expropriation Act allows the state to expropriate land in the public interest, and in certain circumstances without compensating the owner, as part of broader efforts to redress inequalities inherited from the apartheid era.
The legislation was the subject of lengthy and often heated debate over several years before being signed into law by President Cyril Ramaphosa in January 2025. To date, however, no property has been expropriated under the act.
The DA, a pro-business party whose leadership is predominantly white, argues that the legislation grants the government powers that are ‘vague and excessively broad’, and warns it risks deterring investment.
The ANC, the former liberation movement led by Ramaphosa, regards the law as a landmark in its strategy to transform South Africa’s deeply unequal economy — one in which the white minority continues to hold the majority of privately owned agricultural land.
Independent policy and governance analyst Sandile Swana said the court action resembled a ‘shadow fight’, in which the two parties would clash over land reform without necessarily placing their governing partnership at risk.
The South African government has rejected Donald Trump’s criticism of its land reform policies, maintaining that the Expropriation Act is comparable to legislation in force in many other countries.
The DA’s legal challenge will be heard alongside two separate cases brought by organisations representing Afrikaner interests — descendants primarily of Dutch settlers — to whom Trump offered refuge on the grounds that they face discrimination, an allegation South Africa has firmly rejected.
The ANC and the DA formed the current coalition government in 2024 after general elections stripped the ANC of its parliamentary majority for the first time since the end of white minority rule in 1994. Despite recurring disagreements, the coalition remains in office.
Source: Diário Económico
Original article: https://www.diarioeconomico.co.mz/2026/08/04/mundo/africa/africa-do-sul-da-leva-a-justica-lei-de-expropriacao-de-terras-criticada-por-trump/
