*TRUMP & THE EXPROPRIATION ACT:* *THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR MISINFORMING US PRESIDENT SHOULD BEAR THE CONSEQUENCES* *GOOD* Statement by *Brett Herron* , *GOOD* Secretary General 03 February 2025 Right-wing South African politicians intent on peddling misinformation abroad in an effort to decelerate post-apartheid transformation at home must be stopped. The South African Constitution guarantees the right to freedom of speech, but this right does not extend to lies used as weapons to commit economic treason against the nation. US President Donald Trump’s statements on social media that the South African government is “confiscating land” and ill-treating “certain classes of people” – and that South Africa is therefore deserving of economic sanctions – is a direct consequence of misrepresentations about the Expropriation Act by people who seek to protect the beneficiaries of colonial and apartheid land dispossession. As a sovereign country, and constitutional democracy, South Africa has its own political and parliamentary systems and mechanisms to establish policies and pass laws. The system contains adequate space for political organisations to express their ideological views, both in the law-making process and in the option of taking laws on review to the Constitutional Court. When political organisations fail to persuade the majority to adopt their views and/or choose not to use the option of a Constitutional Court challenge at their disposal, appealing to US law-makers to punish South Africa is an anti-democratic act that has the effect of an act of economic treason. Land dispossession in South Africa was the original colonial sin, aggravated by apartheid policy. Since the advent of democracy, the State’s efforts to rectify the injustice have been wholly inefficient and insufficient. The longer it takes to effect land reform, the greater the risk to the wellbeing of the constitutional democracy. While the likes of Afriforum and other groups, including parties which are now members of the GNU, are within their rights to argue for the retention of the apartheid-era status-quo – free speech is guaranteed by the Constitution – they have no right to place the country’s economic welfare at risk by feeding misinformation to Washington lawmakers. ⁠The Expropriation Act has just been signed into law and is yet to be implemented. Regulations to govern the implementation of the Act must still be developed, and the Courts will have a significant say in settling conflicts that may arise between a property owner and the government The Act has not been used to confiscate any land, and in any case differs very little from the previous expropriation act which, since the advent of democracy, was never used for the mass confiscation of private land. The Act sets out very specific guidelines for when land can be expropriated and when compensation is and is not required. In the vast majority of circumstances, the new law protects and even strengthens property rights. In the United States, the 5th Amendment known as “eminent domain” enables the government to expropriate land when it is “in the public interest”, just like the Expropriation Act. It is crucial that South African diplomacy focuses on level-headed, cordial engagement with the United States to protect and strengthen bilateral relations. We condemn the disinformation efforts by AfriForum, Solidarity, and their political party spearheads, the Freedom Front Plus and the Democratic Alliance. Their collective campaign has backfired, and will hurt not only their members but the entire country. GOOD calls for urgent action to be taken against Afriforum, in this instance, for spreading deliberately false and inflammatory disinformation.