US President Donald Trump is on the rampage against South Africa. His contempt of Africans is not unique.
A video has just surfaced at the Ronald Reagan library where Reagan and Richard Nixon enjoyed a conversation in which both referred to Africans as monkeys from the Congo jungle, who have just learned to wear shoes and clothes.
Trump’s complaints are laid out in an executive order. It reads as follows. “As encapsulated in its recent land confiscation act to seize disfavored citizens property without compensation, the government of South Africa blatantly discriminates against ethnic minority descendants of settler groups.” (February10)
The accusations against South Africa make a long list, but section 2 of the executive order is worth mentioning. It says that “South Africa accused Israel, not Hamas, of genocide in the International Court of Justice.”
In my second life as a representative of Zapu in Jamaica, the imperialist work book was revealed before my eyes.
The two issues above, confiscation of colonial property and affirmative action in favor of indigenous peoples which disadvantages whites are fatal.
The imperialist reaction is to flood the media with “oppressive stories” by-passing the need for remedial corrective action against colonial wrongs.
The second action is the most devastating, and in my opinion, Africans do not often consider this beforehand. They kill the national currency.
This creates massive unemployment and drives out-migration.
Trump has suspended all aid to South Africa immediately. In monetary terms, the US economic and military aid in 2020 was valued at US$ 1 .114 billion in addition to US$ 203 million in extraneous aid. To illustrate the immediate effect, the four million HIV-Aids patients in South Africa (out of a population of 60 million) were entirely dependent on the George W. Bush US$750 million HIV-Aids fund for their 90-day supply. The pharmaceutical suppliers are American.
There are other projects such as the Family Planning Association and US Red Cross which do the work of angels in southern Africa.
Their efforts, however, go beyond the apparent missions they spearhead. US agencies in Africa treat their workers and provide wages based on US minimum standards (US$7.15 cents an hour).
So, an USAID driver at the Red Cross can easily earn up to US$2 000 per month. In addition, these workers are allowed off-days on all US holidays, send their children to private schools and have medical health insurance policies.
This is what I have been trying to tell you for the last 30 years. When Jamaican prime minister, Michael Manley picked up a quarrel with the dirty imperialists, we sympathised with him because his cause was righteous.
Sometime in 1975, I found my Jamaican salary whose dollar had been depreciated overnight worthless. My rent, which had doubled overnight, as beyond my means.
Of the 12 professors in my division, seven of them secretly migrated to the US, including the dean of faculty, Dr. Arthur Drayton.
I was the first to leave, finding myself a refugee in the US. We need to emphasise this point. I was part of the start of a huge Jamaican migration.
While 2.8 million remain in Jamaica today, 1.2 million (almost half) have settled in the US.
The above discussion does not in any way mean that South Africa is wrong in pursuing equalisation policies.
In September 2024, Locadia Ndlovu and Maria Makgatho were shot by a Boer farmer in the Limpopo province and their bodies fed to pigs. Maria’s husband crawled to safely and told the story.
The inhuman attitude of Andrian de Wet, the alleged shooter in the case, is characteristic of the arrogance and intransigence of Boer farmers towards their landless African neighbors.
But that story, which forms the background to what Trump calls land confiscation by government is not told in the West.
In any case, Africans in South Africa, like all our brothers, do not seem to appreciate before hand that no matter what they do to level the playing field there will be retaliation. They jump to the microphone first.
The consequences of a tussle between the US and South Africa have been brewing for a long time. The results seem to go unheeded by the brothers.
Black empowerment (BE) is coming under heavy fire from whites who argue that “inefficient and corrupt blacks” are favored.
The example given is that of Dudu Myeni, appointed by president Jacob Zuma to head South African Airways.
As a primary school teacher, it is alleged that her qualification was that she was Zuma’s girlfriend.
Professor John Lomola, a graduate of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Scotland, the new head at SAA is accused of not being the “best candidate.”
SAA, once regarded as the best African Airline went into liquidation of its 150 planes. It now has seven in service.
At the moment, South Africa has every wind against it. The opposition to indigenisation is being led by Afro-Forum, an association boasting of 600 000 paid up members.
While their membership fee is US$100 per person, with South African supporters like Elon Musk and Peter Teal in the Trump administration, money is not a problem.
There is also another group, Solidarity, organised after the Polish organisation of that name.
Solidarity seeks to create networks similar to that of the Broderbund which will infiltrate society and use its influence to counter-act government empowerment policies. Solidarity also sponsors independent schools.
The loss of the Jewish support can be fatal. The Oppenheimer family, led by the late Sir Harry, has been in the forefront over 50 years of sponsoring black advancement in South Africa.
One needs to watch the money. At independence in 1994, 10 rand weighed against one US dollar against 20 today. The treasury is running an annual overdraft of Rand 300 billion a year.
*Ken Mufuka witnessed first hand an imperialist onslaught on the Jamaican economy when he served as Zapu representative in the West Indies.