If the saying ‘May you live in interesting times’ ever needed a real-world example, the first month of this presidential administration is delivering it in full force.
With over 130 executive orders signed in rapid succession, the sheer volume ensures that not every directive gets wall-to-wall coverage. While some orders dominate the news cycle, others slip under the radar—raising the question: which ones will shape policy long after this administration leaves office?
One of them, an executive order issued on February 7, “Addressing Egregious Actions of The Republic of South Africa” may be one of them.
When the Executive Order came out, this blogger required a double take since the history of relations between South Africa and the United States has been watched for several decades. It required this re-look because, in essence, it reads like the United States government, in very short order, has done a complete 180-degree turn in its opinion of the country, and its people.
Here is a further explanation.
South Africa, up until the latter part of the 1980s, was a country that overtly discriminated against most of the population, Black South Africans. Through a policy started in the 1950s called “Apartheid”; the White Afrikaans population put a military boot down in segregating the population.
PC: “Frederik de Klerk with Nelson Mandela – World Economic Forum Annual Meeting Davos 1992” by Copyright World Economic Forum (www.weforum.org) is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
Those who fought against these actions, during the time, were jailed for decades, with the most famous of these prisoners being the lawyer, Nelson Mandela. Others who were also rebelling against the rules such as Bantu Stephen Biko, would not see freedom from their prisons, having been killed.
(Watch the movie “Cry Freedom” to get a primer on this captivating story, and you will find out it wasn’t just South African Blacks that were abused in that country).
With the accession of Frederik Willem de Klerk as South African President in 1989, a methodical but violent undoing of Apartheid took place, with both the egregious actions of the White Afrikaans leadership backing its military boot off while also reorientating the country to Black South African rule by 1994.
One of the rules that got backed off was the Apartheid-era land policies that forcibly displaced black South Africans without compensation. In other words, at that time, a black South African could waive the Constitution of South Africa in the military officers’ faces, which they’d systematically ignore and still take land arbitrarily.
It is not surprising that actions like this enriched the White Afrikaans, in providing them lands under the then “expropriation” rules (we call it, in the United States “eminent domain”).
Moving to 2024 and the “Expropriation Act, 2024”, the rules in this as far as research shows, will be implemented once the president of the country activates it, and will be rolled out along the lines of the now-South African Constitution, which was approved in 1996. It, under the land reform section, allows land expropriation in the public interest but requires just and equitable compensation.
And, keep in mind, this is written in a modern Constitution that is seen as one of the most progressive. Not only does it have the hallmarks of the United States Constitution (bill of rights, separation of powers) but also directly addresses issues that the former regime would frequently violate, like human dignity.
So when President Trump issued the above-mentioned executive order, both withdrawing support from South Africa as well as opening the borders to White Afrikaans to resettle in the United States, the action seemed outer-worldly since it was the United States along with its Western powers that, through economic campaigns that lasted throughout the 1980’s, changed South Africa into what it is today.
PC: “‘Free Nelson Mandela’ poster” by HelenSTB is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
This blogger remembers when the buzzword around the world was “Free Nelson Mandela.” Even television shows in the United States celebrated the activities, with the Cosby Show, in 1990, featuring both Nelson and Winnie Mandela as the names of twin babies.
On a more personal note, when Nelson Mandela was freed from prison in 1990, and thanks to living in a more favorable time zone in Hong Kong, the broadcast of his freedom came in the morning, I was able to watch it live – a memorable moment.
With the whiplash of the change in policy overnight from the United States to South Africa, one must wonder if there is more to the reason for it (theories say that Elon Musk, who is “something” at the “Department of Government Efficiency” whispered to Trump to do this). Or, and this could be more the case, Trump didn’t remember or didn’t want to remember the history of US-South African relations and was never advised by people in the know about the depth of this.
Either way, this executive action has done two things. First, it has overtly and bluntly overturned relations with the snap of the finger. Second, it has created a backlash from South Africans, including White Afrikaans, saying that actions like this harm the healing that the country has been experiencing since the ending of Apartheid and white rule over 35 years ago.
The executive order, in the view of this blogger, therefore, dismisses the United States’ long history and the bonds we share with South Africa. It opts for quick fixes of things that are not seen as true on the ground or in analysis by those watching it from far away. It is confusing to everyone who sees it, and dangerous if actions like this are seen as precedents on how to treat other countries. South Africa itself does not see this rule as a violation of the law.
And they would be a much better judge of that than even the United States.
Politics Hawaii with Stan Fichtman is a recipient of a 2023 Hawaii Society of Professional Journalist award.