Latest news with #whitefarmers
Zawya
11-07-2025
- Business
- Zawya
US tariffs on South Africa set to hit white farmers Trump has embraced
US President Donald Trump's threatened 30% tariff on South African exports is set to deal an economic blow to a community he has vocally and controversially championed: white farmers. Citing false claims that white South Africans are being persecuted, Trump has cut aid to the country, publicly berated its president in the Oval Office and invited Afrikaners - descendants of early European settlers - to come to the United States as refugees. But for white farmers who remain rooted in their homeland and aspire to keep making a living from the land, the tariffs due to come into effect on 1 August are an assault on those ambitions. "It doesn't make sense to us to welcome South African farmers in America and then the rest that stays behind ... to punish them," said Krisjan Mouton, a sixth-generation farmer in Western Cape province's citrus heartland. "It's going to have a huge impact," he said, standing among rows of trees heavy with navel oranges on his farm near the town of Citrusdal. "It's not profitable to export anymore to the USA." After a three-month pause, Trump escalated the global trade offensive he launched in April, announcing tariffs on more than a dozen countries on Monday, 7 July 2025 including South Africa. Its citrus fruit, along with wine, soybeans, sugar cane and beef, had previously benefited from duty-free access to the US under the Africa Growth and Opportunities Act. Helped by that trade initiative, South Africa, the world's second-largest citrus exporter after Spain, generates $100m annually from the US market. The new tariff ends that preferential treatment. And with three-quarters of South Africa's freehold land white-owned, white farmers will face the immediate economic fallout though they will not be the only casualties. Boitshoko Ntshabele, chief executive of the Citrus Growers' Association of Southern Africa (CGA) said the levy will hurt all South African farmers and farm workers, no matter their race. "A 30% tariff would wreak havoc on communities that have, for decades, focused on producing specifically for the US market," he said. Farmers will go bankrupt Its location in the Southern Hemisphere means South Africa produces citrus at times of the year when the US doesn't, with its exports giving US consumers year-round access to fruit. While the United States accounts for only around 6% of South Africa's citrus exports, some farming areas produce specifically for the US market. Redirecting produce grown for the US to other markets is not simple, as size and plant-health requirements vary from country to country. Nestled in a valley in Western Cape's rugged Cederberg mountains, Mouton's family farm employs 21 permanent workers, and nearly triple that number during peak picking season. The CGA has said about 35,000 jobs are at risk in Citrusdal alone, as the tariffs risk making South African citrus uncompetitive compared to fruit from Peru, Chile, and Australia. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has said trade talks with Washington will continue and argued that the 30% rate was based on an inaccurate understanding of the two countries' trade. In the meantime though, the CGA wants to speed up an expansion of exports to new markets including China and India. High tariffs in some countries and stringent plant-health requirements in the European Union, for example, make that a complicated prospect, however. Not far from Mouton's farm, workers are carrying on as usual, for now, sorting and packing fruit at the 14,000-square-metre Goede Hoop Citrus warehouse. But if the 30% levy remains in place, that won't last long, managing director Andre Nel said. "Farmers will go bankrupt. For sure there would be job losses within our sector," he said. "I don't even want to think about it."
Reuters
09-07-2025
- Business
- Reuters
US tariffs on South Africa set to hit white farmers Trump has embraced
CITRUSDAL, South Africa, July 9 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's threatened 30% tariff on South African exports is set to deal an economic blow to a community he has vocally and controversially championed: white farmers. Citing false claims that white South Africans are being persecuted, Trump has cut aid to the country, publicly berated its president in the Oval Office and invited Afrikaners - descendants of early European settlers - to come to the United States as refugees. But for white farmers who remain rooted in their homeland and aspire to keep making a living from the land, the tariffs due to come into effect on August 1 are an assault on those ambitions. "It doesn't make sense to us to welcome South African farmers in America and then the rest that stays behind ... to punish them," said Krisjan Mouton, a sixth-generation farmer in Western Cape province's citrus heartland. "It's going to have a huge impact," he said, standing among rows of trees heavy with navel oranges on his farm near the town of Citrusdal. "It's not profitable to export anymore to the USA." After a three-month pause, Trump escalated the global trade offensive he launched in April, announcing tariffs on more than a dozen countries on Monday, including South Africa. Its citrus fruit, along with wine, soybeans, sugar cane and beef, had previously benefited from duty-free access to the U.S. under the Africa Growth and Opportunities Act. Helped by that trade initiative, South Africa, the world's second-largest citrus exporter after Spain, generates $100 million annually from the U.S. market. The new tariff ends that preferential treatment. And with three-quarters of South Africa's freehold land white-owned, white farmers will face the immediate economic fallout though they will not be the only casualties. Boitshoko Ntshabele, chief executive of the Citrus Growers' Association of Southern Africa (CGA) said the levy will hurt all South African farmers and farm workers, no matter their race. "A 30% tariff would wreak havoc on communities that have, for decades, focused on producing specifically for the U.S. market," he said. Its location in the Southern Hemisphere means South Africa produces citrus at times of the year when the U.S. doesn't, with its exports giving U.S. consumers year-round access to fruit. While the United States accounts for only around 6% of South Africa's citrus exports, some farming areas produce specifically for the U.S. market. Redirecting produce grown for the U.S. to other markets is not simple, as size and plant health requirements vary from country to country. Nestled in a valley in Western Cape's rugged Cederberg mountains, Mouton's family farm employs 21 permanent workers, and nearly triple that number during peak picking season. The CGA has said about 35,000 jobs are at risk in Citrusdal alone, as the tariffs risk making South African citrus uncompetitive compared to fruit from Peru, Chile, and Australia. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has said trade talks with Washington will continue and argued that the 30% rate was based on an inaccurate understanding of the two countries' trade. In the meantime though, the CGA wants to speed up an expansion of exports to new markets including China and India. High tariffs in some countries and stringent plant health requirements in the European Union, for example, make that a complicated prospect, however. Not far from Mouton's farm, workers are carrying on as usual, for now, sorting and packing fruit at the 14,000-square-metre Goede Hoop Citrus warehouse. But if the 30% levy remains in place, that won't last long, managing director Andre Nel told Reuters. "Farmers will go bankrupt. For sure there would be job losses within our sector," he said. "I don't even want to think about it." ($1 = 17.8568 rand)
Yahoo
25-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Deal or no deal? Zimbabwe still divided over land 25 years after white farmers evicted
A quarter of a century after their land was seized during a chaotic land reform programme that made global headlines, a small group of white Zimbabwean farmers have accepted a controversial compensation deal from the government. Once the backbone of the country's agricultural sector, many of them are now elderly, visibly frail, battling illness and financially desperate. "I believe this is the only opportunity. We can't wait 10 years for another deal, " 71-year-old Arthur Baisley told the BBC. Still recuperating from back surgery, Mr Baisley was among those who arrived earlier this year at a conference room in the capital, Harare - some aided by walking sticks and walking frames - to discuss the deal. The catch is that these farmers have now been paid only 1% of their total compensation in cash - the rest is being issued as US dollar-denominated treasury bonds that mature in 10 years – with 2% interest paid twice a year. The land reform programme, sparked by the invasion of white-owned farms around the country by supporters of the late Robert Mugabe, was launched in 2000 by the then president, who was desperate to shore up political support at the time when Zimbabwe had about 2,500 white farmers owning 4,000 farms - half of the country's best farmland. The seizures became Africa's biggest modern-day land revolution, and was meant to redress colonial-era land grabs, when black people were forced to leave their land. But it set the country on a collision path with Western nations - economic sanctions followed, companies exited and the economy collapsed. This compensation deal has been pushed by Mugabe's successor President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who is keen to mend fences. The money being given to the farmers, as stipulated by the constitution, is for infrastructure and improvements to the land - like buildings and dams, not the value of the land itself, which Zimbabwe's government insists rightfully belongs to the country's original inhabitants. Overall this is estimated to total $3.5bn (£2.6bn). However, the recent cash pay-out totalled just $3.1m for 378 farms. Mr Baisley said it was not the best deal but was reasonably fair - and his decision to accept it has come with the realisation that the takeovers cannot be undone. "It was difficult for my family in the beginning but life goes on, you have to move on," he said, adding that he would start selling some of the bonds immediately to offset medical bills and to care for his sickly parents. It is a significant shift, a softening of hard lines previously drawn by both sides. Mugabe used to pound the lectern at party rallies saying the white farmers should go to the UK, the former colonial power, for their compensation - although quietly he was paying out select farmers. The white farmers meanwhile had insisted on a $10bn full cash settlement. Both sides have settled on the $3.5bn figure. However, unlike Mr Baisley, the majority of white farmers are holding out for a deal which would see all the cash paid upfront. Deon Theron, who in 2008 was forced off the farm he had bought after independence, leads more than 1,000 farmers who have rejected the offer. Boxes of his possessions, hastily packed during his departure, still fill the veranda of his Harare home where he told me the deal was not fair as there was no guarantee that the bonds would be honoured in 10 years' time. The 71-year-old said it was clear that the government did not have the money – and he wanted to see the international community, including the UK, help with negotiations as the government was refusing to budge, or even meet the dissenting group. "The British can't go and sit in the pavilion and watch what's happening because they are part of it. They are linked with our history. They can't walk away from it," he told the BBC. In an agreement brokered in the run-up to independence, the UK was to support land reform financially - but it floundered towards the end of the 1990s when the Labour government came to power and relations soured. The need to re-engage Britain on the compensation was the battle cry of many of the war veterans who led the farm invasions. They had fought in the 1970s war against white-minority rule - and felt let down by the slow pace of land reform following independence. But like the white farmers, the war veterans are also split over the government's handling of the compensation. One faction is suing the government for "clandestinely" agreeing to pay $3.5bn in compensation, saying the offer should have been agreed in parliament. One of its leaders, Godfrey Gurira, said that given the myriad economic challenges cash-strapped Zimbabwe faced, it should not have prioritised white farmers. "It's such a colossal amount... for a nation of our size. People are suffering they can hardly make ends meet, the hospitals have nothing, then we have the luxury to pay $3.5bn. In our opinion it's an unnecessary act of appeasement," he told the BBC. A second lawsuit challenges an aspect of a new land policy that demands that new farmers pay for the land in order to obtain title deeds to own the land outright. In the wake of the redistribution, the 250,000 people who replaced the 2,500 white farmers were only entitled to 99-year leases. However this meant it was near-impossible for them to get bank loans as their security of tenure was not guaranteed. Last year, the government said farmers could apply to own their land outright – with title deeds - but they needed to pay between $100 and $500 per hectare (2.47 acres). That money will go towards the compensation deal to white farmers, according to the government. Those challenging this say forcing black farmers to effectively buy back the land contradicts the law. And the black farmers themselves are divided over the issue. The land reform programme has had mixed results. Many new farmers did not have the skills, the finances and labour to farm successfully. But the country's agricultural sector is now rebounding with pockets of successful farmers. In 2002, Solomon Ganye arrived on a bicycle to receive a 20-hectare bare piece of land in Harare South. It was part of the sprawling 2,700-hectare farm that had been divided among 77 people. He found the initial years a struggle - suffering from a lack of finances and climate shocks. But slowly through Chinese money ploughed into the tobacco sector, and after handing the business over to his sons - both agriculture graduates in their 20s - things have improved. They have built an enviable enterprise with 200 permanent workers, and have expanded into dairy and livestock farming. They are applying for the title deeds of their land and have even acquired more in recent years from the government. Aaron Ganye, his oldest son, told the BBC that without the land reform programme, his family would probably not have been able to buy a farm because in the past the structure of ownership saw vast tracts of land being held by a single family. "I'm very happy because to be honest we've taken farming to another level because now we're living a good life through farming. We're doing more than what the white guys were doing in terms of quality of tobacco and the leaf is good," the 25-year-old said proudly. "We've invested in technology. It's not easy. I'm now motivating more farmers to do good work here," he said. He does believe that new farmers should contribute to compensation payments but based on the value of infrastructure they inherited. On the political front, tensions are also easing - and the UK government no longer has any Zimbabwean on its sanction list having recently delisted four military and government officials it had accused of human rights abuses. The UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office told the BBC this was because they were no longer in the positions they held at the time they were added to the list in 2021. Nonetheless, it is a significant development, marking the end of more than 20 years of sanctions against Zimbabwe. The country now hopes that the farmers' compensation issue can be properly sorted out to get Western support for ongoing talks on restructuring its massive foreign debt. There is no question that 25 years on, calm has returned to almost all farming fronts. Agriculture is rebounding, this year farmers have sold over 300,000 tonnes of tobacco at auction - the highest tobacco production ever. But compromise is needed on all sides for the country to fully jump over the hurdle of land reform and its fallout. How a self-styled knight giving away cars and wads of cash got people talking I cannot forgive Mugabe's soldiers – massacre survivor Is Zimbabwe extending an olive branch to its white farmers? Go to for more news from the African continent. Follow us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica Focus on Africa This Is Africa
BBC News
25-06-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Zimbabwe's farming fallout 25 years on: Deal or no deal?
A quarter of a century after their land was seized during a chaotic land reform programme that made global headlines, a small group of white Zimbabwean farmers have accepted a controversial compensation deal from the government. Once the backbone of the country's agricultural sector, many of them are now elderly, visibly frail, battling illness and financially desperate."I believe this is the only opportunity. We can't wait 10 years for another deal, " 71-year-old Arthur Baisley told the recuperating from back surgery, Mr Baisley was among those who arrived earlier this year at a conference room in the capital, Harare - some aided by walking sticks and walking frames - to discuss the deal. The catch is that these farmers have now been paid only 1% of their total compensation in cash - the rest is being issued as US dollar-denominated treasury bonds that mature in 10 years – with 2% interest paid twice a year. The land reform programme, sparked by the invasion of white-owned farms around the country by supporters of the late Robert Mugabe, was launched in 2000 by the then president, who was desperate to shore up political support at the time when Zimbabwe had about 2,500 white farmers owning 4,000 farms - half of the country's best farmland. The seizures became Africa's biggest modern-day land revolution, and was meant to redress colonial-era land grabs, when black people were forced to leave their land. But it set the country on a collision path with Western nations - economic sanctions followed, companies exited and the economy compensation deal has been pushed by Mugabe's successor President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who is keen to mend fences. The money being given to the farmers, as stipulated by the constitution, is for infrastructure and improvements to the land - like buildings and dams, not the value of the land itself, which Zimbabwe's government insists rightfully belongs to the country's original this is estimated to total $3.5bn (£2.6bn). However, the recent cash pay-out totalled just $3.1m for 378 Baisley said it was not the best deal but was reasonably fair - and his decision to accept it has come with the realisation that the takeovers cannot be undone."It was difficult for my family in the beginning but life goes on, you have to move on," he said, adding that he would start selling some of the bonds immediately to offset medical bills and to care for his sickly is a significant shift, a softening of hard lines previously drawn by both sides. Mugabe used to pound the lectern at party rallies saying the white farmers should go to the UK, the former colonial power, for their compensation - although quietly he was paying out select white farmers meanwhile had insisted on a $10bn full cash settlement. Both sides have settled on the $3.5bn unlike Mr Baisley, the majority of white farmers are holding out for a deal which would see all the cash paid Theron, who in 2008 was forced off the farm he had bought after independence, leads more than 1,000 farmers who have rejected the of his possessions, hastily packed during his departure, still fill the veranda of his Harare home where he told me the deal was not fair as there was no guarantee that the bonds would be honoured in 10 years' time. The 71-year-old said it was clear that the government did not have the money – and he wanted to see the international community, including the UK, help with negotiations as the government was refusing to budge, or even meet the dissenting group."The British can't go and sit in the pavilion and watch what's happening because they are part of it. They are linked with our history. They can't walk away from it," he told the an agreement brokered in the run-up to independence, the UK was to support land reform financially - but it floundered towards the end of the 1990s when the Labour government came to power and relations need to re-engage Britain on the compensation was the battle cry of many of the war veterans who led the farm invasions. They had fought in the 1970s war against white-minority rule - and felt let down by the slow pace of land reform following like the white farmers, the war veterans are also split over the government's handling of the compensation. One faction is suing the government for "clandestinely" agreeing to pay $3.5bn in compensation, saying the offer should have been agreed in of its leaders, Godfrey Gurira, said that given the myriad economic challenges cash-strapped Zimbabwe faced, it should not have prioritised white farmers."It's such a colossal amount... for a nation of our size. People are suffering they can hardly make ends meet, the hospitals have nothing, then we have the luxury to pay $3.5bn. In our opinion it's an unnecessary act of appeasement," he told the BBC.A second lawsuit challenges an aspect of a new land policy that demands that new farmers pay for the land in order to obtain title deeds to own the land the wake of the redistribution, the 250,000 people who replaced the 2,500 white farmers were only entitled to 99-year leases. However this meant it was near-impossible for them to get bank loans as their security of tenure was not year, the government said farmers could apply to own their land outright – with title deeds - but they needed to pay between $100 and $500 per hectare (2.47 acres).That money will go towards the compensation deal to white farmers, according to the challenging this say forcing black farmers to effectively buy back the land contradicts the the black farmers themselves are divided over the land reform programme has had mixed results. Many new farmers did not have the skills, the finances and labour to farm successfully. But the country's agricultural sector is now rebounding with pockets of successful 2002, Solomon Ganye arrived on a bicycle to receive a 20-hectare bare piece of land in Harare was part of the sprawling 2,700-hectare farm that had been divided among 77 found the initial years a struggle - suffering from a lack of finances and climate shocks. But slowly through Chinese money ploughed into the tobacco sector, and after handing the business over to his sons - both agriculture graduates in their 20s - things have have built an enviable enterprise with 200 permanent workers, and have expanded into dairy and livestock farming. They are applying for the title deeds of their land and have even acquired more in recent years from the government. Aaron Ganye, his oldest son, told the BBC that without the land reform programme, his family would probably not have been able to buy a farm because in the past the structure of ownership saw vast tracts of land being held by a single family."I'm very happy because to be honest we've taken farming to another level because now we're living a good life through farming. We're doing more than what the white guys were doing in terms of quality of tobacco and the leaf is good," the 25-year-old said proudly."We've invested in technology. It's not easy. I'm now motivating more farmers to do good work here," he does believe that new farmers should contribute to compensation payments but based on the value of infrastructure they inherited. On the political front, tensions are also easing - and the UK government no longer has any Zimbabwean on its sanction list having recently delisted four military and government officials it had accused of human rights UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office told the BBC this was because they were no longer in the positions they held at the time they were added to the list in it is a significant development, marking the end of more than 20 years of sanctions against country now hopes that the farmers' compensation issue can be properly sorted out to get Western support for ongoing talks on restructuring its massive foreign is no question that 25 years on, calm has returned to almost all farming is rebounding, this year farmers have sold over 300,000 tonnes of tobacco at auction - the highest tobacco production compromise is needed on all sides for the country to fully jump over the hurdle of land reform and its fallout. More Zimbabwe stories from the BBC: How a self-styled knight giving away cars and wads of cash got people talkingI cannot forgive Mugabe's soldiers – massacre survivorIs Zimbabwe extending an olive branch to its white farmers? Go to for more news from the African us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica
BBC News
02-06-2025
- Business
- BBC News
South Africa's land law explained – and why it so inflames Donald Trump
South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa is at the centre of a political firestorm after he approved a law that gives the state the power to expropriate some privately owned land without compensation for law, which is yet to be implemented, has drawn the ire of US President Donald Trump, who sees it as discriminating against white farmers. Centre-right political parties and lobby groups in South Africa have also opposed it, saying they will challenge the Expropriation Act – as the law is named – in court on the grounds that it threatens property government says the law provides for compensation to be paid in the vast majority of cases – and the changes are needed to increase black ownership of private farmland is still owned by white people. When Nelson Mandela came to power more than 30 years ago, ending the racist system of apartheid, it was promised that this would be rectified through a willing-buyer, willing-seller land reform programme – but critics say this has proved too slow and too costly. So what exactly can be expropriated without compensation? In rare circumstances it would be land that was needed for the "public interest", legal experts told the to South African law firm Werksmans Attorneys, this suggested it would mainly, or perhaps only, happen in relation to the land reform it could also be used to access natural resources such as minerals and water, the firm added, in an opinion written by its experts in the field, Bulelwa Mabasa and Thomas and Karberg told the BBC that in their view, productive agricultural land could not be expropriated without said any expropriation without compensation – known as EWC – could take place only in a few circumstances:For example, when an owner was not using the land and was holding it for "speculative purposes"Or when an owner "abandoned the land by failing to exercise control over it despite being reasonably capable of doing so". Owners would probably still get compensation for the buildings on the land and for the natural resources, the lawyers and Karberg added that EWC was "not aimed at rural land or farmland specifically, and could include land in urban areas".However, in cases where compensation is paid, the rules are set to change, with owners likely to get less money. Why will less money be paid in compensation? The plan is for owners to receive "just-and-equitable" compensation – a departure from the higher "market value" they have been getting up to now, Mabasa and Karberg government had been paying market-value compensation despite the fact that this was "at odds" with the constitution, adopted after white-minority rule ended in 1994, they lawyers said that all expropriations had "extensive procedural fairness requirements", including the owner's right to go to court if they were not move away from market-value compensation will also apply to land expropriated for a "public purpose" – like building state schools or has not been a major point of controversy, possibly because it is "hardly a novel concept" – a point made by JURISTnews, a legal website run by law students from around the world. "The US Constitution, for instance, provides that the government can seize private property for public use so long as 'just compensation' is provided," it added. Will it make it easier for the government to acquire land? The government hopes so. University of Western Cape land expert Prof Ruth Hall told the BBC that more than 80,000 land claims remain the eastern regions of South Africa, many black people work on farms for free – in exchange they are allowed to live there and keep their livestock on a portion of the owners' land, she government wants to transfer ownership of this land to the workers, and it was "unfair" to expect it to pay the market value, Prof Hall the last three decades, the government has used existing powers to expropriate property–- with less than market-value compensation – in fewer than 20 cases, she new law was aimed at making it easier and cheaper to restore land to black people who were "dispossessed" of it during white-minority rule or were forced to be "long-term tenants" as they could not own land, Prof Hall added."It's a bargaining chip," she said. But she doubts that the government will press ahead with implementing the law in the foreseeable future as the "political cost" has become too high. The academic was referring to the fact that Trump has opposed the law, saying it discriminates against white farmers and their land was being "seized" – a charge the government February, Trump cut aid to South Africa, and in April he announced a 30% tariff on South African goods and agricultural products, although this was later paused for 90 was followed by last month's infamous Oval Office showdown when Trump ambushed Ramaphosa with a video and printouts of stories alleging white people were being persecuted – much of his dossier has been Trump's Oval Office confrontation with Ramaphosa What has been the reaction in South Africa? Like Trump, the second-biggest party in Ramaphosa's coalition government, the Democratic Alliance (DA), is opposed to the legislation. In a statement on 26 May, the party said that its top leadership body had rejected the notion of "nil compensation". However, it has agreed with the concept of just-and-equitable compensation rather than market-value compensation, adding it should be "adjudicated by a court of law".Surprisingly, Jaco Kleynhans of the Solidarity Movement, an influential Afrikaner lobby group, said that while the new law could "destroy" some businesses and he was opposed to it, he did not believe it would lead to the "large-scale expropriation of farmland"."I don't see within the wording of this text that that will happen," he said in a recent panel discussion at an agricultural exhibition held in South Africa's Free State province – where a large number of conservative Afrikaner farmers South African Property Owners Association said it was "irrational" to give "nil compensation" to an owner who held land for speculative purposes. "There are many landowners whose sole purpose of business is to speculate in land. They do not get the land for free and they have significant holding costs," the association said, adding it had no doubt the law would be "abundantly tested" in the courts. Mabasa and Karberg said one view was that the concept of EWC was a "legal absurdity" because "intrinsic in the legal definition of expropriation, is a requirement for compensation to be paid".However, the lawyers pointed out the alternative view was that South Africa's constitution "implicitly recognises that it would in some circumstances be just and equitable for compensation to be nil". What does the government say? South Africa's Public Works Minister Dean Macpherson has defended the legislation, breaking ranks with his party, the fact he is in charge of the new legalisation and, on a discussion panel, he explained that while he had some concerns about the law, it was a "dramatic improvement" on the previous Expropriation Act, with greater safeguards for land-owners. He said the law could also help end extortionist demands on the state, and in some cases "nil compensation" could be gave as an example the problems being faced by the state-owned power utility plans to roll out a transmission network over about 4,500km (28,000 miles) of land to boost electricity supplies to end the power crisis in the of the roll-out, some individuals colluded with Eskom officials to buy land for 1m rand ($56,000; £41,000), and then demanded R20m for it, he said. "Is it just and equitable to give them what they want? I don't think that's in the interest of the broader community or the state," Macpherson another example, Macpherson said that some of South Africa's inner cities were in a "disastrous" condition. After owners left, buildings were "over-run" and "hijacked" for illegal occupation. The cost to the state to rebuild them could exceed their value, and in such cases the courts could rule that an owner qualified for "nil compensation", he said. "Nil is a form of compensation," Macpherson added, while ruling it out for mayor Dada Morero told South Africa's Mail & Guardian newspaper that he wanted to use the buildings for the "public good", like accommodating around 300,000 people on the housing waiting added the owners of nearly 100 buildings could not be located. "They have abandoned the buildings," he said, adding some of the owners were from the UK and Mabasa and Karberg told the BBC that in such cases compensation would probably still have to be paid for the buildings, though not the the state could not locate the owners, it "must deposit the compensation with the Master of the High Court" in case they returned or could be traced later, they said. What next? The law is in limbo, as Ramaphosa – about four months after giving his assent to it – has still not set a date for its implementation. Nor is he likely to do so anytime soon, as he would not want to further antagonise Trump while South Africa was trying to negotiate a trade deal with the US. And on the domestic front, the DA is spearheading opposition to the legislation. It said it wanted a "judicial review" of it, while at the same time it was pressing ahead with court action to challenge the law's constitutionality. The DA's tough line is in contrast with that of Macpherson, who, a few weeks ago, warned that if the law was struck down in its entirety: "I don't know what's going to come after that."In politics, sometimes you must be careful what you wish for because often you can get it," he comments highlight the deep fissures in South African politics, with some parties, such as Julius Malema's Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), believing that the legislation did not go far enough to tackle racial inequality in land land such an emotive issue, there is no easy solution to the dispute – and it is likely to continue to cause tensions within South Africa, as well as with the US president. You may also be interested in: Rebuked by Trump but praised at home: How Ramaphosa might gain from US showdownIs there a genocide of white South Africans as Trump claims?South Africans' anger over land set to explode Go to for more news from the African us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica
