South African Land Grab Prompts United States Invitation

The new American administration has offered to grant a “rapid pathway to citizenship” and thereby “safety” to white Afrikaner farmers in South Africa, accusing their government of treating them “terribly.”

A CBS News article reported recently that President Donald Trump “had previously pointed to new land expropriation laws in South Africa that he claims are racist and a breach of the White farmers’ human rights. In reaction to the laws, he has halted all foreign aid to South Africa . . . [and] signed an executive order accusing the South African government of adopting racist laws that discriminate against Afrikaners, an ethnic group made up primarily of the descendants of Dutch settlers who started arriving in the country hundreds of years ago and now amount to about 13% of the population. He specifically called out a law that was passed to allow the government expropriation of some privately owned land without compensation” (“What’s the Truth Behind Trump Offering White South African Farmers U.S. Citizenship?” March 10, 2025).

The South African government denies this characterization, but there are serious concerns about people being pushed off their land. What’s going on, and why should it be important to us?

Crumbling empire gives rise to local tyranny

A 2017 land ownership audit found white South Africans possessed 72% of the country’s farming and agricultural land, while black South Africans possessed only 4%. The expropriation, to resolve the disparity by redistribution, can be applied to any land in South Africa, no matter whether it is rural or urban. The ongoing land grab in South Africa is a continuing sign of the disintegration and decline of the once great British Commonwealth.

The Commonwealth of Nations, also often referred to as the British Commonwealth, is an international association of 56 member states, the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire. The population of the British Empire at its zenith was approximately 458 million people in 1922, covering an area of 13.7 million square miles. At one time, the vast Commonwealth that sprang from the former empire was a great British-reared “family of nations” that came together for mutual and friendly discussions. Times have changed, and no longer are the relations between nations and their peoples as cordial.

This is not the first time white farmers and ranchers have had their lands expropriated in southern Africa. In 1965 in Rhodesia, now called Zimbabwe, “European” farming interests were nearly 33.7 million acres, and the number of farms in this sector was 6,266, giving an average farm size of 5,376 acres. Farmers and ranchers were pushed off their lands by force, and in some cases whole families were wiped out by so-called “liberators.” Many of those ousted fled to Zambia and began large farms raising maize and tobacco.

Robert Mugabe became the first prime minister (1980–87) of the newly organized state of Zimbabwe. He was a black nationalist of Marxist persuasion. Eventually establishing one-party rule in his country, he became dictator in 1987, ruling for 37 years and amassing a vast fortune while greatly impoverishing the Zimbabwean people. South African tabloids were filled with articles about the great riches Mugabe and his family accumulated over the decades, including lands and mansions. His most valuable property is Hamilton Palace in Sussex, England, worth more than 40 million euros. In addition, he owned more than 37,000 acres of land in Zimbabwe, including estates that were taken away from ousted white farmers.

Leaders like Mugabe seldom rule with the best interests of the people in mind. He came in as a liberator, but went out as a tyrant. He destroyed the economic power of Zimbabwe’s white community, which was based in their possession of the country’s most fertile land. Under Mugabe, life became more difficult for the Zimbabwean people than when they lived under colonial rule. Mugabe eventually was forced to resign in disgrace in November 2017 to prevent his impeachment, and the news sparked jubilant celebrations in the nation’s streets. He died Sept. 6, 2019.

It should come as no surprise that Mugabe was celebrated as a hero in South Africa, which is going down the same path. Current South African leaders view Mugabe as a great revolutionary leader who fought racial oppression and Western imperialism.

One cannot help but wonder whether there will be further disintegration of the Commonwealth nations in Africa and others that might choose to follow South Africa’s example. What nation could be next?

And where would it end? Should land in the United States be given back to Native Americans? That question has been on the table for quite some time, and in some cases Indian tribes have successfully reacquired some of their lands.

The end of all prejudice and racism is coming

Racism and inequality persist in South Africa nearly 25 years after apartheid. Apartheid is an Afrikaans word meaning “separateness” or “the state of being apart.” Unequal access to education, unequal pay, segregated communities and economic disparities continue to exist.

Will the land grab in South Africa bring about peace and tranquility? No, it will not. Wherever there is strife over land, minerals, water or any rights, there will be prejudice and violence.

One of the traits of human or carnal nature apart from God’s Spirit is prejudice. Prejudice crosses all color lines, along with many other characteristics of man’s unrepented nature—jealousy and envy, competition and strife, resentment of authority, vanity, lust and greed. And these, sooner or later, result in violence! Much of the time such violence is caused deliberately, orchestrated by deep state activists who push their own ideology and deliberately stir up strife among the grassroots.

We’re warned in 1 Peter 5:8, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”

Satan the devil cleverly stirs up strife among people. He doesn’t want them to get along. We need to learn how Satan attacks so we “will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil” (Ephesians 6:11, New American Standard Bible). He stirs up hatred and strife between people over skin color or their status in life. He strives to cause us to doubt what God instructs us to do in the Bible.

When Jesus establishes the Kingdom of God on the earth as King of Kings, He will rid the entire world of all prejudice. There are two things that will bring about racial peace. First, human nature will be changed. Secondly, the segregation-integration issue will be settled in a way to bring peace, and there will be no discrimination anywhere, with one race being supposedly superior over another. Opportunity for success and well-being will be equal for everyone.

Then human beings from the time of birth will learn—as the apostle Paul said to the Athenian philosophers on the Areopagus or Mars Hill—the God of all creation “has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth” (Acts 17:26).

We are not of a “white” blood, or “black” blood, or “brown” blood, or any other ethnically distinct blood. We are all descended from the same ancestral father and mother, Adam and Eve. Ultimately God our Father is going to make all people into one family in spirit and love for one another.

Think of all the suffering human beings have endured because of strife between people over skin color or some other senseless reason. Imagine all the crying and tears over violence, mayhem and killing of one another based on race. God will bring it to an end! May that day come quickly!