How world sees SA: DA's court challenge to EWC could test SA's GNU

The Democratic Alliance is asking South Africa's Western Cape High Court to strike down key provisions of the Expropriation Act, arguing the law lets the state seize private land too broadly. President Ramaphosa signed the update to redress apartheid era land loss, since three quarters of farmland remains white owned. The law was used by President Trump to justify cutting US aid and offering Afrikaners refugee status, a claim South Africa rejects. The DA insists its legal challenge, backed by AfriForum and the IRR, does not threaten its coalition with the ANC, though the case adds pressure ahead of November's local elections..By Monica Mark.Democratic Alliance party seeks to scrap ANC policy used by Trump to justify ‘refugee’ scheme for white South Africans.A South African court is hearing a challenge against the country’s land seizure law, reigniting a politically charged debate over legislation that US President Donald Trump used to justify cutting aid and creating a controversial “refugee” programme for white Afrikaners.The Democratic Alliance, a former opposition party and now a senior member of the governing coalition, asked the Western Cape High Court to declare key provisions of the legislation unconstitutional, arguing that they granted the state overly broad powers to expropriate private property and undermined legal certainty around property rights. Experts say the case could drag on for years.Geordin Hill-Lewis, the pro-business DA leader, told the FT the party hoped the court would strike down the “destructive” legislation, sending “a clear message that South Africa respects private property rights as the bedrock of all investment, economic growth and prosperity”.President Cyril Ramaphosa last year signed the legislation, which updates an apartheid-era land act to allow land to be seized without compensation in limited circumstances where the government believes it is “just and equitable” and in the public interest. No land has been expropriated using the law.Ramaphosa’s African National Congress, a former liberation party, has long said updating the law is needed to redress the economic inequality exacerbated by the mass expropriation of land from Black farmers under apartheid.Millions of non-white South Africans were forcibly displaced from their land under apartheid. Three decades into democracy, some three-quarters of the country’s farmland remains in the hands of white South Africans, who make up less than 10 per cent of the population.The law, alongside other affirmative action policies, has been a central point of friction in US-South Africa relations, with Trump falsely claiming that the country is enabling a “genocide” against white South Africans.After the law was updated, the US president signed an executive order suspending all US financial aid to South Africa and directed officials to prioritise the resettlement of Afrikaners as “refugees”, claiming they were being persecuted in their country.The issue has remained firmly in the South African public eye. Last week, government minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said Afrikaners whose applications to resettle in the US had reportedly been rejected after they had sold their homes, resigned from their jobs and completed medical and orientation programmes would be welcome back. “There is no place like home,” she told journalists.Pretoria has sought to reset relations with the US by appointing Roelf Meyer, a veteran constitutional negotiator and white Afrikaner who helped steer the country towards the end of apartheid, as ambassador to Washington after months of political turmoil.The case also raises the domestic political stakes, putting one of the ANC’s most divisive policies back into the spotlight ahead of pivotal local elections in November.The DA rejected suggestions that challenging one of the ANC’s signature laws was incompatible with governing alongside its former rival. A series of high-profile disputes between the two biggest parties — particularly on foreign policy and budget decisions — has fuelled speculation about the coalition’s stability.“We have always been absolutely clear that we resolutely and implacably oppose expropriation without compensation,” Hill-Lewis said. “So no other party in the [coalition] — and particularly the ANC, which started down this destructive path — can claim to be surprised by our opposition.”While the case was relatively conventional in legal terms, the political implications were striking, said Kimera Chetty, lead adviser at Africa Practice, a Johannesburg-based consultancy.“What’s interesting is that this challenge is being brought together with AfriForum and the Institute for Race Relations,” she said, referring to the two organisations that joined the DA’s court application.AfriForum, a prominent Afrikaner lobby group, and the IRR think-tank have long been vocal opponents of the ANC’s land reform agenda..Read more:.FT: Trump vows to stop US assistance to South Africa over land law.“Politically, it signals how ready the DA is to openly contest flagship ANC policy, including entering into legal alliance with two organisations who built political and activist campaigns against racial redress, land redistribution and affirmative action policies in South Africa,” said Chetty..© 2026 The Financial Times Ltd..Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here.

How world sees SA: DA's court challenge to EWC could test SA's GNU

Related Stories

Kallie Kriel: AfriForum’s legal eagles to swoop on “Land Grab” Malema

ANC councillor fined R50,000 for forwarding hateful WhatsApp message to groupchat

Matisonn: Ramaphosa's impeachment fight set to drag through November’s election season

Roelf Meyer can't stop the US refugee exodus - and shouldn't waste his time trying: Corrigan