CNBC dismisses South Africa’s white-owned land confiscation as ‘fringe talking point’

CNBC published an odd article on Thursday that attempted to dismiss a recent President Donald Trump tweet about South Africa confiscating white-owned land as “fringe,” but then conceded that it is exactly what the government is doing.

On Wednesday, the president tweeted:

“I have asked Secretary of State @SecPompeo to closely study the South Africa land and farm seizures and expropriations and the large scale killing of farmers. “South African Government is now seizing land from white farmers.” @TuckerCarlson @FoxNews.”

This is largely what has been going on, but the media has barely covered the issue, likely out of fear that they’ll be accused of racism – or they concur with the policy.

The South African leadership has tried to downplay its policies, claiming that reports of land confiscation “seek to divide our nation and remind us of our colonial past.”

CNBC’s Holly Ellyatt reported on the tweet in an article titled “Trump is hyping a fringe talking point about South African government ‘seizing land from white farmers.'”

To CNBC, confiscating land from white families is “a fringe talking point,” suggesting that it really isn’t happening.

But here is the second half of her piece (emphasis ours):

Land reforms in South Africa are high on the government’s agenda and have stirred controversy.

At the start of August, Ramaphosa announced plans by the ruling African National Congress to change the constitution to allow the expropriation of land without compensation.

The government sees these changes as a way to boost the country’s agricultural sector and economy. Opponents say it is a threat to food security and the economy.

The bulk of South Africa’s land is owned by its minority white population, a vestige of its colonial past, thus they are likely to be most affected by the changes.

Despite the end of apartheid, South Africa’s institutionalized segregation of races, in the early 1990s and the first black president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, being elected in 1994, racial and economic divisions remain entrenched in the country a quarter of a century later.

Announcing the land reforms, Ramaphosa said the changes would “promote redress, advance economic development, increase agricultural production and food security.” The move alarmed investors and the rand fell to a one-week low against the dollar.

On Monday night, Ramaphosa went further, saying in a speech on land reforms that these were the only way to let a “festering wound” heal and that “black people want their land back,” national newspaper Business Day reported.

The notion that white farmers are persecuted in South Africa largely stems from a fringe group called AfriForum. Some far-right commentators and pundits have picked up on the idea, suggesting that there could be a “genocide” of white people in the country.

But white farmers are being persecuted! If their land is being taken away by the government because of their skin color, that is both racist and a form of persecution.

In other words, according to CNBC, it is occurring but it really isn’t. Or, it is happening, but don’t be worried about it because of colonialism…or something.

Huh?

South Africa essentially adopted a measure that Zimbabwe imposed for nearly a decade, leading to shortages of food, despite being a country that was once considered the “food basket of Africa.”

A white genocide may not actually be occurring in Africa or elsewhere in the world, but the move by the South African government should be alarming to anyone.