Johann Kotze, the CEO of Agri SA, which represents more than 1,000 farmer associations across the country, says the loss of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) would be such a disaster for South African agriculture that they're doing “everything we can” to change US perceptions of Afrikaans farmers as a persecuted race.
“We'd love to be part of any government delegation to lobby the US and we've written to President Ramaphosa offering our help and support — not just to rectify things that have been said that are wrong, but to showcase the success of agriculture in South Africa.”
US President Donald Trump has vowed to cut aid to South Africa because of supposed land confiscations and genocide against Afrikaans farmers, and there is a growing concern that this will include ending South Africa's duty-free access to the US market under Agoa.
Seventy-five percent of South Africa's agricultural exports to the US depend on Agoa, “so it's a big play for us”, says Kotze.
“The moment you take Agoa away you hurt South African agriculture badly. The US is a stunning market for us because the seasonality of what we produce fits into a specific time span in the US which guarantees good prices and makes it a lucrative market for us. Anything that disturbs our trade with the US is a disaster.”
Losing Agoa because of disinformation fed to Trump by right-wing Afrikaner lobby group AfriForum would be “a 100% own goal”, he says.
“There have been no land seizures, no confiscations of private property, no expropriations without compensation. None. And to link farm murders to the genocide of white farmers is bizarre; it's not true. Of course, we have murders on farms. Are they all politically motivated? The answer is no.”
He says disinformation spread on social media “all added up to this own goal. It's people who think they're scoring a big goal for Afrikaners or Afrikaans farmers, but actually they're scoring an own goal.”
Trump's offer of refugee status for supposedly persecuted Afrikaners is “quite bizarre”, he says.
So has Agri SA called AfriForum out for spreading falsehoods about persecuted Afrikaner farmers that he says could cost them their privileged access to the lucrative US market?
“We've engaged informally with a few of them. We differ a lot about the factual status of what has been said.”
He says he doesn't want to blame AfriForum specifically because this would exacerbate divisions that Trump's accusations and threats have caused within the farming community.
“We see the polarisation among the farming community as one of the greatest threats. To take this to social media and make it a fist-fight from Agri SA's side would worsen the situation.”
They've decided the best response is “to put the facts straight down. Let the media do with it what they want, but make sure the factual status is out there.”
Though based on disinformation he's been fed for some time, Trump's recent threats to cut aid to South Africa were seemingly triggered by President Cyril Ramaphosa's signing into law the Expropriation Act. While Agri SA will do whatever it can to assist the president's damage-control mission, including going to Washington, they remain firmly opposed to the act, says Kotze.
“We have been and we still are against the new expropriation law. The reason for that is the uncertainty it has created and the uncertainty for us as private property owners and advocates of private property.
“Because of the uncertainty it creates in our farming community and financing world where we get our finance from, we're still against this law and we've voiced our opposition to it many times.” Last year they urged Ramaphosa to return the bill to the National Assembly for reconsideration or consult the Constitutional Court about its constitutionality before signing it.
“We've never said the law is good and we can sign it and everything is OK. The trust deficit in South Africa is too big to just say we trust the law as it is. Because what do you do if it is misinterpreted or misused?”
He says they've never been against the need for an expropriation law, but it must be properly defined to ensure it protects private property rights. As it stands, the definition is vague, “and that does not give us comfort as farmers in South Africa”.
Private property rights for farmers means access to finance, says Kotze, a farmer, agricultural economist and former agricultural banker for Absa and FNB. The two big investors in agriculture are the farmers themselves — who without certainty about their private property rights “go into limbo mode and stop developing their farms” — and the on-lenders of credit, the banks that raise capital. When there's a risk factor such as the Expropriation Act it makes it harder for farmers to get finance. Either they can't get it at all or it's at a higher cost that shrinks their already narrow profit margins to a point where farming is unsustainable.
“That's why we are so adamant about this. Because by creating uncertainty you threaten food security in South Africa and you disturb this ecosystem of creating wealth through farming in South Africa.”
It's an ecosystem that contributes 14% to the country's GDP and employs 935,000 people. Kotze says Agri SA has been warning “from day one” that the expropriation law which the president has now signed will threaten food security in South Africa.
“The environment we as farmers are in needs to be more secure than the law. For a minister to say [as public works minister Dean Macpherson has], 'Don't worry no land will be confiscated without compensation under my watch,' is not secure enough. You need to make sure we have the security we need to be able to farm in South Africa.”
He says they “take comfort” in the fact that the Expropriation Act remains subject to section 25 of the constitution, which requires that compensation be just and equitable — “but even that needs to be tested in court”.
So why does he think their fears about the act were ignored?
“It's a political play. The timing, when it was signed, that's typical South African politics.”
South African agriculture and food security are being endangered by ANC internal politics, says Kotze, who stresses that he doesn't just speak for white or Afrikaans farmers.
“I say this on behalf of the farming community in South Africa, which are Zulus, Xhosas, Tswanas, Afrikaans-speaking and English-speaking farmers. We're victims of factional politics inside the ANC.”
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