Court fight begins over South Africa’s land law that irks the Trump administration

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A court case opened Monday challenging South Africa’s controversial new law that allows the government to seize private land, which has been at the heart of strained relations with the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.

The Expropriation Act was signed into law by President Cyril Ramaphosa last year as part of the government's efforts to address the effects of land dispossession and economic inequality through decades of white minority rule in South Africa that ended in 1994.

Trump has said the law will be used to target white farmers for land seizures and has cited it as a reason why the U.S. has withdrawn all financial aid to South Africa and imposed high trade tariffs on the country. The government denies this, and says the law will be aimed at making unused land productive.

The Democratic Alliance, a political party which is now part of the country’s unity government, has joined with lobby groups to challenge the law in the Western Cape High Court. Lawyers for the groups argued Monday that the law violates the South African Constitution's protections of private property and prohibitions of expropriation of land without compensation.

Proceedings in the case are scheduled to run through the end of the week, but is unclear how long judges will take to deliver a ruling, which could take weeks or months.

The law allows the South African government to expropriate land from private parties if it’s in the public interest, and it allows for expropriation without compensation if negotiations for a reasonable settlement have failed. The government says the law does not allow land to be taken arbitrarily.

Others parties to the case include the Institute for Race Relations, which argues the law does not adequately protect land owners' property rights and the Afrikaner lobby group AfriForum .

Afrikaner farmers are descended from Dutch and other European colonial settlers who first came to the country more than 300 years ago. The Trump administration has offered asylum to Afrikaners who claim persecution.