CAPE TOWN/ISTANBUL

White South Africans are worried that the US government's recent decision to halt financial aid to their country over alleged “land confiscation from white farmers” could escalate racial tensions in the country.

Whites, who make up 8% of South Africa's population of over 63 million, are already one of the most advantaged socio-economic groups in the country.

Most of the white community is made up of the Afrikaner ethnic group, the descendants of Dutch farmers who came here centuries ago during the colonial period.

White farmers currently own approximately three-quarters of South Africa's land, and the distribution of land to Black farmers has been among the top priorities of governments for the last 30 years.

Afrikaners living in Cape Town commented on the US decision to stop financial aid to South Africa and to start working on granting refugee status to whites.

‘As Afrikaner people, we are indigenous to this land’

South African Lalie Kotze told Anadolu that “as Afrikaner people, we are indigenous to this land. I think we should stay in South Africa and work for the future of this country.”

Kotze said the US decision could escalate racial tensions, and this could harm South Africans, especially the white community, adding that President “Donald Trump should deal with the bigger problems facing America, economic concerns and inflation.”

Kotze said that South Africa is working to overcome the traumas of the apartheid regime in the country's history and that the new law on land expropriation addresses historical injustices and promotes equality among South Africans.

‘I find this decision of the United States about our country senseless and absurd’

South African Johan de Villiers said: “Frankly, I find this decision by the US about our country meaningless and absurd. No one's land is being seized. I don't think such a thing is likely to happen in the future. Trump's decision thousands of kilometers away, about South Africa, which he has no idea about, does nothing more than damage our social cohesion.”

Regarding the US administration's efforts to grant refugee status to white South Africans, De Villiers said: “We don't intend to go anywhere. We don't need to go anywhere. Why should we become refugees in the US? Our duty is to heal the wounds of the past and develop our country.”

South African Magda Viljoen said that Afrikaners are struggling with all kinds of economic difficulties and have been discriminated against in the name of supporting the Black community.

“Trump's offer to Afrikaners could give us more chances for equal opportunities in education and work,” she said.

Viljoen said the new land expropriation law could negatively affect many Afrikaners.

“The government wants to take away the land of people who make a living from agriculture in South Africa,” she added.

Viljoen emphasized, however, that the US administration should take into account the history and social dynamics of the country when taking steps on behalf of white South Africans.

The new expropriation law aims to address past injustices of apartheid and allows for the expropriation of land without compensation in conditions where it is "just and equitable and in the public interest."

Land is a sensitive issue in South Africa, where most natural resources are concentrated in the hands of a few white people. During the apartheid era, Black people and non-whites were forcefully ousted from their land by racist policies.

President Cyril Ramaphosa hopes the land expropriation legislation will help alleviate huge disparities in land ownership stemming from colonial settlement and the subsequent institution of racial segregation and white minority rule.