INTERVIEW – MARIAN TUPY – a senior policy analyst at the Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity at The Cato Institute. He specializes in globalization and global well-being, and the political economy of Europe and sub-Saharan Africa.

• Top US think-tank wants Donald Trump to act against ‘Zimbabwe-style’ land disaster in SA. A top US policy think-tank, the Cato Institute, has warned that SA is on the path to a Zimbabwe-style land disaster and has called on US President Donald Trump to take action. An editorial on the think-tank’s web site by Marian Tupy says: According to press reports, SA’s government has begun expropriating privately owned farmland without financial compensation, thereby ignoring the post-apartheid political settlement, which allows for land redistribution in the country on a “willing buyer, willing seller” basis. Eighteen years ago, Zimbabwe embraced a similar policy. As a consequence, SA’s northern neighbour’s economy collapsed and the country descended into penury and political violence. This scenario is likely to repeat itself in SA. An attack on property rights will result in the destruction of SA’s farming community, dramatic reduction in agricultural productivity and mass unemployment. It could also lead to a collapse of the banking sector (which depends on land as collateral for loan-making) and the local currency, hyperinflation and even bloodshed.
• TRUMP RESPONDS: Trump requests Mike Pompeo look at South Africa land reform debate. President Trump wants Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to investigate South Africa’s controversial land reform discussions after Fox News aired a segment on the topic Wednesday night. “I have asked Secretary of State @MikePompeo4USA to closely study the South Africa land and farm seizures and expropriations and the large scale killing of farmers,” Trump wrote on Twitter, before referencing a segment by Tucker Carlson on the cable news network.
• WASHINGTON POST headline: Trump’s backing of a white nationalist conspiracy theory on South Africa prompts fierce backlash there and fresh criticism in the U.S.
• South Africa Shocked After Trump Dings Country For Seizing White Farmers’ Land. South Africa accused President Donald Trump of stoking racial division Thursday after the president suggested his administration would study the country’s policy of seizing farmers’ land. The government blasted Trump’s tweet calling out land seizures in South Africa. It called the president’s message “false information” that reflects a “narrow perception which only seeks to divide our nation and reminds us of our colonial past.”