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

Trump has said the law will be used to target white farmers for land seizures and has cited it as a reason the U.S. has withdrawn all financial aid to South Africa.

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has said the law will be used to target white farmers for land seizures and has cited it as a reason why the U.S. has withdrawn all financial aid to South Africa and imposed high trade tariffs on the country.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

The Democratic Alliance, a political party that 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 it is unclear how long judges will take to deliver a ruling, which could take weeks or months.