DA Takes Land Expropriation Law To Court, Testing Coalition With ANC

South Africa’s Democratic Alliance, the second-largest party in the country’s governing coalition, filed a court challenge on Monday against the land expropriation law that prompted President Donald Trump to cut U.S. aid to the country last year.

The legal action has strained relations with the African National Congress, the coalition’s dominant party, just months before South Africa holds municipal elections in November.

The Expropriation Act permits the state to seize land in the public interest, in some instances without compensation, as part of a broader push to address the lingering effects of apartheid-era land dispossession. President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the law in January 2025 after years of contentious debate, though no land has been expropriated under it so far.

The DA, a pro-business party with a predominantly white support base, argues the law hands government officials “vague and sweeping powers” that will discourage investment. The ANC, by contrast, describes the legislation as a landmark step toward correcting racial imbalances in land ownership, noting that white South Africans still hold most private farmland despite being a minority.

Political analyst Sandile Swana described the court battle as a kind of “shadowboxing match,” allowing the two coalition partners to publicly clash over land reform without endangering their broader alliance.

South Africa’s government has dismissed Trump’s criticism of the law, maintaining that the Expropriation Act mirrors legislation already in place in numerous other countries.

The DA’s challenge will be heard alongside two separate lawsuits brought by Afrikaner advocacy groups — descendants of mostly Dutch settlers whom Trump has offered refuge in the U.S. — who claim the law discriminates against them, an allegation South Africa firmly denies.

The ANC and DA formed their coalition in 2024 after an election left the ANC without a parliamentary majority for the first time since apartheid ended in 1994. The partnership has been strained at times but has held together since.