'As a white person living in South Africa, mass land confiscation isn’t happening, but let’s not pretend everything is fine'

"Depending on who you follow online, white South Africans are either living their best life or facing a mass genocide. Trump is either a saviour or a disaster. You’re either ‘woke’ or a bigot," South African entrepreneur Mike Sham wrote in a Facebook post that has since garnered 1400 reactions and over 600 comments.

This statement comes in the wake of US President Donald Trump signing an executive order to cut financial assistance to South Africa, citing the country's 'land policy' and its ongoing genocide case at the International Court of Justice.

Sham, however, points out, "As a white person living in South Africa, I’ll be the first to say that mass land confiscation isn’t happening, at least not as far as I can see." Still, he adds, "Let’s not pretend everything is fine."

He argues that society tends to view issues in 'binary terms' – up or down, good or bad, left or right – but says that two things can be true at once.

He explains:

White people in South Africa, statistically, live the most comfortable lives compared to any other racial group, yet the ongoing public rhetoric against them is what drives the intense reactions from the West.
Elon Musk is likely our generation’s greatest entrepreneur, but he frequently speaks nonsense, unnecessarily provokes systems, and trolls when he should remain serious.
Trump is undeniably off-putting, and his rhetoric often fuels extremism, but the US government needed drastic change, and he may have been the best available option to make that happen.

Sham concludes that the world is not as simple as black or white, adding that the sooner we recognise this, the sooner we can begin having real conversations, rather than just shouting into the 'digital void'.

'As a white person living in South Africa, mass land confiscation isn’t happening, but let’s not pretend everything is fine' – Mark Sham

Entrepreneur Mark Sham argues that society tends to view issues in ‘binary terms’, up or down, good or bad, left or right. However, he says that two things can be true at once.