I'm sure the Zimbabwe government something similar when they announced their land appropriations.
I have friends who are cattle "farmers" in Namibia and land appropriation is also beginning there. This is very sad as Namibia is a really nice country.
I worked a couple years in the sticks in eastern Africa, and we had a saying for when the locals would do something that totally defied any logic and was self defeating; "AWA" which equals: "Africa Wins Again".
They just can't help themselves.
In Zimbabwe is wasn’t the government that did the greatest damage to the white settlers but roving bands of black militia that killed and chased out the whites. The government did look the other way. It will go down the same way in SA.