Work on $1bn Trump Tower in Vietnam could start next year: source
Investment in a planned Trump Tower in Vietnam is estimated at $1bn (R17.84bn) and construction of the at least 60-storey skyscraper could start next year, a person familiar with the discussions told Reuters.
The building, for which plans are still preliminary, would be the second major project the Trump Organisation, US President Donald Trump's family business, is reviewing in Vietnam. The Southeast Asian country is in trade talks with Washington to avoid crippling 46% tariffs.
Eric Trump, senior vice-president of the Trump Organisation, visited Vietnam last week to survey the site for the tower in the country's southern business hub of Ho Chi Minh City and to attend the groundbreaking for a golf resort in northern Vietnam.
The approval for the golf club, according to Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, had been expedited by the authorities.
The Trump Organisation would operate the golf club, while its Vietnamese partner, real estate firm Kinhbac City, would focus on developing it with an estimated investment of $1.5bn (R26.77bn), the source said. The division of work had not been previously reported.
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Mail & Guardian
an hour ago
- Mail & Guardian
SA politicians also weaponise migration
A moment to reflect: The US is politicising the issue of asylum, but in South Africa some populist politicians do the same. Photo: Delwyn Verasamy Headlines in recent weeks have been dominated by the meeting between President Cyril Ramaphosa and Donald Trump, after the US president granted asylum to white South African farmers. Framed by Trump as a response to alleged land seizures and violence, the move has been widely criticised as a politically motivated gesture aimed at energising his conservative base ahead of the US mid-term elections. This culminated in a televised version of what Trump might conceive of as version two of The Apprentice in the Oval Office. Despite the ambush, the South African delegation As much as Trump's reality-TV delusions persist, this moment presents an opportunity for introspection, given South Africa's own challenges with immigration. While the United States faces scrutiny for the politicisation of asylum, South African politicians have similarly weaponised migration to serve populist agendas. South Africa stands at the centre of intricate migration dynamics that continue to shape its socio-economic landscape, development trajectory, and national security concerns. As one of the continent's most industrialised economies, South Africa has long been a destination for migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees from across Africa. In a bid to intensify efforts against illegal immigration, Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber recently launched A substantial proportion of migrants cross the border without any documentation. The majority originate from Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi, Lesotho and Nigeria. These migration flows were and are still driven by multiple push and pull factors, including economic hardship, civil unrest and environmental changes in migrants' home countries. As climate change, organised crime and extremist activity intensifies in some areas, internal displacement and cross-border migration into South Africa are expected to increase, further complicating the country's migration governance. In an attempt to curb the influx, the South African government erected electric fences along its borders with Zimbabwe and Mozambique. This was inefficient; illegal migrants continue to enter illegally by damaging the fence. The establishment of the Border Management Authority (BMA) has augmented the fencing efforts. The BMA's mandate is to manage and secure South Africa's borders. This includes facilitating legitimate movement of people and goods while preventing and mitigating illegal activities at ports of entry and within the border law enforcement area. In the 2024–25 festive season, the Despite the deployment of drones, surveillance equipment and improved patrols, South Africa's border security continues to be problematic. The BMA and the police have both acknowledged ongoing issues, including infrastructural decay and systemic corruption among border officials, which compromise the integrity of enforcement efforts. The government has, since the democratic transition, enacted legislation intended to manage migration more effectively. The There is no definitive method to accurately determine the number of undocumented migrants in South Africa. Estimates vary widely and are often politicised. This is not unique to South Africa — globally, countries struggle to account for their undocumented populations because of the clandestine nature of illegal migration. But the The socio-economic and political costs of irregular migration are often cited by critics of the government's migration policies. Based on Professor Albert Civil society and political parties continue to play an influential role in shaping public discourse on immigration. While ActionSA and the Patriotic Alliance have pushed for stricter immigration enforcement and border controls, the Democratic Alliance has generally supported regulated immigration tied to economic opportunity and legal compliance. The Economic Freedom Fighters, on the other hand, have condemned mass deportations and raised concerns about the financial and humanitarian costs of hardline immigration policies. The government spent more than Despite these problems, it is important to acknowledge the positive contributions that migrants make to South Africa's economy and society. Many fill critical labour shortages, create businesses and bring cultural diversity. Effective migration management should not only focus on enforcement but also on integration, inclusion and sustainable development. A balanced and humane migration policy must consider the structural drivers of mobility across the region, such as poverty, inequality, and conflict, while also upholding the rule of law and national security. While South Africa's migration landscape is shaped by deep-rooted regional and global forces, it would be inaccurate to suggest that the country has consistently implemented evidence-based migration policies or applied them uniformly. Although frameworks such as the White Paper on International Migration (1999), the Refugees Act (1998), and the Immigration Act (2002) lay a strong legal foundation, their implementation has often been ad hoc, reactive and vulnerable to political influence. South Africa's adoption of a non-encampment model for refugees and asylum seekers, rooted in a rights-based approach aligned with the Constitution and international obligations, is commendable in principle. It allows refugees to live freely rather than being confined to camps. But this model also presents significant administrative and logistical problems, particularly in ensuring access to services, legal protections and regular documentation. One clear example of these difficulties is the persistent dysfunction within the asylum system, where application backlogs and lengthy appeals processes have left thousands in prolonged legal uncertainty. Another example is border management. Despite the creation of the BMA and increased investment in surveillance technologies, porous borders and corruption among officials undermine state efforts and contradict stated policy goals. To build a migration regime that is truly secure, fair and reflective of constitutional values, South Africa must commit to depoliticising migration governance, investing in institutional capacity and using reliable data to drive reform — rather than responding to public pressure or electoral cycles. Leleti Maluleke is a peace and security researcher at Good Governance Africa.
eNCA
2 hours ago
- eNCA
Trump vowed to remake aid. Is Gaza the future?
President Donald Trump has slashed US aid and vowed a major rethink on helping the world. A controversial effort to bring food to Gaza may offer clues on what's to come. Administered by contracted US security with Israeli troops at the perimeter, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) is distributing food through several hubs in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip. An officially private effort with opaque funding, the GHF began operations on May 26 after Israel completely cut off supplies into Gaza for over two months, sparking warnings of mass famine. The organization said it had distributed 2.1 million meals as of Friday. The initiative excludes the United Nations, which has long coordinated aid distribution in the war-ravaged territory and has infrastructure and systems in place to deliver assistance on a large scale. The UN and other major aid groups have refused to cooperate with GHF, saying it violates basic humanitarian principles, and appears crafted to cater to Israeli military objectives. "What we have seen is chaotic, it's tragic and it's resulted in hundreds of thousands of people scrambling in an incredibly undignified and unsafe way to access a tiny trickle of aid," said Ciaran Donnelly, senior vice president of international programs at the International Rescue Committee (IRC). Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said his aid group stopped work in Gaza in 2015 when Hamas militants invaded its office and that it refused to cooperate in Syria when former strongman Bashar al-Assad was pressuring opposition-held areas by withholding food. "Why on earth would we be willing to let the Israeli military decide how, where and to whom we give our aid as part of their military strategy to herd people around Gaza?" said Egeland. "It's a violation of everything we stand for. It is the biggest and reddest line there is that we cannot cross." - Sidelining UN - The UN said that 47 people were injured Tuesday when hungry and desperate crowds rushed a GHF site -- most of them by Israeli gunfire -- while a Palestinian medical source said at least one person had died. The Israeli military denied its soldiers fired on civilians and the GHF denied any injuries or deaths. Israel has relentlessly attacked Gaza since Hamas's unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. AFP | Eyad BABA Israel has vowed to sideline the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA, accusing it of bias and of harboring Hamas militants. UNRWA said that nine out of thousands of staff may have been involved in the October 7 attack and dismissed them, but accuses Israel of trying to throw a distraction. John Hannah, a former senior US policymaker who led a study last year that gave birth to the concepts behind the GHF, said the UN seemed to be "completely lacking in self-reflection" on the need for a new approach to aid after Hamas built a "terror kingdom." "I fear that people could be on the brink of letting the perfect be the enemy of the good instead of figuring out how do we take part in this effort, improve it, make it better, scale it up," said Hannah, who is not involved in implementing the GHF. Hannah, a senior fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, defended the use of private contractors, saying that many had extensive Middle East experience from the US-led "war on terror." "We would have been happy if there were volunteers from (other) capable and trusted national forces... but the fact is, nobody's volunteering," he said. He said he would rather that aid workers coordinate with Israel than Hamas. "Inevitably, any humanitarian effort in a war zone has to make some compromises with a ruling authority that carries the guns," he said. - Legitimacy issue - Hannah's study had discouraged a major Israeli role in humanitarian work in Gaza, urging instead involvement by Arab states to bring greater legitimacy. Arab states have balked at supporting US efforts as Israel pounds Gaza and after Trump mused about forcibly displacing the whole Gaza population and constructing luxury hotels. Israel and Hamas are negotiating a new Gaza ceasefire that could see a resumption of UN-backed efforts. Aid groups say they have vast amounts of aid ready for Gaza that remain blocked. Donnelly said the IRC had 27 tons of supplies waiting to enter Gaza, faulting the GHF for distributing items like pasta and tinned fish that require cooking supplies -- not therapeutic food and treatment for malnourished children. He called for distributing relief in communities where people need it, instead of through militarized hubs. "If anyone really cares about distributing aid in a transparent, accountable, effective way, the way to do that is to use the expertise and infrastructure of aid organizations that have been doing this for decades," Donnelly said. By Shaun Tandon
IOL News
4 hours ago
- IOL News
Trump's pastor Mark Burns speaks out against Malema and EFF's 'Kill the Boer' chant
Described as US President Donald Trump's top pastor, Mark Burns, is visiting southern Africa and said he is convinced that there is no genocide against white Afrikaner farmers. Image: Timothy Bernard / Independent Newspapers US based Pastor Mark Burns, a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump believes the EFF and its leader Julius Malema should not be taken seriously and are attention-seekers for chanting the 'divisive' 'Kill the Boer, kill the farmer' chant. The African American televangelist, described by Time magazine as Trump's top pastor, was in South Africa on a fact-finding mission following widespread and repeatedly disputed claims of genocide against white Afrikaner farmers. In an interview in Johannesburg this week, Burns suggested that the EFF is losing steam and is slowly fizzling out. 'To my understanding he (Malema) is a minor character and he is slowly fizzling out. I don't want to keep bringing his name up to give him a platform but the reality of it is, that most South Africans don't take him seriously at all, whether you're black or white,' he said. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ 'I don't want to give oxygen to his name to be honest with you. He doesn't have the steam he may once have had and when those videos (were taken) of him singing that song 'Kill the Boer' there were massive crowds but he doesn't have that type of steam anymore'. He dismissed Malema as 'just a character who is screaming, trying to garner attention for himself'. 'That song is a divisive song and I am saying that as a black man, who is very proud that the apartheid government is no longer here, as a man of faith, anything that will cause my brother to stumble should not happen,' Burns explained. He said he understood the historical significance of the song. 'Being a black man, speaking from a black perspective, coming from a nation that once had slaves and up until the 1960s the modern day civil rights movement, many of us didn't even have the right to vote. So it's still not too long ago. "I understand the struggle, I understand the significance of Negro spirituals that were sung during slavery time periods as people were picking cotton, working the fields and it was a way of communicating messages between each other,' added Burns. He explained that some of the songs were designed around killing or about fleeing but they were special. 'They had a significant part then but they don't play a role in society today. You place them in a history book, you may teach people about it but you don't actively bring it to modern day society when apartheid doesn't exist in South Africa,' Burns maintained. Trump played a video of Malema chanting "Kill the Boer, kill the farmer" a recent Oval Office meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa, with the US President asking Ramaphosa why the EFF leader had not yet been arrested. Last weekend, Malema said he would not be silenced and intimidated by Trump and added that South African courts have ruled there is nothing wrong with the chant, which was not his as he had not composed it. Malema added that Struggle heroes composed the chant and he is defending the legacy of the chant as part of the Struggle heritage. Burns, the founder and chief executive of the NOW television network also expressed his opposition to the country's broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE) policies. 'Yes, it (B-BBEE) is designed to help people of colour to gain access to equal opportunities for economic empowerment while at the same time it should not alienate other people who also want to come to the forefront regardless of the colour of their skin,' said Burns. He said he believed B-BBEE is prohibitive to investment and is causing people to revisit investing in South Africa. 'It blocks other people from around the world, especially the US if they feel coming to South Africa will prevent other people prospering simply for the colour of their skin,' Burns insisted. He proposed revisiting B-BBEE while accepting that 'it is desirable to those who traditionally for 300 years did not have access to the opportunities that now exist'.
