Trump plans to cut US funding over land law

CAPE TOWN (AP):

US President Donald Trump has said he will cut all funding to South Africa and has launched an investigation into the country’s policies, claiming that a “massive” human- rights violation against white people is happening over a new land expropriation law.

Trump made the pledge to stop all future funding on his Truth Social platform on Sunday, writing: “South Africa is confiscating land, and treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY.”

In South Africa, Trump wrote, a ”massive Human Rights VIOLATION, at a minimum, is happening for all to see,” without giving details or providing evidence.

“The United States won’t stand for it, we will act,” Trump added. “Also, I will be cutting off all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has been completed!”

The South African government said on Monday that the Trump administration needed to have a better understanding of the new law, which is meant to help redress the impact of decades of white minority rule in South Africa under the apartheid regime, which ended in 1994. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a statement that “the South African government has not confiscated any land”.

No significant action has been taken since the bill was signed into law.

During the apartheid era, land was taken from South Africa’s black majority, who were forced to live in areas designated for blacks only. The law has been debated and considered for years as a means, according to the government, to right historic wrongs.

Elon Musk, who is one of Trump’s close allies, was born and raised in South Africa and has also targeted Ramaphosa’s government, previously accusing it of being anti-white and claiming in 2023 that it was allowing a “genocide” against white farmers.

Experts in South Africa say that while there are cases of white farmers being killed, it’s rather a reflection of the country’s desperately high levels of violent crime across the board, which are some of the worst in the world.

In comments to reporters, Trump said on Sunday “they’re taking away land, they’re confiscating land and actually, they’re doing things that are perhaps far worse than that”.

Trump didn’t say exactly which policy he was referring to, or which people were being mistreated. But his comments appeared to be in reaction to the new land law that South Africa passed last month that gives the government scope to acquire land from private parties if it’s in the public interest.

The law has been criticised by some interest groups in South Africa as opening the way to seize land from some of the country’s white minority. However, the government says people’s rights are still protected and land can only be taken in specific circumstances where it’s not being used productively and it’s in the public interest that the land is redistributed. The race of the land owner isn’t a factor.

Ramaphosa’s office released a statement on Monday, saying: “The recently adopted Expropriation Act is not a confiscation instrument, but a constitutionally mandated legal process that ensures public access to land in an equitable and just manner as guided by the constitution.

“South Africa, like the United States of America and other countries, has always had expropriation laws that balance the need for public usage of land and the protection of rights of property owners.”

South African Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola said that the Trump administration should use the investigation it says it is launching “to deepen their understanding of South Africa’s policies as a constitutional democracy. Such insights will ensure a respectful and informed approach to our democratic commitments”.