Trump threatened to cut money for South Africa on land policy
US President Donald Trump has said that he would cut all future funding on allegations for South Africa that it was seizing the land and “was treating people from some classes very badly”.
Last month, President Cyril Ramposa signed a bill in the law which allows land recovery without compensation under some circumstances.
Land ownership has long been a controversial issue in South Africa, with most of the farms still owned by white people, 30 years after the expiry of the racist system of apartheid.
The government has been continued to address land reforms and deal with previous injustice of racial isolation.
On Sunday, Trump wrote on social media platform Truth Social: “I will cut all the future funding for South Africa until the entire investigation of this situation is complete!”
He later said, in a briefing with journalists, that South Africa’s “leadership is doing some terrible work, terrible things”.
“So it is under investigation right now. We will take a determination, and as long as we are finding out what South Africa is doing – they are land and seizing, and in reality they are doing such things. Those who are probably far away. “
South Africa’s International Relations Minister Ronald Lamola said in a response on X that he hoped that Trump’s advisor “uses this investigative period to deepen his understanding as a constitutional democracy of South Africa as a constitutional democracy” .
“Such insight will ensure a respectable and informed approach to our democratic commitments,” he said.
According to US government data, the US allocated about $ 440m (£ 358m) in assistance to South Africa in 2023.
The South African government says that the new law does not allow arbitrary tour of the land as the first should try to reach an agreement with the owner.
The President’s spokesman, Vincent Magwenya, said last month that the state could not do the property for a purpose in addition to arbitrarily or in public interest “.
It states that the current system of “interested sellers, interested buyers” has allowed white farmers to delay the process of land improvement.
However, some critics have expressed apprehension that the law may have disastrous consequences like Zimbabwe, where land seizures ruined the economy and scared investors.
