Johannesburg – President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to cut US financial assistance to South Africa, citing disapproval of the country’s land policy and its genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the White House announced on Friday.
The move comes as South Africa grapples with controversial legislation that allows for land seizures without compensation under certain circumstances, sparking fears of a repeat of Zimbabwe’s disastrous land reform programme.
The White House said Washington will also formulate a plan to resettle white South African farmers and their families as refugees, prioritising humanitarian relief, including admission and resettlement through the United States Refugee Admissions Program for Afrikaners in South Africa, who are mostly white descendants of early Dutch and French settlers.
The question of land ownership is highly politically charged in South Africa, due to the legacy of the colonial and apartheid eras when Black people were dispossessed of their lands and denied property rights. White landowners still possess three-quarters of South Africa’s freehold farmland. This contrasts with 4% owned by Black people, who make up 80% of the population compared with about 8% for whites, according to the latest 2017 land audit.
The ruling African National Congress (ANC) hailed the law as a “significant milestone” in South Africa’s transformation, stating, “This momentous achievement reinforces the ANC’s dedication to addressing the persistent legacy of colonial dispossession and apartheid spatial planning, ensuring that the land and resources of South Africa are used to benefit the majority of its people.”
However, critics argue that the law is unfair and could lead to arbitrary land seizures. Trump echoed these concerns, stating, “The United States won’t stand for it, we will act. Also, I will be cutting off all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has been completed!”
Trump’s decision to halt funding comes as South Africa embarks on a contentious land reform programme aimed at addressing historical inequalities rooted in the apartheid era. The move has drawn comparisons to Zimbabwe’s controversial land seizures in the early 2000s, which led to economic collapse and widespread hardship.
The US president’s stance has been bolstered by the support of influential figures like Elon Musk, who was born in South Africa during the apartheid era and has been a vocal critic of the land reform measures. Musk, now a US citizen and one of Trump’s key advisers, has long championed the cause of white landowners in South Africa, stating that white South Africans have been the victims of “racist ownership laws.”
In a briefing with journalists, Trump expanded on his criticism, accusing South Africa’s leadership of “doing some terrible things, horrible things.” He did not provide specific examples but reiterated his concerns about land confiscation. “So that’s under investigation right now. We’ll make a determination, and until such time as we find out what South Africa is doing — they’re taking away land and confiscating land, and actually they’re doing things that are perhaps far worse than that,” Trump said last week.
The White House cited South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) as another example of South Africa taking positions against Washington and its allies. In this case, South Africa accused Israel of genocide over Israel’s military assault on Gaza that has killed tens of thousands and caused a humanitarian crisis. Israel denies the allegations, saying it acted in self-defense following a deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Palestinian Hamas militants.
Comparisons to Zimbabwe’s land reform programme are hard to ignore. In the early 2000s, Zimbabwe’s government, under President Robert Mugabe, seized white-owned commercial farms without compensation, leading to economic collapse, food shortages, and widespread poverty.
South Africa’s government has sought to distance itself from Zimbabwe’s example, emphasising that its approach will be more orderly and lawful. President Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, clarified the legislation’s provisions: “Under the law, the state ‘may not expropriate property arbitrarily or for a purpose other than… in the public interest’,” he stated. “Expropriation may not be exercised unless the expropriating authority has without success attempted to reach an agreement with the owner.”
Trump’s administration has been heavily influenced by powerful Silicon Valley figures with ties to apartheid-era southern Africa. Elon Musk, born in Pretoria in 1971, is perhaps the most prominent of these figures. Musk, who co-founded PayPal alongside David Sacks and Peter Thiel, has been a vocal critic of South Africa’s land reform measures.
Thiel, another PayPal co-founder and a key Trump adviser, also has connections to southern Africa, having lived in Namibia during its period of South African control. Both men have been accused of supporting the apartheid system, a claim their spokespeople have denied.
Despite Trump’s harsh criticism, President Ramaphosa has expressed optimism about maintaining a positive relationship with the US president. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Ramaphosa said, “I spoke to him soon after he was elected, congratulated him, and we both said we are looking forward to continued dealings and engagements.”
President Ramaphosa has defended the land policy, stating that the government had not confiscated any land and the policy was aimed at evening out racial disparities in land ownership in the Black-majority nation. Ramaphosa said South Africa “will not be bullied.”
