Ramaphosa's Fierce Response to Trump's Land Claims Unveiled

Cyril Ramaphosa, the president of South Africa, retaliated Monday against Donald Trump, the president of the United States, for threatening to stop supporting the African country after the latter accused it of "confiscating" land and "treating certain classes of people very badly."

Trump declared on Sunday that he would stop providing the nation with any further funding until an inquiry was completed.

Land is being seized in South Africa, and some social groups are being treated horribly. Until a thorough inquiry into this matter is finished, I will stop providing South Africa with any more funding! Trump posted on his site, Truth Social.

Trump later said, without providing examples, that South Africa's "leadership is doing some terrible things, horrible things" at a briefing with reporters.

That is currently being looked into. We'll make a decision, and until we learn more about what South Africa is doing—they're stealing land and taking it away, and in reality, they're doing things that might be much worse than that," he continued.

Ramaphosa responded on Monday through his X handle, stating that the government hasn't "confiscated any land" and that the democratic country of South Africa upholds justice, equity, and the rule of law.

Regarding the funding cut that Trump revealed, Ramaphosa clarified that South Africa only receives the US-funded "PEPFAR Aid, which constitutes 17% of South Africa's HIVAids program," even though he acknowledged the US as a significant "political and trade partner."

According to his tweets, "South Africa is a constitutional democracy with a strong foundation in equality, justice, and the rule of law." No land has been seized by the South African government.

"The recently passed Expropriation Act is a legally required procedure that guarantees public access to land in a fair and just way in accordance with the constitution, not a tool for confiscation.

“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. We look forward to working with the Trump administration over our land reform agenda and matters of mutual relevance.

We are confident that we will have a more comprehensive and shared grasp of these issues as a result of those interactions.

For South Africa, the US continues to be a vital strategic trading and political partner. South Africa receives no additional financing from the United States, with the exception of PEPFAR Aid, which accounts for 17% of the country's HIVAids program.

The world's richest man, Elon Musk, who was born in South Africa and is a significant Trump adviser, is among the conservatives who have criticized attempts to address the inequities of white domination, according to AFP. The land problem in South Africa has long been contentious.

It stated that Ramaphosa signed a bill last month that allows the government to provide "nil compensation" for property it chooses to expropriate in the public interest under specific conditions.

According to Pretoria, the bill requires the government to first attempt to come to an agreement with the owner and does not permit it to expropriate property without cause.

Some organizations, however, worry about a scenario akin to Zimbabwe's government seizing commercial farms owned by white people, frequently without paying them, following the country's independence in 1980.

 

Three decades after apartheid ended, the majority of farmland in South Africa is still controlled by white people, making land ownership a divisive topic.

Following lengthy procedures, land courts have since decided on a few land disputes and given land back to owners who had been displaced.

The South African government claims that thousands of Black families were evicted from their land by the apartheid government because of the 1913 Natives Land Act.

The touchy subject has been a particular rallying point for the right, with numerous conservative luminaries including Musk and right-wing journalist Katie Hopkins promoting the cause of white land-owners.

Musk was born in Pretoria on June 28, 1971, to an engineer father and a Canadian-born model mother, leaving the nation in his late teens. Apartheid as an official policy ended in 1990, and multiracial elections took place in 1994.

Trump has surrounded himself with influential Silicon Valley people who grew up in southern Africa during the apartheid era, such as David Sacks, his recently chosen czar for cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence, who co-founded PayPal with Musk.

Peter Thiel, another billionaire and co-founder of PayPal, who paired Trump with his vice president, J.D. Vance, also resided in southern Africa, spending time in Namibia, which was then under Pretoria's rule.

A spokesperson for him refuted the prior accusations that he supported the apartheid system, which brutally oppressed South Africa's Black majority in order to maintain white authority and economic dominance.