The South African government has strongly hit back at United States President Donald Trump after he signed an executive issued on Friday freezing aid amount to over US$400 million, slamming Washington DC for engaging in a “campaign of misinformation and propaganda”.
There have been public accusations in South Africa that organisations like Afriforum, which defends rights of a section of the population, and the world’s richest man Elon Musk, who is originally South African, are misinforming Trump about the situation.
Most white South Africans have distanced themselves from Afriforum’s campaign against their own government and country in foreign lands.
In an executive order signed on Friday, Trump claimed the law showed a “shocking disregard” for citizens’ rights and would allow the government to seize land from white ethnic minority Afrikaners without compensation.
The passage of the Expropriation Act, signed last month, by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, followed “countless” policies designed to dismantle equality, as well as “hateful rhetoric” and government that have driven violence against “racially disfavoured” landowners, Trump said in his order.
He said South Africa has also taken “aggressive positions” towards the US and its allies, including accusing Israel of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and boosting relations with Iran.
Revealing what the issue at stake is really about, Trump’s order said his administration would promote resettlement of Afrikaners “escaping government-sponsored race-based discrimination”.
Trump staunchly supports Israel and has even proposed to resettle Palestinians to secure its security, while sanctioning the ICC for holding Tel Aviv to account for its atrocities in Gaza.
Washington and Pretoria have also clashed over South Africa’s close relations with Russia and China, particularly with regards to the Ukraine war.
Trump and Ramaphosa have been engaged in an escalating war of words over the law since the US president accused his counterpart’s administration of “confiscating land” and mistreating “certain classes of people”.
Escalating the diplomatic tiff, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he would not attend the upcoming Group of 20 (G20) talks in Johannesburg in response to the legislation and other “very bad things” happening in the country.
South Africa has dismissed US claims as unfounded, pointing out that there is no seizure of farms in South Africa, as the law is not a “confiscation instrument”, but part of a “constitutionally mandated legal process” to ensure public access to land in an “equitable and just manner”.
In his state of the nation address in parliament on Thursday, Ramaphosa said that his government would resist the “pursuit of narrow interests” and “the decline of common cause”.
“We will not be deterred. We are a resilient people. We will not be bullied,” he said.
Pretoria said Washington is relying on misinformation and propaganda from wrongly informed interlocutors to make decisions.
The new contentious law says government may seize land without compensation where it is deemed to be “just and equitable and in the public interest”, especially when it is not being used, has been abandoned and lies derelict.
Newshawks
