US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to freeze financial aid in South Africa after threatening to do so earlier this week.
Trump said he has violated people’s rights due to the new South African land law and has also accused Israel of genocide.
It escalates the conflict between the two countries almost a week after Trump threatened to cut funds without citing evidence. “South Africa is confiscating land” and “a certain class of people” were treated “very badly.”
Born in South Africa, Trump’s close advisor Elon Musk also took part in criticism in X asking why Ramaphosa had “open and racist possession laws.”
President Cyril Ramaphosa has not yet commented, but he previously defended South African land policy after Trump’s threat on Sunday.
He said the government has not confiscated the land and the policy aims to ensure fair public access to the land.
President Ramaphosa’s law was signed last month, allowing the seizure of land without compensation under certain circumstances.
Land ownership has long been a controversial issue in South Africa on most privately owned farmland, 30 years after the end of the apartheid racist system.
There was an ongoing demand that the government address land reform and address past injustice in racism.
The new South African law allows expropriation without compensation only in circumstances that are “fair, fair and in the public interest.”
This includes cases where the property is not used and there is no intention to develop or make money from it, or pose a risk to people.
The order states that the United States cannot “support the South African government’s rights violations committee in the country,” and that “as long as it continues these unfair and immoral practices,” the United States will not provide assistance or support.
The White House said Washington will develop a plan to reset South African farmers and their families as refugees.
US officials have set out measures to prioritize humanitarian relief, including admission and resettlement, through the US refugee enrollment programme for South Africans, primarily white descendants of early Dutch and French settlers. He said he would take it.
The executive order also mentions South Africa’s role in bringing genocide accusations against Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
The order states: “South Africa is an active position towards the United States and its allies, denounced Israel rather than Hamas, not Hamas, and reinvigorated relations with Iran and developed commercial, military and nuclear arrangements. I’ve earned it. .”
On Sunday, Trump wrote to social media platform Truth Social:
He later said at a briefing with journalists that South Africa “leadership is doing some terrible, scary things.”
“It’s under investigation now. We’re making a decision. And they’re taking the land and confiscating the land until they know what South Africa is doing. Worst.”
But on Monday, Ramaphosa moved to ease the queue with Trump’s new US administration against Trump’s new land law by talking to Musk over the phone.
In a call to see the president for musk, Ramaphosa’s office said “repeated the value of respect for the rule of law, justice, fairness and equality in South Africa’s constitution.”
