South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday rejected Donald Trump’s assertions that South Africa was “confiscating” land and said he was ready to explain his government’s land reform policy to his US counterpart.
On Sunday Trump threatened to cut grants to South Africa because President Ramaphosa was “treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY.”
Trump appeared to be referring to a land expropriation act signed by Ramaphosa last month which stipulates the government may, in certain circumstances, offer “nil compensation” for property it decides to seize in the public interest.
Land ownership is a contentious issue in South Africa with most farmland still owned by white people three decades after the end of apartheid and the government under pressure to implement reforms.
Efforts to redress that inequality have drawn criticism from conservatives, including South Africa-born Elon Musk, who is a powerful Trump adviser.
“The South African government has not confiscated any land,” Ramaphosa said in a statement reacting to Trump’s post.
The Expropriation Act is not a “confiscation instrument” but a “constitutionally mandated legal process that ensures public access to land in an equitable and just manner,” Ramaphosa’s statement said.
The government says the new act does not allow authorities to expropriate property arbitrarily and efforts must always first be made to reach an agreement with the owner.
“We look forward to engaging with the Trump administration over our land reform policy and issues of bilateral interest,” the president’s statement said.
Ramaphosa’s spokesman Vincent Magwenya said Trump’s statement was an “unfortunate case of the impact of misinformation and deliberate distortions that are peddled by right-wing parties.”
The right-wing AfriForum, a pressure group for white Afrikaners which has been a strong critic of the Expropriation Act, said it would ask Trump to direct his punitive measures at senior ANC leaders directly and not at ordinary South Africans.
Meanwhile Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe, a top ANC official, suggested that the country could “withold minerals to the US”.
“If they don’t give us money, let’s not give them minerals,” Mantashe told a conference on mining in Africa where he urged the continent to use its mineral wealth to its advantage. AFP
