South Africa president rejects Trump’s land ‘confiscation’ accusations

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.

Trump’s intervention into one of South Africa’s most divisive debates on social media Sunday was widely dismissed as incorrect and even “misinformation”, with the leftist opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party calling it “offensive”.

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.

The Republican also accused Pretoria of “treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY” and threatened to cut funding to the country.

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.

With the exception of aid from the PEPFAR anti-HIV/Aids initiative, which makes up 17 percent of South Africa’s HIV/Aids programme, “there is no other significant funding that is provided by the United States in South Africa,” it said.

“The US remains a key strategic political and trade partner for South Africa,” it added.

– ‘Offensive’ –

The pro-business Democratic Alliance, the main partner of Ramaphosa’s African National Congress party in the government of national unity (GNU), also said that Trump’s statement was incorrect.

It is “not true that the Act allows land to be seized by the state arbitrarily, and it does require fair compensation for legitimate expropriations”, it said.

“The GNU is in the process of engaging the Trump administration to clarify the situation and the DA supports these efforts,” party leader John Steenhuisen said.

The statement was “offensive and undermines our sovereignty”, said Julius Malema, leader of the leftist opposition EFF.

It “is a reminder that our reliance on foreign aid and foreign direct investment surrenders us to the will of imperialists, who use money to dictate the economic and policy direction of Africa,” he 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.”

South African officials at various levels would engage with their US counterparts on the issue, he told the Newzroom Afrika channel.

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.