{"id":3240,"date":"2025-02-03T18:30:31","date_gmt":"2025-02-03T18:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/geopolitic.info\/?p=3240"},"modified":"2025-02-03T18:30:31","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T18:30:31","slug":"trump-plans-to-cut-us-funding-to-south-africa-over-contentious-land-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/geopolitic.info\/index.php\/2025\/02\/03\/trump-plans-to-cut-us-funding-to-south-africa-over-contentious-land-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump plans to cut US funding to South Africa over contentious land law"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/a>
By Gerald Imray
02\/03\/2025<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

US President Donald Trump has said he will cut all funding to South Africa and has launched an investigation into the country\u2019s polices, claiming a \u201cmassive\u201d human rights violation is happening over a new land expropriation law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Trump made the pledge to stop all future funding on his Truth Social platform on Sunday, writing: \u201cSouth Africa is confiscating land, and treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In South Africa, Mr Trump wrote, a \u201cmassive Human Rights VIOLATION, at a minimum, is happening for all to see. The United States won\u2019t stand for it, we will act. Also, I will be cutting off all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has been completed!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The South African government said the Trump administration needed to have a better understanding of the new law, which is meant to help redress the impact of decades of white minority rule in South Africa under the apartheid regime, which ended in 1994.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a statement that \u201cthe South African government has not confiscated any land\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

During apartheid, land was taken from South Africa\u2019s black majority, who were forced to live in areas designated for blacks only.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Billionaire Elon Musk, who is one of Mr Trump\u2019s close allies, was born and raised in South Africa and has also targeted Mr Ramaphosa\u2019s government, accusing it of being anti-white and claiming in 2023 it was allowing a \u201cgenocide\u201d against white farmers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Experts in South Africa say that while there are cases of white farmers being killed, it is rather a reflection of the country\u2019s desperately high levels of violent crime across the board, which are some of the worst in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In comments to reporters, Mr Trump said on Sunday \u201cthey\u2019re taking away land, they\u2019re confiscating land and actually they\u2019re doing things that are perhaps far worse than that\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Trump did not say exactly which policy he was referring to, or which people were being mistreated. However, his comments appeared to be in reaction to the new land law South Africa passed last month that gives the government scope to acquire land from private parties if it is in the public interest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The law has been debated and considered for years and has been criticised by some interest groups in South Africa as opening the way to seize land from some of the country\u2019s white minority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the government says people\u2019s rights are still protected and land can only be taken in specific circumstances where it is not being used productively and it\u2019s in the public interest that the land is redistributed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The office of Mr Ramaphosa released a statement Monday, saying: \u201cThe recently adopted 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 as guided by the constitution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSouth 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South African foreign minister Ronald Lamola said Mr Trump\u2019s administration should use the investigation it says it is launching \u201cto deepen their understanding of South Africa\u2019s policies as a constitutional democracy. Such insights will ensure a respectful and informed approach to our democratic commitments\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa is a major beneficiary of US funding under the President\u2019s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief, or Pepfar, which contributes around $400 million a year to the country\u2019s HIV\/Aids programme. That funding was already under threat after Mr Trump\u2019s freeze on foreign aid across the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Ramaphosa\u2019s office said there is \u201cno other significant funding that is provided by the United States in South Africa\u201d, although South Africa is America\u2019s largest trading partner in Africa by some way, according to the US International Trade Commission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Trump has previously been critical of South Africa\u2019s government, writing in a social media post during his first term in 2018 that land was being seized from white farms and there was \u201clarge scale killing of farmers\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US leader said in the same message \u2013 which was roundly criticised in South Africa as making false claims \u2013 that he was ordering then-secretary of state Mike Pompeo to investigate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are an average of around 70 homicides a day in South Africa, according to official crime statistics, and the vast majority of victims are black.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SourceBy Gerald Imray02\/03\/2025 US President Donald Trump has said he will cut all funding to South Africa and has launched…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-transatlantic"],"views":365,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/geopolitic.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/geopolitic.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/geopolitic.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geopolitic.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geopolitic.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3240"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/geopolitic.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3243,"href":"https:\/\/geopolitic.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3240\/revisions\/3243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/geopolitic.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geopolitic.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geopolitic.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}