Ramaphosa flags ‘disinformation’ concerns after Trump’s false land reform claims.

By Lehlohonolo Lehana.

South Africa says it will continue engagements with US President Donald Trump and Elon Musk to clarify misinformation surrounding land reform policies.

Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said during a press conference on Cyril Ramaphosa’s programme in Parliament on Wednesday.

The long-standing relations between the two countries were strong enough to survive the recent furore over Trump’s false claim of land seizures. 

“We are dealing with an unusual case of misinformation, and the spread of misinformation, and so we just have to be vigilant in being proactive with respect to communicating our position on these issues.”

Magwenya was asked about Trump’s renewed threat to punish BRICS nations or, as he put it, “these seemingly hostile countries”,  with 100% tariffs should they seek to move away from the US dollar.

He said Ramaphosa had not raised Trump’s warning with fellow Brics leaders but it was worth noting that creating a single currency to rival the dollar has never been the intention of the bloc, which originally comprised Brazil, Russia, India, China and later South Africa, and now counts 10 members.

“We’ve had a flurry of announcements and executive orders in a very short space of time, “he said.

“What has been absent are engagements over these issues to build a proper understanding of what informs a stance such as the Brics grouping deciding that they will trade among themselves in their respective local currencies.

“Once there are engagements, particularly at bilateral levels, where each country that has some form of trade partnership and bilateral relationship with the US, we think these issues will over time be ironed out.

“They obviously do make for headlines that cause panic and cause a lot of concern, but we are placing our hope that ultimately there will be engagement over these issues.”

Trump’s warning has raised the spectre of a trade war in the G20, and his announcement on Sunday that he was suspending all aid to South Afria pending a review of the “bad situation” in the country has sparked fears that this was perhaps just a first punitive step by its second largest trading partner.

Economists have noted that the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) might be the obvious way for Washington to inflict further pain on the Ramaphosa administration after withdrawing donor aid in excess of $300 million a year.

Government officials have privately said they share this concern but have been at pains to say nothing publicly lest it provoke Trump and White House officials ahead of negotiations on extending Agoa beyond 2025.

“In Trump’s announcement, there was no mention of Agoa, there was mention of trade, so I would not conflate the two, “Magwenya said.

“Agoa matters are very separate from this issue. I would also not start speculating as to what may or may not happen around Agoa. All we know, or all we know as a government, is that Agoa is a mutually beneficial trade relationship.”

He stressed that South Africa remained in the dark as to what precisely moved Trump to suspend all donor funding to the country, a fortnight after much of it came to halt anyway when he announced a 90-day freeze on all funding for the United States Agency for International Development.

Harsh words for AfriForum

Magwenya had harsh words for the minority civil rights organisation AfriForum. 

AfriForum has previously criticised the Expropriation Act, announcing a three-point plan to fight the Act after Ramaphosa signed it into law last month. Following Trump’s claims on Sunday, the organisation said it would write to the US government, requesting that the “punitive measures” that Trump intends to introduce against South Africa “should rather target senior ANC leaders directly, and not South African residents”. 

“What AfriForum has adopted as a feature, is sowing racial divisions and sowing fear amongst the group of their supporters. And we will assert, they have done so successfully among a very small group of people. They have been loud enough to then find an ear within certain quarters in the US leadership establishment.

“But, for the President to invest time engaging them over something that they know over their deliberate behaviour to misrepresent our country; misrepresent the intent and the spirit of our laws – I’m not quite sure that will be the prudent use of the President’s time,” Magwenya said. 

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