By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has issued a swift response to US President Donald Trump’s threat that aid from that country could be withdrawn, owing to his view that South Africa’s recently enacted Expropriation Act is leading to the confiscation of land.
Ramaphosa last month signed a bill that stipulates the government may, in certain circumstances, offer “nil compensation” for property it decides to expropriate in the public interest.
South Africa is confiscating land, and treating certain classes of people “VERY BADLY, “Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Sunday.
“I will be cutting off all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has been completed!” Trump wrote.
In response to his comments, South Africa said its expropriation act was not exceptional.
Ramaphosa stressed that the country’s recently adopted Expropriation Act was not a confiscation instrument, but a constitutionally mandated legal process that ensured public access to land “in an equitable and just manner as guided by the Constitution”.
“South 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.”
Ramaphosa said it looked forward “to engaging with the Trump administration over its land reform policy and issues of bilateral interest”, and expressed optimism that these meetings would result in a better and common understanding.
He also stressed that the US remained a key strategic political and trade partner for South Africa.
“With the exception of PEPFAR Aid, which constitutes 17% of South Africa’s HIV/Aids programme, there is no other significant funding that is provided by the United States in South Africa,” He added.
Pretoria has previously argued the bill does not allow the government to expropriate property arbitrarily and must first seek to reach agreement with the owner.
However, some groups fear a situation similar to the Zimbabwe government’s seizure of white-owned commercial farms, often without compensation, after independence in 1980.
Later, in a briefing with journalists, Trump said that South Africa’s “leadership is doing some terrible things, horrible things” without giving examples.
“So that’s under investigation right now. We’ll make a determination, and until such time as we find out what South Africa is doing – they’re taking away land and confiscating land, and actually they’re doing things that are perhaps far worse than that.”
Land ownership is a contentious issue in South Africa with most farmland still owned by white people three decades after the end of apartheid.
Since then land courts have adjudicated on a handful of land disputes and, after exhaustive processes, returned land to previously displaced owners.
According to the government, the 1913 Natives Land Act saw thousands of Black families forcibly removed from their land by the apartheid regime.
The delicate issue has been a particular rallying point for the right, with various conservative figures including Elon Musk and right-wing journalist Katie Hopkins championing the cause of white land-owners.
Musk was born in Pretoria on 28 June 1971, to an engineer father and a Canadian-born model mother, leaving the country in his late teens. The formal policy of apartheid lasted until 1990, and multi-racial elections were held in 1994.