Trump freezes all South African assistance as stand-off escalates

WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump froze all US aid to South Africa over what he falsely claimed were rights violations stemming from a new land-expropriation law, as well as its allegations of genocide against Israel.

South Africa’s foreign ministry expressed “great concern that the foundational premise of this order lacks factual accuracy”, in a statement on Feb 8. It reiterated the government’s commitment to finding “diplomatic solutions to any misunderstandings”.

Mr Trump’s executive order on the evening of Feb 7 halting assistance escalates a stand-off in which South Africa has sought to respond with diplomacy, while maintaining the moral high ground in a nation still scarred by the racist legacy of white-minority rule. The US has given South Africa more than US$8 billion (S$10.8 billion) in bilateral aid over the past two decades.

Relations with Washington were already strained by South Africa’s refusal to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and for its case in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) alleging Israel’s assault in the Gaza Strip was an act of genocide.

They worsened this week after Mr Trump and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio falsely claimed the South Africa authorities are seizing property under the expropriation law. Neither provided any evidence, and both ignored President Cyril Ramaphosa’s statement that the assertion is untrue.

Mr Trump’s attack saw the rand weaken sharply, though it regained lost ground by Feb 7.

South Africa has always had expropriation laws – as does the US and other countries – that balance the need for public usage of land and the protection of rights of property owners, according to the government.

The executive order, detailed in a White House statement, claims “the government of South Africa blatantly discriminates against ethnic minority Afrikaners” and says the US will stop providing aid and assistance to the country as long as it “continues to support bad actors on the world stage and allows violent attacks” against minority white farmers.

It also said Pretoria had taken “aggressive positions” against the US by

pursuing Israel in the ICJ

, and for “reinvigorating its relations with Iran”. Iran was among five countries invited to join the Brics bloc of emerging-market powers during a summit Mr Ramaphosa hosted in Johannesburg. 

In addition, the executive order said it would promote the resettlement of white Afrikaans South African farmers and their families in the US as refugees – an offer Pretoria quickly contrasted with Mr Trump’s immigration crackdown at home.

“It is ironic that the executive order makes provision for refugee status in the US for a group in South Africa that remains amongst the most economically privileged, while vulnerable people in the US from other parts of the world are being deported and denied asylum despite real hardship,” South Africa’s foreign ministry said.

The Solidarity Movement, which says it represents about two million Afrikaans speakers, separately voiced its opposition to Mr Trump’s decision and rejected his offer for farmers to settle in America.

“We did not and will not ask for sanctions against South Africa, or that funds for vulnerable people be cut off by the US government,” the group said in a statement.

The group – which said the order has nothing to do with Solidarity or its affiliate AfriForum – also rejected an offer by Mr Trump to offer white Afrikaans people refugee status in the US, while lamenting the actions of Mr Ramaphosa’s African National Congress party that got his attention in the first place.

“I guess you don’t want to be on Trump’s radar. But then you shouldn’t do stupid things,” Mr Kallie Kriel, AfriForum’s chief executive officer, said in an interview. “You should not go to court and bring lawsuits against one of America’s most important allies. You don’t have to support them, stay neutral.”

Mr Trump weighed in on the land issue during his first term in the White House, asking his then-secretary of state to investigate land seizures in South Africa. And Mr Elon Musk, his South African-born billionaire backer, has spread a conspiracy theory that there is a “genocide” of white people in the country.

Land ownership remains a highly contentious issue in South Africa more than three decades after white-minority rule ended.

Under apartheid, most Black South Africans were forbidden from owning property. White people continue to control the vast majority of farmland, despite accounting for just 7 per cent of the population.

The expropriation law gives the government authority to take property in the public interest on condition that the owner receives “just and equitable” compensation. It also contains a provision for nothing to be paid in some instances, such as when land is not being used or has been acquired for speculative purposes with no concrete intention to develop it. BLOOMBERG