SA stands up against 'bullying' amid US clampdown

SA/US relations remain tense as President Donald Trump stands resolute in his mission to punish SA for what he refers to as its racist policies and its actions in the International Court of Justice against Israel, and SA President Cyril Ramaphosa saying SA will not be bullied. Trump signed an executive order on Friday, cutting funding to SA as part of moves to slash US aid worldwide which have elicited widespread condemnation. But, writes Legalbrief, some African countries - which are among those likely to be most affected by the cuts - have come out in support of the US President (see stories below). In SA, attempts by the government to redress racial inequalities, still a glaring blot on the country 30 years after the end of apartheid, have been labelled by Trump as discrimination against white people. ‘I will be cutting off all future funding to SA until a full investigation of this situation has been completed!’ Trump said in a social media post. Earlier he posted: ‘SA is confiscating land, and treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY. It is a bad situation that the Radical Left Media doesn't want to so much as mention. A massive Human Rights VIOLATION, at a minimum, is happening for all to see. The United States won't stand for it, we will act. Also, I will be cutting off all future funding to SA until a full investigation of this situation has been completed!’

Ramaphosa hit back in his State of the Nation Address last week, saying the country remained committed to its policies to end racial discrimination (see more below). Earlier, Ramaphosa and International Relations & Co-Operations Minister Ronald Lamola rejected Trump’s ‘baseless claims’ that land would be confiscated by the state in terms of the recently-passed Expropriation Act.‘SA is a constitutional democracy that is deeply rooted in the rule of law, justice and equality. The SA Government has not confiscated any land,’ Ramaphosa said in a statement. ‘SA, like the US 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 also said he wanted to meet Trump to discuss SA's land reform policy and issues of bilateral interest. Lamola echoed his boss’ comments, adding that he welcomed Trump’s investigation into policy. ‘We trust President Trump’s advisers will make use of the investigative period to attain a thorough understanding of SA’s policies within the framework of a constitutional democracy,’ he said.

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BusinessLIVE notes that Trump did not specify who was being ‘treated badly’ in his statement, but the land reference suggests he is referring to white landowners who still possess three quarters of SA’s freehold farmland. This, it says contrasts with 4% owned by blacks, according to the latest 2017 land audit, who make up 80% of the population, compared with about 8% for whites. The Expropriation Act, signed last month is partly aimed at redressing this imbalance. In 2023, South African-born Elon Musk, who has the ear of Trump, accused the government of seeking a ‘genocide of white people’. That notion, which circulates in far-right chat rooms, attempts to link land reform to murders of white farmers during robberies, saying the killings are acts of state-sponsored ethnic cleansing aiming to scare them off their land. Of the roughly 20 000 murders committed in SA every year, about 50 of them are of white farmers. Most of the victims are black.

In his State of the Nation Address (Sona) last week, Ramaphosa, without mentioning Trump by name, sent a message to Washington that SA will not abandon policies which the Trump administration this week branded ‘anti-Americanism’. The Mail & Guardian reports that Ramaphosa said the world was contending with climate change and violent conflict while ‘witnessing the rise of nationalism and protectionism, the pursuit of narrow interests and the decline of common cause’. It was, he added, a difficult world for a developing economy to navigate, before signalling that the government would not waver in its commitment to racial redress, diversity and the energy transition – policies Trump is dismantling at home and denouncing abroad – and would continue to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people. ‘We are a resilient people. We will not be bullied. We will stand together as a united nation,’ Ramaphosa said.

Ramaphosa acknowledged that the US decision to halt donor funding was putting at risk treatment for people living with HIV notes the M&G report. ‘We are concerned about the potential impact of the decision by the US Government to suspend some of its funding for HIV and TB programmes in African countries for 90 days,’ he said. ‘This funding accounts for about 17% of our country’s HIV spend. We have been able to provide funding from our fiscus for our HIV and TB programmes over the years.’ The government was exploring ways of addressing the funding shortfall, he added.

Public Works & Infrastructure Minister Dean Macpherson, a member of the former opposition Democratic Alliance (now in the Government of National Unity) has countered with an assurance that nobody's land is imperilled by the Act. Another News24 report notes he emphasised no one in SA is having their land confiscated and land grabs will never be allowed. Speaking at the annual Mining Indaba in Cape Town, Macpherson said there have been misconceptions about the legislation, including Trump's comments. ‘I want to be unequivocal: No one in SA is having their land confiscated. As the Minister of Public Works & Infrastructure, land grabs will never be allowed. This is my commitment to the people of SA and our partners around the world,’ said Macpherson. ‘Instead, the Expropriation Act sets out a clear legal framework under which expropriation may take place - always with due process and court oversight. Furthermore, section 25 of the Constitution remains firmly in place, enshrining property rights in the highest law of our country,’ he said. Macpherson said property rights are not only about protecting investments but also about ensuring that the rule of law is upheld in all sectors of society.

But Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa is backing moves by Trump, such as the deportation of masses of illegal immigrants from the US, including at least 500 Zimbabweans. In a post on X, Mnangagwa said: ‘The Government of Zimbabwe supports the United States Government’s decision to repatriate and return our Zimbabwean citizens who may have been residing in the United States,’ The East African reports. The Trump administration has started flights to countries such as Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, India and Venezuela to return the undocumented immigrants. According to an report released late last year, there were 545 non-detained Zimbabwean citizens facing deportation, who were waiting for final orders in November. Washington has encouraged foreign governments to take their citizens back when they are deported. ‘Every country is obligated to accept the return of its citizens and nationals, who are ineligible to remain in the United States,’ the Iimmigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) report said. In November last year, there were 1.44m non-citizens on ICE’s ‘non-detained docket with final orders of removal,’ with the highest numbers coming from Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico. It is estimated that 3m Zimbabweans left the country in the past two decades to seek better economic fortunes in countries such as the US, UK and SA during the rule of the late Robert Mugabe.

The Zimbabwe Government has also been celebrating Trump's decision to pause foreign aid despite the fact that the US has been funding most of the country’s HIV/AIDS response and feeding millions of people in the aftermath of the El Nino-induced drought. The East African notes that following the directive to pause foreign assistance, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) immediately stopped its programmes in Zimbabwe. The US embassy in Harare said it was reviewing its programmes to bring them in line with Trump’s executive order and the waiver. Zimbabwe accuses USAID and other US Government agencies of sponsoring alleged regime change programmes in the country under the guise of promoting human rights. Local Government Minister Daniel Garwe said the suspension of US humanitarian assistance would make Zimbabweans more patriotic. ‘I am very happy and grateful for what President Donald Trump is doing. He has banned all the aid in Africa,’ Garwe said. ‘We will develop our own country and not be used to turn against your country through aid or foreign funding.’

And in a similar move, the Graphic reports that Rwandan President Paul Kagame, responding to Trump's calls to shut down a massive US Government aid programme that has paid out millions of dollars to Rwanda, told CNN: ‘President Trump has an unconventional way of doing things.' ‘I completely agree with him on many things.’ When pressed by a CNN reporter to explain how the shutdown of USAID might negatively affect Rwanda, Kagame said that the country might actually benefit from the cessation of USAID funds. ‘I think from being hurt, we might learn some lessons,’ he said.

Meanwhile, in a tit-for-tat response, SA's Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe suggests SA should withhold minerals from the US if Trump's threat to withdraw aid to the SA economy materialises. Business Day notes that, delivering the opening address at the Mining Indaba, Mantashe said Africa needed to accept its advantage and take charge of growing demand. ‘I said let’s not immobilise Africa. Let’s withhold minerals from the US. That is it. If they don’t give us money, let us not give them minerals,’ he said. Mantashe said SA, along with the continent, should be unapologetic about leveraging its mineral resources on the world stage to negotiate its own desired outcome, even when engaging global superpowers. ‘If, as a continent, we are frightened, we fear everything, we are going to collapse and we will collapse with minerals at our doorstep,’ he said. He pointed out that China built its chrome industry from resources it imported from African suppliers, but had a bigger industry of finished goods than any market in Africa, calling this ‘unnatural.’

Trump has also offered to rehouse white South Africans as refugees fleeing persecution but the move may not spur quite the rush he anticipates, as right-wing white lobby groups want to ‘tackle the injustices’ of black majority rule on home soil, notes Al Jazeera. Trump’s order provided for resettlement in the US of ‘Afrikaners in South Africa who are victims of unjust racial discrimination’ as refugees. Afrikaners are mostly white descendants of early Dutch and French settlers, who own the majority of the country’s farmland. ‘If you haven’t got any problems here, why would you want to go?’ asked Neville van der Merwe, a 78-year-old pensioner in Cape Town. ‘There hasn’t been any really bad (people) taking over our land, the people are carrying on like normal and you know, what are you going to do over there?’ The Act signed by Ramaphosa seeks to address racial land ownership disparities – which have left three-quarters of privately owned land in South Africa in the hands of the white minority – by making it easier for the state to expropriate land in the public interest.

The ANC, the biggest party in the ruling coalition, says Trump is amplifying misinformation propagated by AfriForum, an Afrikaner-led group, reports Al Jazeera. The group, which lobbied Trump’s previous administration regarding its cause, said it was not taking up the offer. ‘Emigration only offers an opportunity for Afrikaners who are willing to risk potentially sacrificing their descendants’ cultural identity as Afrikaners. The price for that is simply too high,’ AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel said. The Solidarity Movement – which includes AfriForum and the Solidarity trade union and said it represents about 600 000 Afrikaner families and 2m individuals – expressed commitment to South Africa. ‘We may disagree with the ANC, but we love our country. As in any community, there are individuals who wish to emigrate, but repatriation of Afrikaners as refugees is not a solution for us,’ the Solidarity Movement said. Representatives of Orania, an Afrikaner-only enclave in the heart of the country, also rejected Trump’s offer. ‘Afrikaners do not want to be refugees. We love and are committed to our homeland,’ Orania said.