United States President Donald Trump has signed an executive order cutting financial assistance to South Africa over land policies.
The development has escalated a diplomatic spat between the US and South Africa, as the Presidents of the two nations engage in heated public debates.
Trump, while signing the executive order said the US is strongly against what he described as confiscation of lands.
In a statement released by the White House, Trump’s administration added that efforts are underway to formulate a plan to resettle white South African farmers and their families as refugees.
Following the executive order, South Africa is expected to lose millions of dollars. According to the most recent data from the US government, South Africa benefitted $ 440 million from the US in 2023.
However, South Africa’s foreign ministry, in its reaction on Saturday declared that the executive order signed by Trump “lacks factual accuracy and fails to recognize South Africa’s profound and painful history of colonialism and apartheid.”
South Africa’s foreign ministry added: “It is ironic that the executive order makes provision for refugee status in the U.S. for a group in South Africa that remains amongst the most economically privileged, while vulnerable people in the U.S. from other parts of the world are being deported and denied asylum despite real hardship.”
Pan-Atlantic Kompass had reported that a diplomatic spat has been brewing between South Africa and the United States, stemming from a disagreement between the leaders of the two nations regarding some specifics of the recently enacted Expropriation Act, which was signed into law on January 23, 2025.
The disagreement came after Trump publicly opined that the Expropriation Act signed into law by President Cyril Ramaphosa could lead to racial discrimination in property rights, while the South African President maintained that the act is backed by the rule of law and there is a necessary step towards rectifying historical injustices where black South Africans were systematically dispossessed of land.
Trump’s critique was also reinforced by American billionaire and business magnate, Elon Musk.
Musk who was born in Pretoria, South Africa, has been championing the cause of white land-owners.
The world’s richest man publicly criticized the South African President for signing the Expropriation Act into law, specifically questioning what he described as “openly racist ownership laws.”
It would be recalled that the issue of land reform in South Africa has long been contentious, intending to rectify the imbalances caused by decades of apartheid where land was predominantly owned by white South Africans.
South Africa’s land reform history is deeply intertwined with its colonial and apartheid past, as well as its efforts towards post-apartheid reconciliation and equality.
