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#Trump threatened to cut all US #aid to #SouthAfrica while claiming, without evidence, that the govt there is confiscating land, wading into a sensitive racial issue while deepening already sharp divisions between the US & South Africa over #Gaza & #Ukraine.
Trump posted that South Africa “is confiscating land, & treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY,” in comments widely interpreted as referring to #White South Africans.
#geopolitics #USpol #WhiteSupremacy
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/02/03/trump-south-africa-musk-land/
The subject of #Trump’s post appeared to be a recent #law allowing the expropriation of land w/o compensation in rare cases: a measure #SouthAfrica’s govt said is aimed at ending racial disparities in land ownership in the post-apartheid era. Trump’s comments were not the 1st time he has waded into South Africa’s sensitive racial politics, after suggesting during his first term, also w/o evidence, that there were “large scale” killings underway of #White farmers in South Africa.
#ElonMusk, who was born in #SouthAfrica & is Trump’s most prominent ally, has also repeatedly accused #SouthAfrica’s government of anti-White racism, touching on themes popular with #FarRight groups in the #UnitedStates.
“Why do you have openly racist ownership laws?” Musk wrote on X on Monday, in response to a post by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa explaining the expropriation law & denying that land had been confiscated.
#SouthAfrica’s government has framed land reform as a “moral, social & economic imperative,” because of the systemic dispossession of Black South Africans under #apartheid. The country’s first comprehensive land audit in 2017 found that the minority White population owned 72% of individually owned farms & agricultural holdings. Mixed race citizens — referred to officially as Coloured — owned a further 15%, Indians owned 5% & Africans owned 4%.
#geopolitics #USpol #WhiteSupremacy
Since 1994, the government has sought to redistribute land based on a voluntary “willing-seller, willing-buyer” system & by paying compensation. So far those policies, combined with private sales of land, government land acquisition & other programs, have moved 25% of all farmland previously owned by White landowners to Black South African ownership or state ownership, according to research by Stellenbosch University in South Africa.
…It was not immediately clear what assistance #Trump wanted to suspend; in 2023, the #US obligated nearly $440M in assistance to #SouthAfrica, the most recent year that full data is available. The lion’s share went to #health programs, especially #HIVAids treatment & prevention.
Ramaphosa, in his post on X, said #aid from #PEPFAR, a US funded AIDS prevention program, made up 17% of South Africa’s HIV/AIDS program, but apart from that, the South African govt received no direct #aid from the US.
#Trump could also suspend #SouthAfrica’s participation in the #US African Growth & Opportunity Act, which provides eligible sub-Saharan African countries with duty-free access to the US market. The act — due for renewal this year — requires privileged trading partners to have market-based economies, the rule of #law, political pluralism, & the right to due process, among other conditions. [so that would eliminate the US from participation]