Trump Says He’ll Cut Off Aid To South Africa Over Land Seizure Policies

President Donald Trump said Sunday that he would cut off funding to South Africa pending a probe over a new law that allows the government to seize land when it is “equitable” to do so. 

Trump posted on Truth Social that funding to South Africa had been suspended pending an investigation into the country’s land seizure policies. The move comes after South African President Cyril Ramaphosa signed a law earlier this month allowing the government to take possession of a person’s land when deemed “just and equitable and in the public interest.”

“South Africa 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,” Trump wrote on his social media platform. “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 South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has been completed!”

Ramaphosa responded that the country was not “confiscating” any land but acknowledged that its law allowed land to be taken under certain conditions without compensation. 

“The recently adopted Expropriation Act is not a confiscation instrument, but a constitutionally mandated legal process that ensures public access to land in an equitable and just manner as guided by the constitution,” he wrote on X. “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.”

Before the Expropriation Act, South Africa had a “willing seller, willing buyer” law in place requiring the government to provide compensation for land, according to the BBC. The new law was passed because of complaints over the amount of land that white South Africans owned. 

Elon Musk, a top Trump ally originally from South Africa, replied to Ramaphosa’s defense of the law by asking, “Why do you have openly racist ownership laws?”

Reporters at Joint Base Andrews asked Trump on Sunday night if he planned to cut aid to other African countries. Trump replied that the current suspension of funds only applied to South Africa because “the leadership is doing some terrible things, horrible things.”

“They’re confiscating land, and actually they’re doing things that are, perhaps, far worse than that,” he added, saying the situation was under investigation. During his first term, Trump asked for an investigation into a number of murders of white farmers in the country.