By Johnathan Paoli
President Cyril Ramaphosa says he looks forward to holding bilateral meetings with US President Donald Trump, following the newly inaugurated president threatening to cut funding to South Africa due to the recent signing into law of the Expropriation of Land Act.
Trump announced over social media platform X that he would cut off future funding to SA until a full investigation of the legislation was completed.
“South Africa is confiscating land, and treating certain classes of people very badly,” he said.
He described the legislation as a human rights violation, and that the US would not stand for it.
President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the Bill last month, which seeks to establish regulations surrounding the expropriation of land by the state in the public interest.
While the legislation does consider the possibility of expropriation of property in circumstances where an agreement with the owner could not be found, the Presidency has confirmed that it would not allow for the arbitrary confiscation.
Nevertheless, the attempt at redressing the past has met criticism from conservatives both within and outside the country, including South Africa-born billionaire and Trump advisor, Elon Musk.
The question of land has been a belligerent issue in the three decades since the dawn of democracy, with legal attempts at transformation seeing a few cases of land being returned to its previous owners.
Both the post-1994 attempts as well as the legislation has been the government’s attempt at addressing the profound impact of the 1913 Natives Land Act, which saw thousands of African families forcibly removed by the colonial government.
In addition, further acts were passed under the subsequent apartheid regime which exacerbated landlessness for the Black majority in the country.
This comes on the heels of Trump’s executive order to withdraw funding from the World Health Organisation, with South Africa being one of the beneficiaries from funding for HIV/AIDS medication.
Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said on Monday: “We look look forward to engaging with the Trump administration over our land reform policy and issues of bilateral interest. We are certain that out of those engagements, we will share a better and common understanding over these matters.”
He said in a statement that South Africa, 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 of property owners.
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