Trump And South Africa - Not A Walkover

On February 8, Trump had signed an executive order to cut financial assistance to South Africa, citing disapproval of its land policy and the genocide case that Pretoria filed against Israel at the International Court of Justice.

Trump’s funds freeze would cripple South Africa’s HIV eradication program which treats 7.8 million South Africans living with HIV, the largest number in the world for a single country.

Trump had said, without citing evidence, that South Africa is doing “terrible things are happening in South Africa, the leadership is doing some terrible things, horrible things. … They’re taking away land, they’re confiscating land and actually they’re doing things that are perhaps far worse than that.”

South African-born billionaire Elon Musk, who is close to Trump, has said White South Africans have been the victims of "racist ownership laws."

The White House had also said that the US will also formulate a plan to resettle white South African farmers and their families as refugees in the US.

It said US officials would take steps to prioritize humanitarian relief, including admission and resettlement through the United States Refugee Admissions Program for Afrikaners in South Africa, who are mostly White descendants of early Dutch and French settlers.

The US had also complained about the case brought by South Africa at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), where it accused Israel of genocide over its military offensive in Gaza that killed tens of thousands and caused a humanitarian crisis.

Israel denies the allegations, saying it acted in self-defence following the deadly October 7, 2023, attack by the Hamas.

The White House cited the case in the ICJ as an example of South Africa’s anti-West and anti-US policy. The order also mentioned South Africa's ties with Washington's Middle East rival Iran.

The US had allocated US$ 440 million in assistance to South Africa in 2023.

In its reaction, the South African foreign ministry said that the executive order “lacked factual accuracy and failed to recognize South Africa's profound and painful history of colonialism and apartheid. It is ironic that the executive order makes provision for refugee status in the US for a group in South Africa that remains amongst the most economically privileged, while vulnerable people in the US from other parts of the world are being deported and denied asylum despite real hardship."

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who signed into law a bill in January aimed at making it easier for the state to expropriate land in the public interest, defended the policy and said the government had not confiscated any land.

“The policy was aimed at evening out racial disparities in land ownership in the Black-majority nation,” Ramaphosa said. He added that South Africa "will not be bullied."

The “AfriForum” a right-wing lobby group, and the mainly White “Solidarity Movement” expressed appreciation for Trump's recognition of "injustice" against Afrikaners but regretted the withdrawal of aid.

"We did not and will not ask for sanctions against South Africa or that funds for vulnerable people be cut off by the US Government," said Flip Buys, Chairperson of the Solidarity Movement of which AfriForum is a part. "We believe that ordinary South Africans should not bear the cost of diplomatic disputes and of the ANC's policies."

Kallie Kriel, CEO of AfriForum, said if Afrikaners became refugees in the US their cultural identity would be lost, a risk they would not take. "We are indigenous to this country and we are going nowhere," he said.

Before independence, South Africa's White government gave most farmlands in the country to the Whites. In 1950, the Afrikaner National Party passed a law taking 85% of the land for themselves and kicking out 3.5 million Black people off their ancestral homelands to reservations.

In the 30 years that the African National Congress (ANC) has been in power, some land restitution to the Blacks happened under a "willing buyer, willing seller" model. But White landowners still possess three-quarters of South Africa's freehold farmland. This contrasts with 4% owned by Black people.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa responded to Trump’s threats by defending the expropriation law and proposing talks with the U.S. administration.

“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,” his spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said in a statement.

His Minister of Mineral Resources, Gwede Mantashe, went further. “Let us withhold minerals to the U.S.,” he told a mining conference in Cape Town on Monday. “If they don’t give us money, let’s not give them minerals.”

South Africa’s long-delayed expropriation bill, debated for years, is a replacement for a 1975 apartheid-era law. It brings the law into line with the country’s 1996 constitution, which provides for expropriation at below-market prices in some cases – as long as the compensation is “just and equitable.”

Even the pro-business Democratic Alliance party, which plans to challenge the law in court, has acknowledged that it will not permit the arbitrary seizure of land.

If Trump enforces his funds freeze, the greatest damage would occur to South Africans with HIV. Of the nearly US$440-million in annual US assistance to South Africa, about 72% is for HIV and AIDS programs. About 17% of South Africa’s HIV budget is financed by the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, introduced by President George W. Bush in 2003.

The program has been vital in combatting the deadly virus across Africa and the developing world, saving an estimated 25 million lives since its launch. It is especially crucial in South Africa, where 7.8 million people are living with HIV, the largest number in the world.

South Africa’s HIV program is already suffering from another Trump decision: Several clinics shut their doors last week after Trump imposed a temporary freeze on all foreign aid programs.

Trump and his closest advisers, including billionaire Elon Musk and others with roots in Southern Africa during the apartheid era, have criticized the South African government for many years.

In 2018, during his first term in office, Trump said he had ordered an investigation of “farm seizures” and the “large-scale killing of farmers” in South Africa. Right-wing extremists have often alleged that a so-called “White genocide” is under way in South Africa. Elon Musk repeated the allegation in 2023, but the claim has been widely debunked.

Statistics show the vast majority of South African murder victims are Black and the number of farmer killings has been in decline.

More than 30 years after the end of apartheid, South Africa’s economy is still dominated by White-owned businesses and commercial farms. It remains one of the world’s most unequal societies.

The wealthiest 10% of South Africans own about 85% of household wealth, and only a small fraction of farmland has been redistributed from White ownership, almost always on the basis of negotiations and agreed prices.

AfriForum, a prominent lobby group for South Africa’s white Afrikaner minority, has repeatedly met with people close to Trump over the past several years to seek US pressure tactics against the South African government.

But on Monday the group said it only wanted US sanctions against South Africa’s political leaders, not a far-reaching funding freeze that could hurt ordinary citizens.

Patrick Gaspard, a former US Ambassador to South Africa, said Trump’s threats of a funding halt were motivated by a “devastatingly insane fringe conspiracy” of a “race war” in South Africa.

Beyond the “White genocide” theory, however, many US politicians have also criticized South Africa for its close relationship with Russia and its legal action against Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Some have introduced resolutions in the US Congress calling for action against South Africa.

Even if South Africa escapes a full halt of US aid funding, it could face a bigger threat when a key trade program comes up for renewal this year. The African Growth and Opportunity Act gives preferential treatment to about 21% of South Africa’s exports to the US, creating an estimated 13,000 jobs in the country. The trade program expires in September and there is a growing possibility that Trump and his allies could cancel South Africa’s participation.