A looming feud between Washington and Pretoria has begun taking shape after US President Donald Trump said he would be cutting aid because of expropriation laws, and South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa said his country looks “forward to engaging with the Trump administration over our land reform policy and issues of bilateral interest.”
- According to Ramaphosa, the only aid South Africa receives from the US is PEPFAR, which accounts for 17% of South Africa’s HIV/AIDS program.
- Although estimates of the funding vary, US government indicates that it provided $440 million in aid to the country in 2023.
- Although the immediate trigger is the Expropriation Act, signed into law last month to address historical disparities in land ownership, the feud between the US and Africa’s biggest economy is layered.
“South Africa is confiscating land, and treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Sunday, “I will be cutting off future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has been completed.”
President Trump’s post had an immediate effect on markets, with the rand trading nearly 2% weaker against the dollar than it did last week, and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange’s Top-20 index dipping by 1.3%, according to Reuters.
“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,” Ramaphosa responded in a post on X.
Why it Matters
Pretoria is currently chair of G20, and will host the 2025 summit which might be President Trump’s first visit to the continent. The likely meeting would underscore Washington’s delicate balancing act in relations with Pretoria, which is Africa’s biggest economy and has an outsized role on continental politics.
The land angle to the feud is not new, as Trump raised it during his first term in office. At the time, South Africa said he was misinformed. While the current feud is about the expropriation act, there are several other layers in the strained relationship between Pretoria and Washington. In a response to Ramaphosa, entrepreneur and X owner Elon Musk asked “Why do you have openly racist ownership laws?” Musk, who was born in Pretoria to a wealthy family, is a close Trump advisor with an outsized role in policymaking.
Musk and other Trump advisors have been clear about attaching US policy, especially aid and trade deals, to its own foreign policy and national security goals. Last week, the recently inaugurated US president threatened ‘100% tariffs’ against BRICS countries, which South Africa is a core member of, over plans to replace the dollar as the bloc’s reserve currency. This places Pretoria in a group that includes nearly all of Washington’s traditional adversaries, such as China, Iran, and Russia.
South Africa is also facing backlash in the West over its prominent role in the Israel-Hamas conflict, where it is prosecuting a case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) accusing Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians, nd contravening the Genocide Convention. South Africa’s case has been supported by over 30 countries, the African Union, the Arab League, and other multilateral organisations.
