US President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday aimed at freezing assistance to South Africa over a controversial law that allows the government to seize farmland from ethnic minorities \u2014 namely White farmers \u2014 without compensation, as well as the country\u2019s stance against Israel and its war in Gaza. <\/p>\n
Trump said in the order the United States would no longer support South Africa with foreign aid if such policies, which he claims highlight a \u201cshocking disregard for its citizens\u201d and amount to \u201chuman rights violations,\u201d continue, ordering US agencies to stop providing any aid to South Africa unless deemed necessary. <\/p>\n
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has previously denied that South African authorities were \u201cconfiscating land\u201d and said his country was looking forward to working with the Trump administration \u201cover our land reform policy.\u201d <\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s order also directs the United States to assist Afrikaners \u2014 an ethnic group descended from European settlers \u2014 who are fleeing South Africa due to discrimination, including helping them resettle through refugee programs. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is the policy of the United States that, as long as South Africa continues these unjust and immoral practices that harm our Nation, the United States shall not provide aid or assistance to South Africa; and the United States shall promote the resettlement of Afrikaner refugees escaping government-sponsored race-based discrimination, including racially discriminatory property confiscation,\u201d read the order. <\/p>\n
South Africa\u2019s foreign ministry called the order a \u201cgreat concern\u201d and said it \u201c(lacked) factual accuracy and fails to recognize South Africa\u2019s profound and painful history of colonialism and apartheid,\u201d adding that the move seemed \u201cto be a campaign of misinformation and propaganda aimed at misrepresenting our great nation.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cIt 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,\u201d the foreign ministry added in a statement Saturday. <\/p>\n
In the past, racist policies forcefully removed Black and non-White South Africans from land for White people to use. There has been a land redistribution and restitution provision in the country\u2019s constitution since South Africa emerged from its apartheid era and held its first democratic elections in 1994. <\/p>\n
Unemployment and poverty, however, remain acute among Black South Africans, who make up around 80% of the population, yet own a fraction of the land. In January, Ramaphosa signed a bill into law that sets forth new guidelines for land expropriation, including enabling the government to expropriate land without compensation in some cases. <\/p>\n
According to the US Foreign Assistance website, the country said it would send nearly $440 million in assistance to South Africa in 2023, including more than $270 million just from the Agency for International Development (USAID). <\/p>\n
The executive order comes as the Trump administration has already frozen almost all foreign assistance and made moves to dismantle USAID. <\/p>\n
Trump also said in his order that South Africa had taken an aggressive stance against the United States and its allies through its position on Israel and reinvigorating ties with Iran. <\/p>\n
South Africa accused Israel of committing genocide in an unprecedented case at the United Nations\u2019 top court, the International Court of Justice (ICJ). It said Israel\u2019s leadership was \u201cintent on destroying the Palestinians in Gaza\u201d and called for the court to order a halt to Israel\u2019s military campaign in the enclave. <\/p>\n
Trump has previously said he would halt funding until there was a full investigation into allegations that \u201cSouth Africa is confiscating land and treating certain classes of people very badly,\u201d without citing evidence. <\/p>\n
Ramaphosa also spoke to Trump\u2019s \u201cfirst buddy\u201d and South African-born Elon Musk earlier this week \u201con issues of misinformation and distortions about South Africa,\u201d emphasizing South Africa\u2019s constitutionally embedded values of the respect for the rule of law, justice, fairness and equality,\u201d a government statement at the time read. <\/p>\n
During his annual state of the nation address, Ramaphosa said South Africa \u201cwill not be deterred.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are, as South Africans, a resilient people, and we will not be bullied,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
US President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday aimed at freezing assistance to South Africa over a controversial law that allows the government to seize farmland from ethnic minorities \u2014 namely White farmers \u2014…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3614,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}