US President Donald Trump said he would reduce all future funding for South Africa due to allegations that they are the confiscation of the Earth and “the treatment of some groups of people very badly.”
Last month, President Cyril Ramavusa signed a draft law law that allows land officers without compensation in certain circumstances.
Land ownership has always been a controversial issue in South Africa, as most agricultural lands are still owned by white persons, 30 years after the end of the apartheid system in the apartheid.
There were continuous calls to the government to address land reform and deal with the previous injustice of the racist semester.
On Sunday, Trump wrote on the social media platform: “I will cut all the future funding for South Africa until the full investigation is completed in this situation!”
“The South Africa leadership is doing some terrible things and terrible things,” he said at a press conference with reporters.
“So this is under investigation at the present time. We will put a decision, and until the time we know what South Africa is doing – they take away the land and land sources, and they do things that may be worse than that.”
“This period of investigation is to deepen their understanding of South African policies as a constitutional democracy.”
He added: “Such ideas will guarantee a respectable and informed approach to our democratic obligations.”
The United States allocated about 440 million dollars (358 million pounds) with the help of South Africa in 2023, according to US government data.
The South African government says that the new law does not allow arbitrary exports to land as it must first try to reach an agreement with the owner.
The president's spokesperson, Vincent Magoina, said last month that the state “may not be yellowing the property arbitrarily or for a purpose other than … in the public interest.”
She says that the current system of the “borrowed seller and the willing buyer” has allowed white farmers to delay the land repair process.
However, some critics have expressed their concerns that the law may have severe consequences as in Zimbabwe, as the seizures broke the land of the economy and feared investors.
