Johannesburg – South Africa said on Friday it would not be drawn into a row with the United States after President Donald Trump repeated his accusations that Pretoria was confiscating land from white people.
“We are not going to partake in counterproductive megaphone diplomacy,” presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya told AFP, adding the country remained “committed to building a mutually beneficial bilateral trade, political and diplomatic relationship with the United States, in particular the Trump administration.”
The South African government has firmly rejected US President Donald Trump’s recent assertions regarding land confiscation in the country, describing them as “counterproductive megaphone diplomacy.” The statement comes after #Trump reiterated his claims on social media, extending… pic.twitter.com/sthiHBs7OL
— newsnote (@newsnoteSA) March 7, 2025
South African farmers were welcome to settle in the United States after repeating his accusations that the government was “confiscating” land from white people as he announced an end to federal funding.
Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that “any Farmer (with family!) from South Africa, seeking to flee that country for reasons of safety, will be invited into the United States of America with a rapid pathway to Citizenship.”
He said the process would begin immediately, calling the country a “bad place to be right now” as he announced a halt to all US aid to Pretoria.
Trump and Pretoria are locked in a diplomatic row over a land expropriation act that the Republican leader says will lead to the takeover of white-owned farms.
Donald Trump has attacked South Africa again via Truth Social.
Just a few days after Afriforum visited the White House and the Democratic Alliance went to the USA. This comes right after the Tucker Carlson interview with Ernst Roets.
Causation or coincidence or correlation? pic.twitter.com/aeoo8A8RXu
— Africa Research Desk (@MightiJamie) March 7, 2025
The South African presidency swiftly responded, saying in a statement that it would not engage in “counterproductive megaphone diplomacy.”
Trump, whose close aide Elon Musk was born in South Africa, said in February that a law signed the previous month would “enable the government of South Africa to seize ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation.”
The law stipulates that the government may, in certain circumstances, offer “nil compensation” for property it decides to expropriate in the public interest.
English and Afrikaner colonists ruled South Africa until 1994 under a brutal system in which the black majority were deprived of political and economic rights.
The new law is intended to address historic inequalities in land ownership, with the minority white population still owning most farmland three decades after the end of apartheid.
But Trump accused the country of “being terrible, plus, to long time Farmers in the country.”
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Source: AFP
Picture: Screengrab
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