President Donald Trump signed aid to freeze executive orders to South Africa on Friday, and the recent land acquisition passed by a country that claims American leaders and his allies discriminate against white farmers. The law was cited.
But the aid bloc was the culmination of a series of pressure points between the US and South Africa that had accumulated even among former President Joe Biden’s administration, and now exploded under Trump.
We track the slides of connections on both sides between the two countries and explore the risks of each will be lost if the relationship becomes even more spiral.
What did Trump say while banning South Africa’s aid?
On February 2nd, Trump posted on the Truth Social Platform, saying, “South Africa has confiscated land and treats a certain class of people very badly.
“The United States doesn’t support it, we’ll act,” he wrote. “Also, until a full investigation of the situation is complete, I will cut off all future funds for South Africa!”
The executive order signed by Trump on February 7th argued that the expropriation law passed in December “allows the South African government to seize the agricultural property of minority Africans without compensation.” did.
“The law follows countless government policies designed to dismantle equal opportunities for employment, education and business, and hate rhetoric that promotes disproportionate violence against racially disadvantaged landowners. and is following the actions of the government,” the order said.
The next day he doubled those comments while addressing reporters. “What’s going bad is happening in South Africa,” he said, referring to the Land Act.
The executive order also offered the US resettlement of South Africans. This is a proposal rejected by the Afrikaner group, which includes specifically lobbying the US and Trump against the South African government.
Did Trump’s aides also attack South Africa?
From US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to South Africa’s large, hefty South African-born, advisor Elon Musk, broadsides to South African-born, have not been merciless since the US president’s first comment.
The day after Trump’s first comment, when South African President Cyril Ramaphosa defended the Land Act of X, Musk (the wealthiest person in the world) replied: “Why are you openly racist laws? Do you have it?”
On Wednesday, Rubio announced at X that he would not attend the G20 summit in Johannesburg. South Africa is doing something very bad. Expropriation of private property.”
South Africa, which serves as the revolving presidency of the G20 block of 20 large economies, is holding a meeting of the group’s foreign ministers from February 20-21.
What is the truth about Land Law?
As Kaanita Hunter of Al Jazeera explained in this work, the South African government argued that there was no forced confiscation of the land and that the expropriation that occurs would be “constitutionally mandated legal proceedings.” There is.
Experts have criticized attempts to suggest that South African law is in some form of forced confiscation of Zimbabwean land belonging to white farmers since the 2000s.
South African law prohibits arbitrary arbitrary acquisition of land and provides compensation in most cases. The authorities also require that they first try to reach a reasonable agreement with the landowner, but failed simply because the land could be expropriated.
Land can only be expropriated for public purposes such as building schools, hospitals, highways, or for the public interest, including land reform. More than 30 years after the end of apartheid, South Africa’s minority white communities, which account for 7% of the population, dominate over 70% of the country’s land.
But white South African farmers have long been obsessed with Trump.
In 2018, during his first term in office, Trump allegedly witnessed South African “mass killings” of white farmers. There is no evidence to support his claim, and South Africa at the time said Trump had been misinformed.
But Trump’s attacks on South Africa follow the narrative of white casualties that the US president’s political movement has long been dependent on, but tensions between the nations remained unabated in the four years Biden was president.
In fact, they stood up.
Has South Africa’s position on Israel influenced US ties?
In early 2024, then South Africa’s foreign minister, Naredy Pandoor, flew to the US on a crisis management trip.
The US Congress was debating a bill that would punish South Africa for its solid criticism of Israel’s brutal war on Gaza.
South Africa took Israel to the International Court of Justice in the Hague in December 2023 and accused him of committing genocide in Gaza. Since then, the ICJ has passed interim orders against Israel, but many countries have joined the South African incident.
The ICJ has not yet issued a final verdict, but some US members of Congress have determined that South Africa would have to pay the price.
The US South African Bilateral Relations Review Act, introduced on February 6, 2024 in US homes almost a year ago, stated that “a foreign terrorist organization designated by the US and malignant, including mandated Hamas.” He condemned South Africa for siding with the actor. “Iranian regime.”
In Washington, Pandore tried to meet members of the Congress and spoke to think tanks to clarify the apartheid-era roots of South Africa’s opposition to Israeli policy towards Palestine and the apartheid-era roots of the war on the massacre in Gaza .
The bill has not yet been passed, but in his executive order, Trump and in his recent comments, Rubio both mentioned South Africa’s Israeli policy as the reason for Washington’s blow.
“South Africa is not genocide in the International Court of Justice, but Israel, not Hamas, and reinvigorating relations with Iran and reinvigorating commercial, military and nuclear deals, and more. It has gained an offensive position,” the executive order said.
But what “aggressive behaviour” did South Africa take on the US? Rubio also denounced South Africa for “anti-Americanism.” What was he talking about?
Congress’s 2024 bill provides a glimpse into deeper strategic tensions that have hidden connections for a while.
Does South Africa choose Russia and China as the US?
The 2024 bill accused South Africa of pursuing “close ties between the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”) and the Russian Federation.”
In May 2023, the US ambassador for South Africa accused Russia of supplying weapons for the war with Ukraine through a cargo ship secretly docked to a naval base near Cape Town.
An investigation by the South African government concluded in September 2023 that it was found “no evidence” to claim that South Africa had supplied arms to Russia. Ramaphosa said the allegations “had the most detrimental impact on our currency, our economy and our position in the world.” In fact, it hurt our image.”
Earlier that year, in February 2023, South Africa, Russia and China held joint military exercises in the Indian Ocean. The US responded by saying it was “worried.”
And Pretoria has been careful to balance Russia-China relations, and the relationships of the United States and its allies, on the one hand.
Despite the ICJ incident, South Africa continues to maintain robust trade ties with Israel. For several periods last year, South Africa was the largest supplier of Israeli coal despite the Ramaphosa government facing domestic accusations of hypocrisy.
Meanwhile, South Africa has also convinced them not to attend the BRICS summit last year, hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin. South Africa is a member of the International Criminal Court and issued an arrest warrant against President Putin for the war in Ukraine. Members of the ICC are expected to arrest individuals with warrants against them.
What is at risk if the relationship gets even lowered?
As this 2024 Al Jazeera account noted, South Africa is the largest US trading partner in Africa, with US exports worth $9.3 billion in 2022 being sent to South Africa. Approximately 600 US companies operate domestically.
South Africa is also an important strategic partner for the United States. This is a democratic breakwater in a region where many other post-reviation movements are directed towards authoritarianism.
There are many dangers in South Africa too.
Although China is South Africa’s largest trading partner, the US is the fourth largest import source after China, Germany and India, and the second largest destination after exports. (OEC).
South Africa has benefited from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), a US law passed by Congress in 2000, and many sub-Saharan countries, including South Africa, have made 1,800 products into the US market. Tax-free access is permitted. South Africa’s exports to the US in 2022 were nearly $11 billion, according to OEC data.
The threat of losing that South African position under Agoa is now beyond the relationship as Trump assumes trade relations he believes to be unfair to the US.
Source link
