JOHANNESBURG - President Donald Trump’s announcement that he plans to cut off all foreign aid to South Africa because he claimed it is "confiscating" land "and treating certain classes of people very badly" in "a massive human rights violation" has provoked strong reaction from the South African presidency and commentators. 

"The South African government has not confiscated any land", South African President Cyril Ramaphosa responded in a statement, adding "We look forward to engaging with the Trump administration over our land reform policy and issues of bilateral interest. We are certain that out of those engagements, we will share a better and common understanding over these matters". 

Last week, Ramaphosa signed a bill into law permitting national, provincial and local authorities to expropriate land – to take it -"for a public purpose or in the public interest," and, the government stated "subject to just and equitable compensation being paid". However, sources say no expropriation has happened yet.

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On his Truth Social Media platform, President Trump hit out at South Africa, posting "It is a bad situation that the Radical Left Media doesn’t want to so much as mention. A massive Human Rights VIOLATION, at a minimum, is happening for all to see. The United States won’t stand for it, we will act. Also, I will be cutting off all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has been completed!" Trump later repeated his comments while speaking to the press on Sunday night at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.

Pieter du Toit, assistant editor of South African media group News 24, posted on X "The U.S. President, clearly advised by Elon Musk, really has no idea what he’s talking about." 

South African-born Musk is trying to expand his Starlink internet service into South Africa, but President Ramaphosa has reportedly told him he must sell off 30% of his company here to local broad-based so-called Black empowerment interests.

In response to the South African president’s statement, Musk fired back on X, asking Ramaphosa, "Why do you have openly racist ownership laws?"

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Analyst Frans Cronje told Fox News Digital that President Trump may be referring to the ongoing killing of farmers in South Africa when he posted that certain classes of people are being treated very badly.

"President Trump's recent comments on land seizures in South Africa cannot be divorced from his past comments on violent attacks directed at the country's farmers. Whilst these comments have often been dismissed as false, the latest South African data suggests that the country's commercial farmers are six times more likely to be violently attacked in their homes than is the case for the general population." 

Cronje said there may be agendas in play behind President Trump’s statements.

"Such seizures may also apply to the property of American investors in South Africa. Cronje is an adviser at the U.S. Yorktown Foundation for Freedom. He added "with regards to land specifically, the legislation could enable the mass seizure of land which has been an oft expressed objective of senior political figures in the country. To date, however, there have been no mass seizures, in part because there was no legislative means through which to achieve such seizures." 

Now, with the bill having been signed into law, Cronje says that has changed. 

"The comments around property rights in South Africa must be read against broader and bipartisan US concern at developments in South Africa. In 2024 the US/South Africa Bilateral Relations Review Act was introduced (in Congress) amid concerns that the South African government's relationships with Iran, Russia, and China threatened US national security interests."

Cronje, who also advises corporations and government departments on economic and political trajectory, continued. "Last week, South Africa’s government, together with that of Cuba, Belize and four other countries supported the formation of the ‘Hague Group’ in an apparent move to shore up the standing of the International Criminal Court, amid the passage through Congress of the Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act that prescribes sanctions against any country that is seen to use the court to threaten US national security interests. South Africa has in recent years been prominent in employing both that court and the International Court of Justice in the Hague to press for action against Israel and Israeli leaders."

South Africa’s Ramaphosa played down the importance of U.S. aid, stating "with the exception of PEPFAR (The U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) Aid, which constitutes 17% of South Africa’s HIVAids program, there is no other significant funding that is provided by the United States in South Africa." President George W. Bush introduced PEPFAR in 2003.

Analyst Justice Malala, speaking on South African news channel, ENCA, said that, under the Trump administration, "the United States is going to upend South Africa in many ways."

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa signed into law a bill that will allow the government to seize land without having to pay compensation, which some in the government say is a threat to private ownership.

The law, which replaces the pre-democratic Expropriation Act of 1975, "outlines how expropriation can be done and on what basis" by the state, the government says, according to the BBC. 

Ramaphosa's party, the African National Congress, or ANC, hailed the law as a "significant milestone." However, some members of the government have signaled they will challenge the legality of the law. 

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The country's majority Black citizens own just a small fraction of farmland more than 30 years after the end of apartheid. Most landowners are part of the White minority, according to the news report. 

The new law allows for the expropriation of land without compensation only in circumstances where it is "just and equitable and in the public interest."

That includes when the property is not being used and there's no intention to either develop it or if it poses a public safety risk. 

"In terms of this law, an expropriating authority may not expropriate property arbitrarily or for a purpose other than a public purpose or in the public interest," Vincent Magwenya, the president's spokesperson, said in a news release. 

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"Expropriation may not be exercised unless the expropriating authority has without success attempted to reach an agreement with the owner or holder of a right in property for the acquisition thereof on reasonable terms," he added. 

The Democratic Alliance (DA), the second-largest party in the government, said it "strongly opposes" the law and was consulting with its lawyers.

It says that while it supports legislation addressing land restitution, it takes issue with the process followed by the country's parliament to enact the law, the BBC report states. 

The Freedom Front Plus party, which defends the rights of South Africa's White minority, vowed to challenge the law and do "everything in its power" to have it amended if it is found to be unconstitutional.