US President Donald Trump – who launched a trade war at the weekend with some of the US’s biggest trade partners – now has South Africa in his sights. On Sunday evening, he threatened to halt funding (and sure commerce advantages) from SA because of the nation’s up to date land expropriation legal guidelines.
“South Africa is confiscating land and treating certain classes of people very badly,” he claimed in a put up on his Truth Social platform.
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“It is a bad situation… A massive human rights violation, at a minimum, is happening for all to see,” he stated with out citing proof.
“The United States won’t stand for it, we will act. Also, I will be cutting all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has been completed,” Trump declared.
The rand plunged to over R19 to the US greenback in early morning commerce on Monday, following Trump’s put up. The JSE can also be prone to be affected when it opens for commerce.
His feedback comply with SA President Cyril Ramaphosa’s signing of the brand new Expropriation Act into regulation in January, which introduced the land expropriation with out compensation challenge again into the highlight.
Various organisations and opposition events, together with the Democratic Alliance (DA), Action SA and Freedom Front Plus, have been sad with the transfer, with some threatening authorized motion. SA’s new Government of National Unity additionally got here underneath stress, with the DA declaring a dispute however later saying it stays dedicated to the GNU regardless of its opposition to the Expropriation Act.
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Land expropriation in SA is, nevertheless, not new, and the transfer is successfully an replace of outdated laws. The Expropriation Bill was handed by SA’s parliament final yr, earlier than the elections, however has undergone a number of amendments.
Trump’s newest transfer follows the manager order on his first day in workplace to withdraw funding from the World Health Organisation (WHO), which has already despatched shockwaves globally, with South Africa being one of many international locations that will get billions of {dollars} in funding for HIV/Aids remedy from the US.
According to Bloomberg, the US despatched greater than $8 billion (R152 billion in present alternate price phrases) in bilateral assist to SA during the last 20 years, citing a 2023 report from the Congressional Research Service.
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