‘Taken in jest’: Magwenya on Mantashe over Trump

President Cyril Ramaphosa defended his land reform policy on Monday against an attack by US President Donald Trump that laid bare deep divisions within SA over racial disparities in ownership, an issue festering since apartheid.

The US president said on Sunday, without citing evidence, that “South Africa is confiscating land” and “certain classes of people” were being treated “very badly”, adding he would cut off funding to the country in response.

Ramaphosa said the government had not confiscated any land and he looked forward to engaging with Trump to foster a better understanding over a policy he said ensures equitable public access to land.

Trump's attack was echoed by his SA-born billionaire backer Elon Musk, who said in a post on X the country had “openly racist ownership laws”, suggesting white people were the victims.

White landowners possess three quarters of SA's freehold farmland, compared with 4% for black landowners. Black people make up about 80% of the total population, while about 8% are white.

Last month Ramaphosa signed into law a bill aimed at addressing the disparity by making it easier for the state to expropriate land in the public interest.

The ANC, the biggest party in the ruling coalition, accused Trump of amplifying misinformation propagated by AfriForum, a right-wing lobby group that promotes what it sees as the interests of white Afrikaans speakers.

The ANC said Trump's attack was “a direct result of the lobby group's ongoing efforts to mislead the global community and protect apartheid-era land ownership”.

AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel said his group would ask the US government “to directly punish senior ANC leaders and not the people of SA” over land reform. A spokesperson confirmed the group had lobbied in the US.

The DA, the second-biggest party in the government of national unity, said it wanted the land reform law to be amended to address flaws, but nevertheless corrected Trump on the specifics.

“It is not true that the act allows land to be seized by the state arbitrarily, and it does require fair compensation for legitimate expropriations,” the DA said.

Mineral and petroleum resources minister Gwede Mantashe said African countries should “withhold minerals” from the US in response to any aid cut.

Ramaphosa's spokesperson Vincent Magwenya told Reuters the words should be “taken in jest” and the government was not seriously advocating such a policy.

Washington committed $440m (R8.3bn) in assistance to SA in 2023, of which $315m (R5.9bn) was for HIV/Aids. Ramaphosa said US funding accounted for 17% of SA's HIV/Aaids programme but was not significant in other areas.

Bilateral relations were already strained because of SA's warm relations with China and Russia, and its legal action against Israel, a staunch US ally, which Pretoria accuses of genocide.

The rand, stocks and government bonds fell after Trump's comments, and economists said any USmeasures against it could hurt the economy at a time when the US/Africa African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) trade deal is due for renewal and Ramaphosa has been struggling to boost growth and attract investors.

“Do you want to set up a factory in a country where Trump's cutting off all aid? Maybe tomorrow he's ripping up Agoa, and maybe on Wednesday he's adding 25% tariffs because they're too close to China” said Charles Robertson, an emerging markets specialist at FIM Partners.

SA exports to the US through Agoa represented 1% of GDP in 2023, of which about half was transportation equipment, according to research by economist David Omojomolo of Capital Economics. He said 56% of exports from SA's automotive sector were Agoa-eligible.

Trade minister Parks Tau said the government would engage with the US administration and both parties represented in Congress on the continuation of Agoa, which expires this year.

He told Reuters on the sidelines of an African mining conference in Cape Town: “We are optimistic we will remain part of Agoa.”