US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order freezing financial aid to South Africa over a new controversial land law and the country’s case against Israel.
Trump, in the order, claimed that the new law that was signed by President Cyril Ramaphosa in January 2025, gives the government permission to unjustly and forcefully repossess land belonging to ethnic minority group Afrikaners without compensation.
The order stated that the United States will take steps to prioritize humanitarian relief, which will include admission and resettlement through the United States Refugee Admissions Program for Afrikaners. This ethnic group is mostly made up of white descendants of early Dutch and French settlers.
“In shocking disregard of its citizens’ rights, the Republic of South Africa recently enacted Expropriation Act 13 of 2024 (Act), to enable the government to seize ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation,” the order stated.
“This Act follows countless government policies designed to dismantle equal opportunity in employment, education, and business, and hateful rhetoric and government actions fueling disproportionate violence against racially disfavored landowners.”
The new law replaced the pre-democratic Expropriation Act of 1975, which placed an obligation on the state to pay owners it wanted to take land from, under the principle of willing seller, willing buyer.
However, fears have been expressed that the country might be on the verge of going the Zimbabwe way which went into economic ruin after expropriating land from white farmers without compensation.
Trump further went after South Africa over its stand against Israel’s war on Gaza. South Africa has openly accused Israel of perpetrating a genocide in Gaza.
Trump: US to take over Gaza, Palestinians not to be allowed back
“In addition, it has taken aggressive positions towards the United States and its allies, including accusing Israel, not Hamas, of genocide in the ICJ, and reinvigorating its relations with Iran to develop commercial, military, and nuclear arrangements,” the order by President Trump further stated.
