‘Policy poses enormous risks’: Calls for clarity as US aid threatened over land policy

It will be a tragedy if funding from the United States is terminated because of a misunderstanding, according to DA leader John Steenhuisen.

He said yesterday South Africa received $453 million in funding last year under the US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief programme, with a projected $439 million (about R8.2 billion) allocated for 2025.

Steenhuisen said it was not true that the Expropriation Act allows land to be seized by the state arbitrarily and it does require fair compensation for legitimate expropriations in terms of Section 25 of the constitution.

Act doesn’t allow land to be seized

“While the Act needed to be amended to meet the sequencing requirements, there are also opportunities to deal with other concerns,” he said.

TLU SA general manager Bennie van Zyl said they believed Trump had grown tired of the way African leaders evade accountability regarding the use of humanitarian aid.

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“It is no secret that corruption is rampant in South Africa and that billions of rands intended for poverty alleviation and development have disappeared into the pockets of politicians and their allies,” he said.

Van Zyl said the TLU SA took note of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s response to Trump’s announcement, emphasising that South Africa was a constitutional democracy based on the rule of law and equality.

He said SA was shifting towards a centralised socialist economic system, as advocated by the National Democratic Revolution.

‘Policy poses enormous risks’

“This policy poses enormous risks to economic stability and will lead to poverty.”

Free State farmer Tewie Wessels said he was pleased, adding it was a contentious subject.

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“Let’s be honest, the ANC brought this upon itself. We keep hearing the words, expropriation without compensation, and if it was directly translated it meant they were going to take our land without compensating us,” he said.

AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel said they would write to Trump to ensure his “punishment” affects only a few ANC leaders.

But EFF leader Julius Malema said: “We want to make it categorically clear to the US president that we will expropriate land without compensation and pursue legislative measures to do so, and no threat will stop us.”