US President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on January 20, 2025. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP)
US President Donald Trump has followed up on promises to halt funding to South Africa by signing an executive order against the country, alleging human rights issues.
In a social media post earlier this week, Trump took aim at South Africa’s newly signed Expropriation Act, claiming the government is “confiscating land and treating certain classes of people very badly”. The claims have been denied by SA President Cyril Ramaphosa and his ministers.
The White House said on Friday that the order was in response to SA’s land policy that allows its government to “seize ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation” and SA’s genocide case against US ally Israel at the International Court of Justice.
“The United States cannot support the government of South Africa’s commission of rights violations in its country or its undermining United States foreign policy, which poses national security threats to our nation, our allies, our African partners, and our interests,” the order reads.
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The US government said it would also work on a plan to provide humanitarian aid to Afrikaans farmers and resettle them as refugees .
“The Secretary of State and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall take appropriate steps, consistent with law, to prioritise humanitarian relief, including admission and resettlement through the United States Refugee Admissions Programme, for Afrikaners in South Africa who are victims of unjust racial discrimination.
“Such a plan shall be submitted to the President through the Assistant to the President and Homeland Security Advisor,” the order added.
The decision comes weeks after Trump ordered the suspension of all refugee admissions into the US and the reconfiguration of the admissions programme.
He claimed his country “lacks the ability to absorb large numbers of migrants, and in particular, refugees, into its communities in a manner that does not compromise the availability of resources for Americans, that protects their safety and security, and that ensures the appropriate assimilation of refugees”.
“I, therefore, direct that entry into the United States of refugees under the US Refugee Admissions Program be suspended, subject to the exceptions set forth in subsection (c) of this section [Case-by-case basis]— until a finding is made in accordance with section 4 of this order [a report within 90 days on whether to allow refugees].
“This suspension shall take effect at 12:01 am Eastern Standard Time on January 27, 2025,” read that order dated 20 January.
Civil rights organisation AfriForum has been a loud critic of land policy in South Africa and vocal on farm murders that have been painted as white genocide without any clear evidence.
Speaking to The Citizen, CEO Kallie Kriel said the organisation had noted Trump’s order but was committed to staying in South Africa.
“We have an appreciation for the fact that the US recognises the discrimination experienced by Afrikaners at the moment, but we do, however, see the future of Afrikaners in Africa.
“We were formed as a people in Africa and we can only survive as a cultural community on the southern top of Africa.
It said this week that it would write an official letter to the US government requesting that any action against SA instead be directed at “senior ANC leaders directly and not South Africa’s residents”.
According to the American Civil Liberties Union, an executive order is a written directive, to government agencies and staff to act in a certain way or pursue a particular course. In short, it sets the attitude of the government on a certain matter.
Trump has so far signed around 40 orders since taking office less than a month ago.
Last month, he froze key HIV/AIDS funding from the US to SA as part of his “America First” agenda.
It sparked a diplomatic storm that also saw US Secretary of State Marco Rubio pull out of an upcoming G20 summit in Johannesburg, claiming “anti-Americanism”.
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Ramaphosa recently signed the controversial Expropriation Act into law, which allows for the expropriation of land with nil compensation if it is in the public interest.
The DA challenged the Act, who claimed there were material and concerning inconsistencies in it and threatened legal action.
Amid Trump’s actions over the Act, the DA has clarified that it does not support it but “South African citizens should not be punished by the US for bad policy”.
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