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Trump has already cancelled billions in aid funding to SA, signed an executive order alleging human rights issues, and increased trade tariffs to the country.
US President Donald Trump. Picture: AFP / Olivier Douliery
Donald Trump’s beef with South Africa continues to stew, with the US President now threatening to boycott the G20 Leaders’ Summit in SA later this year.
Trump has already cancelled billions in aid funding to SA, signed an executive order alleging human rights violations, and increased trade tariffs to the country.
Taking to his Truth Social platform, Trump again claimed that SA was confiscating land and committing genocide.
“How could we be expected to go to South Africa for the very important G20 meeting when land confiscation and genocide are the primary topics of conversation?
“They are taking the land of white farmers, and then killing them and their families. The media refuses to report on this. The US has held back all contributions to South Africa. Is this where we want to be for the G20? I don’t think so.”
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Expropriation Act and Israel
Trump has been vocal about South Africa’s newly signed Expropriation Act, claiming the government is “confiscating land and treating certain classes of people very badly”. The Expropriation Act allows for the confiscation of land with nil compensation if it is in the public interest.
The claims have been denied by SA President Cyril Ramaphosa and his ministers. The Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) said the foundational premise of February’s executive order “lacks factual accuracy and fails to recognise South Africa’s profound and painful history of colonialism and apartheid”.
“We are concerned by what seems to be a campaign of misinformation and propaganda aimed at misrepresenting our great nation. It is disappointing to observe that such narratives seem to have found favour among decision-makers in the United States of America,” the department added.
The White House has admitted that its actions against SA were also in response to SA’s genocide case against US ally Israel at the International Court of Justice.
ALSO READ: Israel denies whispering in Trump’s ear for sanctions against SA
Trump an ‘aggression’
ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula last month labelled Trump’s stance on diplomacy as steeped in aggression.
“We, as the ANC, will say Donald Trump’s interest and actions are nothing else but imperialist aggression undermining the sovereignty of another state, interfering with the affairs of another state,” Mbalula said in an interview with broadcaster eNCA.
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