CAPE TOWN, South Africa — South African President Cyril Ramaphosa spoke with Donald Trump’s “influential” billionaire adviser Elon Musk a day after the brand new U.S. president promised to chop funding for South Africa over a land expropriation regulation, Ramaphosa’s spokesperson mentioned Wednesday.
Ramaphosa’s dialog with Musk was “logical,” spokesperson Vincent Magwenya mentioned, as a result of the South African-born Tesla and SpaceX entrepreneur has held earlier investment-related discussions with Ramaphosa and is a Trump ally.
The land regulation, which was signed by Ramaphosa final month, is contentious as a result of it provides the federal government scope to expropriate land from personal events.
Trump introduced Sunday that he would cease monetary help whereas the U.S. investigated why South Africa was “confiscating land” from some folks, with out saying who. He advised reporters wrongly that the South African authorities was taking away land and “really they’re doing issues which might be maybe far worse than that.” Trump once more didn’t present particulars.
The South African authorities mentioned Trump’s announcement and associated criticism of the nation by Musk was stuffed with “misinformation and distortions” and the decision to Musk was to set the file straight.
Musk, who’s main the Trump administration’s new Division of Authorities Effectivity, has lengthy criticized the federal government in his homeland, a key U.S. buying and selling associate in Africa, as being anti-white and has forged the regulation in query as a deliberate act to take land away from its white minority.
He faces scrutiny within the U.S. for his management over elements of the federal authorities, however the South Africa situation additionally reveals his affect on U.S. overseas coverage.
Ought to Trump observe by way of on his promise to chop South Africa’s funding, it will cease almost half a billion {dollars} a yr in help, the overwhelming majority of it for the world’s largest HIV/AIDS program.
South Africa has the very best variety of folks residing with HIV on this planet at greater than 8 million, with round 5.5 million on antiretroviral medicine. The U.S. funds round 17% of South Africa’s HIV program by way of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Aid, generally known as PEPFAR, and gave the nation $440 million in help final yr.
The South African authorities mentioned no land has been confiscated, and even teams in South Africa which have been essential of the brand new regulation mentioned Trump was unsuitable in claiming any land had been taken away.
“We are going to reply expeditiously to disinformation and mischaracterization of our legal guidelines in addition to the overall state of the nation,” Magwenya, Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, advised reporters Wednesday. “We have been clearly perturbed by the substance of the announcement (by Trump) as a result of there have been clearly inaccuracies.”
Magwenya mentioned South Africa hoped to have extra engagements with the Trump administration at varied ranges, together with with “influential figures like Elon Musk.”
The brand new regulation targets land that’s unused or not being utilized within the public curiosity, and property rights are protected, in line with the federal government. No land has been taken below the regulation, which was solely signed by Ramaphosa two weeks in the past and is a results of years of consultations and Parliamentary debates.
It’s designed to handle a number of the wrongs of South Africa’s earlier apartheid regime of white minority rule, the place Black folks had land taken away from them and have been pressured to dwell in designated areas for non-whites. The final land audit in South Africa estimated that whites — who make up 7% of the inhabitants of 62 million — personal round 70% of land.
Along with the land regulation, Musk, who grew up in South Africa, has criticized its affirmative motion insurance policies and has falsely claimed that the killings of some white farmers quantity to “genocide.” The killings have been condemned however consultants say they’re a part of South Africa’s appallingly excessive ranges of violent crime and are typically related to farm robberies.
Musk has put ahead an overriding view that South African authorities are racist towards their white residents, however his stance has additionally develop into intertwined together with his enterprise pursuits. Musk accused South Africa on his social media website X this week of getting “racist possession legal guidelines.”
Whereas it wasn’t clear precisely what he was referencing, it seemed to be the nation’s affirmative motion legal guidelines that require part-Black possession of some corporations, additionally an try to rectify historic wrongs below apartheid, which resulted in 1994. Musk left South Africa after finishing highschool within the late Eighties and moved to Canada.
Musk’s Starlink satellite tv for pc web service has been denied a license in South Africa as a result of it doesn’t meet affirmative motion standards.
Ramaphosa held prior discussions with Musk over the potential of him investing in South Africa, Magwenya mentioned. “His (Musk’s) specific points have been round Starlink, in addition to the regulatory surroundings that regulates that sector.”
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AP Africa information: https://apnews.com/hub/africa