Former President Donald Trump has temporarily cut off U.S. funding to South Africa while its new land expropriation law is investigated.
Trump posted about his plans on TruthSocial Sunday night, saying, "South Africa is confiscating land, and treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY. It is a bad situation that the Radical Left Media doesn’t want to so much as mention. A massive Human Rights VIOLATION, at a minimum, is happening for all to see. The United States won’t stand for it, we will act. Also, I will be cutting off all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has been completed!"
South Africa receives between $272 and $440 million from the U.S., depending on the source consulted. There are also various trade deals with the U.S. that could be impacted by the cutoff of aid.
The recently passed law has been compared to one in Zimbabwe that led to the confiscation of white farmers' land and subsequently, mass starvation in the country.
It's understandable that the country's Black leaders would want to see the law implemented to make farming opportunities more available to all races, but the reality of how the legislation is likely to play out may not be positive overall.
In Zimbabwe, the Black farmers who took over the expropriated land had little skill with farming, and production plummeted.
The same thing is likely to happen in South Africa, if there are even farmers willing to take over the confiscated land.
Apparently, there is little interest to do so. Furthermore, the opposition party is in charge of implementing the new law, so it will probably not happen much anyway.
The attention the law is garnering may push for faster implementation, however, and Trump isn't helping matters by posting about it and making it a bigger issue.
If the conflict between parties comes to a head, it could even shatter the unity government currently in power.
The expropriation of land has been on Trump's radar since 2018, when a number of white farmers were murdered in a rural crime wave in the country.
South Africa has not been much of an ally to the U.S. in recent years.
It has cozied up to Russia and China, and has sided with Palestine against Israel.
