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 legislation, 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 legislation, 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 informed reporters wrongly that the South African authorities was taking away land and “truly they’re doing issues which can 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 filled with “misinformation and distortions” and the decision to Musk was to set the document 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 companion in Africa, as being anti-white and has solid the legislation 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 challenge additionally reveals his affect on U.S. international coverage.
Ought to Trump observe via on his promise to chop South Africa’s funding, it will cease practically half a billion {dollars} a 12 months in help, the overwhelming majority of it for the world’s largest HIV/AIDS program.
South Africa has the best variety of folks dwelling with HIV on the 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 via the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Aid, referred to as PEPFAR, and gave the nation $440 million in help final 12 months.
The South African authorities mentioned no land has been confiscated, and even teams in South Africa which have been crucial of the brand new legislation mentioned Trump was fallacious in claiming any land had been taken away.
“We’ll reply expeditiously to disinformation and mischaracterization of our legal guidelines in addition to the final state of the nation,” Magwenya, Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, informed 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 numerous ranges, together with with “influential figures like Elon Musk.”
The brand new legislation targets land that’s unused or not being utilized within the public curiosity, and property rights are protected, in accordance with the federal government. No land has been taken below the legislation, 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 among 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 compelled 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 legislation, 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 specialists say they’re a part of South Africa’s appallingly excessive ranges of violent crime and are usually linked to farm robberies.
Musk has put ahead an overriding view that South African authorities are racist in opposition to their white residents, however his stance has additionally change into intertwined along 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 firms, additionally an try and 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 for 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
