S’Africa rejects ‘megaphone diplomacy’ as Trump backs funding cut
South Africa’s government has opted out of a public spat with US President Donald Trump, who recently repeated his claim on social media that the country is seizing land, describing such exchanges as “counterproductive megaphone diplomacy”.
Trump extended his invitation to relocate those seeking “to flee [South Africa] for reasons of safety” to all farmers and offered them citizenship.
South Africa has previously said that Trump has misunderstood the country’s new land expropriation act.
But it has already led to the US president freezing financial aid to the country.
Responding to the latest statement, the government said that South Africa was still committed to building a mutually beneficial trade, political and diplomatic relationship with the Trump administration.
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A spokesperson added that the relationship between both countries should be based on mutual respect.
South Africa’s new land law was signed in January, and allows land seizures without compensation in certain circumstances.
In his executive order last month that stopped aid to South Africa, Trump alleged there was discrimination against the white Afrikaner minority, descendants of Dutch and French settlers.
The US president said their land was being seized without compensation, something the South African government denies. He also offered refugee status to Afrikaner farmers, despite vowing to crack down on immigration.
On Friday, Trump said any farmer, not just Afrikaner ones, could relocate to the US.
The status of white South African farmers has long been a rallying cry on the right and far-right of American politics.
Land ownership has been a contentious issue in South Africa with most private farmland owned by white people, 30 years after the end of the racist system of apartheid.
There have been continuous calls for the government to address land reform and deal with the past injustices of racial segregation.
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