US President Donald Trump has said he will cut all future funding to South Africa over allegations that it was confiscating land and “treating certain classes of people very badly”.
Last month, President Cyril Ramaphosa signed into law a bill that allows land seizures without compensation in certain circumstances.
Land ownership has long been a contentious issue in South Africa with most farmland still owned by white people, 30 years after the end of the racist system of apartheid.
There have been continued calls for the government to address land reform and deal with the past injustices of racial segregation.
On Sunday, Trump wrote on social media platform Truth Social: “I will be cutting off all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has been completed!”
He later said, in a briefing with journalists, that South Africa’s “leadership is doing some terrible things, horrible things”.
“So that’s under investigation right now. We’ll make a determination, and until such time as we find out what South Africa is doing — they’re taking away land and confiscating land, and actually they’re doing things that are perhaps far worse than that.”
South Africa’s International Relations Minister Ronald Lamola said in a response on X that he hoped Trump’s advisers would use “this investigative period to deepen their understanding of South Africa’s policies as a constitutional democracy”.
“Such insights will ensure a respectful and informed approach to our democratic commitments,” he added.
The US allocated about $440m (£358m) in assistance to South Africa in 2023, according to US government data.
The South African government says that the new law does not allow arbitrary seizures of land as it must first attempt to reach an agreement with the owner.
The president’s spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, last month said the state “may not expropriate property arbitrarily or for a purpose other than… in the public interest”.
It says that the current system of “willing seller, willing buyer” has allowed white farmers to delay the process of land reform.
However, some critics have expressed fears that the law may have disastrous consequences like in Zimbabwe, where land seizures wrecked the economy and scared away investors.