South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa has responded to US President Donald Trump after he threatened to cut HIV/Aids funding over the country’s new land policy.
According to Ramaphosa, the South African government has not confiscated any land and the policy is a legal framework to ensure equitable access to land by the public.
“The recently adopted Expropriation Act is not a confiscation instrument, but a constitutionally mandated legal process that ensures public access to land in an equitable and just manner as guided by the constitution,” he said.
The South African President went on to say that while the US is a strategic political and trade partner, its support towards HIV/Aids accounts for only 17 per cent.
“With the exception of PEPFAR Aid, which constitutes 17 per cent of South Africa’s HIV/Aids programme, there is no other significant funding that is provided by the United States in South Africa.”
He insisted in a video seen by the Star that South Africa does not belong to Trump and he should focus on running the United States.
“We are living as a nation of blacks and whites going to find solution to our land question and Donald Trump must leave us alone. When we were facing apartheid, when we were facing oppression he was not here. He did not fight side by side with us," he said.
“Stay out of our issues and we will not get involved in your issues in America.”
Ramaphosa, however, said that he looks forward to further discussing the matter with Trump’s administration so they can have a better understanding of what it is about.
“We look forward to engaging with the Trump administration over our land reform policy and issues of bilateral interest," he said.
“We are certain that out of those engagements, we will share a better and common understanding over these matters."
Earlier, Trump said he would cut all future funding to South Africa over allegations that it was confiscating land and treating certain classes of people very badly.
“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," Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“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."
He later told journalists, that South Africa's "leadership is doing some terrible things, horrible things".
"So that's under investigation right now. We'll decide, and until we find out what South Africa is doing — they're taking away land and confiscating land, and they're doing things that are perhaps far worse than that."
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.
