South Africa Takes on Trump

Top government officials threaten to withhold minerals in response to U.S. aid cutoff announcement.

Gbadamosi-Nosmot-foreign-policy-columnist10
Gbadamosi-Nosmot-foreign-policy-columnist10
Nosmot Gbadamosi
By , a multimedia journalist and the writer of Foreign Policy’s weekly Africa Brief.
Gwede Mantashe, South African Minister of Minerals and Energy, speaks during the first day of the Mining Indaba in Cape Town, on Feb. 3.
Gwede Mantashe, South African Minister of Minerals and Energy, speaks during the first day of the Mining Indaba in Cape Town, on Feb. 3.
Gwede Mantashe, South African Minister of Minerals and Energy, speaks during the first day of the Mining Indaba in Cape Town, on Feb. 3. Rodger Bosch/AFP via Getty Images

U.S. President Donald Trump announced a halt to U.S. assistance to South Africa over land reform. More than three decades after the end of apartheid, about 70 percent of South Africa’s farmland is still owned by white South Africans, who make up less than 10 percent of the population.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa last month signed an expropriation bill into law aimed at addressing the disparity by allowing land to be seized without compensation only in circumstances where it is “just and equitable and in the public interest.”

U.S. President Donald Trump announced a halt to U.S. assistance to South Africa over land reform. More than three decades after the end of apartheid, about 70 percent of South Africa’s farmland is still owned by white South Africans, who make up less than 10 percent of the population.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa last month signed an expropriation bill into law aimed at addressing the disparity by allowing land to be seized without compensation only in circumstances where it is “just and equitable and in the public interest.”

Much of U.S. assistance is in the form of foreign aid, which Trump has stopped with his South African-born ally, billionaire Elon Musk. PEPFAR-funded facilities for treating the country’s large HIV-positive population remained shut in South Africa, despite limited exemptions announced over the weekend, posing a danger to millions of South Africans dependent on antiretroviral medications.

“There is no other significant funding that is provided by the United States in South Africa,” Ramaphosa said. Gwede Mantashe, South Africa’s mineral and petroleum resources minister and African National Congress chair, said African nations should implement retaliatory measures on critical minerals. “They want to withhold funding, but they still want our minerals. … Let us withhold minerals. Africa must assert itself,” he told the Mining Indaba conference in Cape Town on Monday.

South Africa and eight other nations on Friday also formed the Hague Group to defend the rulings of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the face of what they described as defiance of ICJ orders and attempts by U.S. officials to sanction the ICC. The alliance includes Belize, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Honduras, Malaysia, Namibia, and Senegal, which vowed to boycott arms transfers to Israel.

This post is part of FP’s ongoing coverage of the Trump administration. Follow along here.

Nosmot Gbadamosi is a multimedia journalist and the writer of Foreign Policy’s weekly Africa Brief. She has reported on human rights, the environment, and sustainable development from across the African continent. X: @nosmotg

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