South Africa slumps “megaphone diplomacy” after Trump’s latest order
South Africa will not engage in “megaphone diplomacy” after Donald Trump cuts all the funds of the country.
The president had already signed an executive order last month to cut all US financial aid, but today he announced that all federal funds will be suspended.
Trump, along with his allies and billionaire Elon Musk, was critical of South Africa’s land policy against Israel and the genocide incident at the International Court of Justice.
“To take it a step further, farmers from South Africa (with their families) who try to flee the country for security reasons will be invited to the United States on a rapid path to citizenship,” Trump wrote in a social media post.
The process will begin soon, he said.
A spokesman for South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Vincent Magwenia told Reuters the country “will not participate in counterproductive megaphone diplomacy.”
In the context: White landowners still own three-quarters of South Africa’s freehold farmland, but only 4% owned by black people.
According to the latest land audit in 2017, it is that blacks make up 80% of the population, while whites make up 8%.
Ramaphosa signed the law in January, allowing the state to expropriate land “in the public interest.”
US support for South Africa arrived at $323.4 million last year, government data showed.
