President Donald Trump announced Sunday that the U.S. will cut financial assistance to South Africa, citing concerns over land policies and its genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
Trump signed an executive order to halt U.S. aid, stating that South Africa’s land expropriation policies and treatment of specific groups constitute a “massive human rights violation.” The White House also confirmed that the administration will develop a plan to resettle South African farmers and their families in the U.S. through the United States Refugee Admissions Program. Afrikaners, who are mostly white descendants of early Dutch and French settlers, will be prioritized in the humanitarian relief efforts.
“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 mention. A massive Human Rights VIOLATION is happening, for all to see. The United States won’t stand for it – We will act. Also, because of this, I will be cutting off all aid to South Africa until further notice!” Trump wrote Sunday on Truth Social.
Despite Trump’s offer to rehouse white South Africans as refugees, white advocacy groups insist on addressing injustices within their own country. AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel stated, “Emigration only offers an opportunity for Afrikaners who are willing to risk potentially sacrificing their descendants’ cultural identity as Afrikaners. The price for that is simply too high.”
Last month, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa signed an expropriation act aimed at redressing historical land inequalities. The law seeks to address racial disparities in land ownership by allowing the state to expropriate land in the public interest. Currently, three-quarters of privately owned land remains in the hands of the white minority, despite white South Africans comprising only 7.2% of the country’s 63 million population.
South Africa’s land ownership policies date back to colonial rule, when British authorities allocated most farmland to whites. Under the Apartheid-era National Party, 85% of the land was seized in 1950, forcibly displacing 3.5 million Black South Africans.
