‘Keep your America, we will keep our South Africa’ – Ramaphosa hits back at Trump in land row

‘Keep your America, we will keep our South Africa’ – Ramaphosa hits back at Trump in land row

By Agencies


SOUTH Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa has hit back at Donald Trump, telling the United States leader to “keep his America and we will keep our South Africa” adding that “when we were facing apartheid … he was not here”.

Ramaphosa hard-hitting response came as the Pretoria government refuted that it is “confiscating” land unfairly, an accusation that Trump made, adding he plans to cut all funding for the country.

Trump on Sunday accused the South African government of “confiscating land” and treating “certain classes of people” badly, without elaborating or providing evidence.

Addressing supporters in a clip widely shared on Twitter (X) Ramaphosa said; I don’t know what Donald Trump has to do with South African land, because he has never been here … and he must keep his America and we will keep our South Africa.

“South Africa is our land; South Africa belongs to all the people who live here in South Africa; it does not belong to Donald Trump … he can keep his America.

“When I meet him, I will tell him … that your forebearers came to America … they found the indigenous Americans … they wiped them out

“We are going to find solutions for our land question, so 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…”

South Africa adopted a bill for the state to expropriate land to address racial disparities in ownership.

Writing on his Truth Social platoform, Trump stated: “I will be cutting off all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has been completed!”

Later, in a briefing with journalists, he accused South Africa’s leadership, without providing evidence or details, of doing “some terrible things, horrible things”.

In response, South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation said, “We trust President Trump’s advisers will make use of the investigative period to attain a thorough understanding of South Africa’s policies within the framework of a constitutional democracy.

“It may become clear that our expropriation act is not exceptional, as many countries have similar legislation,” it added.

In a statement, Ramaphosa also denied that the government is confiscating land.

“We look forward to engaging with the Trump administration over our land reform policy and issues of bilateral interest. We are certain that out of those engagements, we will share a better and common understanding over these matters,” Ramaphosa said in a statement.

“South Africa is a constitutional democracy that is deeply rooted in the rule of law, justice and equality.”

President Ramaphosa added that, except for the US Aid programme for AIDS relief – PEPFAR, no other significant funding is provided to South Africa by the US.

Elon Musk, who was born in South Africa but is now closely allied to Trump, replied to Ramaphosa, writing, without providing evidence: “Why do you have openly racist ownership laws?”

Last month, Ramaphosa signed a bill into law that would make it easier for the state to expropriate land in the public interest to address racial disparities in land ownership after apartheid in 1994.

According to the government, the bill does not allow it to expropriate property arbitrarily; the landowner must reach an agreement.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *