After threatening Pretoria with a suspension of all US aid to South Africa, Donald Trump has handed the diplomatic tug-of-war to Elon Musk, a South African by birth. The SpaceX boss has discussed the country’s new land laws with Cyril Ramaphosa.
Trump hand over the South African affair to Elon Musk
Elon Musk is South African by birth
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The exchange of words by the US president Donald Trump and that of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa has been trending in the media space for some time now. Trump was seen in an open air interview insunuation that there is something wrong with the land ownership process going on in in South Africa. In his off handed way of addressing issues which he intends todown grade he stated that “there is something wrong there”
Ramaphosa in his press format presentation advices Trump to mind his buness. In his wors he states that Trump should mind America while he and South Africans mind their own land.
Heading a brand new US Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk has acted as President Donald Trump’s stand-in when it comes to downsizing the federal administration. On 3 February, however, the world’s richest man ventured fully into international diplomacy by engaging directly with a head of state.
That leader was South African President Cyril Ramaphosa — an unsurprising choice given Trump’s general lack of interest in African affairs. It is also worth noting that Musk was born in South Africa’s Transvaal Province (now Gauteng) under the apartheid regime.
Ironically, it is segregationist accusations that Trump and Musk have levelled against Ramaphosa following the recent enactment of a land reform law aligned with Black Economic Empowerment (BEE), a policy designed to address historical inequalities against marginalised racial groups.
After likening Pretoria’s measures to the land seizures under Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe, Trump threatened to halt all US aid to the Rainbow Nation “until a full investigation of this situation has been completed”.
That was Musk’s cue to step in.
‘Misinformation’ and ‘distortions’
Following the US president’s statements on Truth Social on 2 February, Musk took to his platform X to denounce what he called Pretoria’s imposition of “openly racist ownership laws”. He addressed the matter directly with Ramaphosa on 3 February.
Ramaphosa’s spokesperson has dismissed the remarks from Trump and Musk as a misunderstanding, fuelled by “misinformation”.
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Pretoria insists that the late-January reform does not allow authorities to carry out forced expropriations. Rather, it is a “legal procedure that ensures fair and equitable land access in accordance with the constitution”, with compensation agreements being sought in each case with the original landowners.
READ MORE South Africans remember 100 years of destructive land act
The government has accused local right-wing parties of “deliberate distortions” of the situation and points to the involvement of the Democratic Alliance (DA) in its coalition as further proof of a balanced approach.
Traditionally opposed to the African National Congress (ANC), the DA is often viewed as the party representing South Africa’s white minority — the very group Trump and Musk claim is being wronged. While land reform remains a contentious issue across Africa, it is particularly explosive in South Africa, where land ownership remains deeply tied to the historical dispossession of black South Africans under apartheid.
