Trump cuts funding for South Africa - Reasons
Donald Trump (photo: Getty Images)
US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday to cut US financial assistance to South Africa. The administration cited its disapproval of South Africa's land policy and the genocide case in the International Court of Justice against Israel, Reuters reports.
On Saturday, the South African Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded to this and said that Trump's order "lacks factual accuracy and fails to recognize South Africa's profound and painful history of colonialism and apartheid."
Reuters specifies that according to the latest US government data, in 2023, the United States allocated about $440 million in aid to South Africa.
In addition to the decree, the White House announced that Washington would develop a plan to resettle white South African farmers and their families as refugees. The statement said that US officials will take steps to prioritize humanitarian assistance, including admission and resettlement under the US refugee program for African Americans in South Africa, who are mostly white descendants of the first Dutch and French settlers.
The response of the South African Foreign Ministry was as follows.
"It is ironic that the executive order makes provision for refugee status in the US for a group in South Africa that remains amongst the most economically privileged, while vulnerable people in the US from other parts of the world are being deported and denied asylum despite real hardship," the ministry said in a statement.
According to Reuters, Trump, without citing any evidence, said that South Africa was confiscating land and that certain classes of people were being treated "very badly." For his part, Elon Musk, who is close to Trump, heads the Department of Government Performance, and is a South African billionaire, said that white South Africans were victims of "racist ownership laws."
Recently, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that he would not attend the G20 meeting to be held in Johannesburg on February 20-21. He cited the policy of South Africa, which currently holds the presidency of the organization, as the reason for his refusal.
