Washington DC, February 8
US President Donald Trump has frozen aid to South Africa in an escalation of a rift between the US and South Africa over a controversial land expropriation law aimed at tackling inequality stemming from apartheid, Al Jazeera reported.
In an executive order signed on Friday (local time), Trump said the law showed a "shocking disregard" for citizens' rights and would allow the government to seize land from ethnic minority Afrikaners without compensation.
The passage of the Expropriation Act, signed last month by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, followed "countless" policies designed to dismantle equal opportunity, as well as "hateful rhetoric" and government actions that drew violence against "racially disfavored" landowners, Trump said in his order, as per Al Jazeera.
South Africa has also taken "aggressive positions" towards the US and its allies, including accusing Israel of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and boosting relations with Iran, Trump said in the order.
"The United States cannot support the government of South Africa's commission of rights violations in its country or its undermining United States foreign policy, which poses national security threats to our Nation, our allies, our African partners, and our interests," Al Jazeera quoted the Trump's order as stating.
Trump's order also said his administration would promote the resettlement of Afrikaners "escaping government-sponsored race-based discrimination".
Trump and Ramaphosa have been engaged in an escalating war of words over the law since Sunday, when the US president accused his counterpart's administration of "confiscating land" and mistreating "certain classes of people".
On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he would skip the upcoming Group of 20 (G20) talks in Johannesburg in response to the legislation and other "very bad things" happening in the country.
In an address to parliament on Thursday that appeared to be aimed at Trump, Ramaphosa said that his country would stand united amid a rise in the "pursuit of narrow interests" and "the decline of common cause".
"We will not be deterred. We are a resilient people. We will not be bullied," Al Jazeera quoted Ramaphosa as saying.
— ANI
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