Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on March 7, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 25, 2026
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US halts funding to South Africa over land policy. Trump offers citizenship to South African farmers. South Africa seeks respectful US relations.
WASHINGTON/JOHANNESBURG Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that his country is stopping all federal funding to South Africa, but South Africa responded by saying it would not engage in "megaphone diplomacy".
Trump had already signed an executive order to cut all U.S. financial assistance to South Africa last month, citing disapproval of its land policy and of its genocide case at the International Court of Justice against Washington's ally, Israel.
"To go a step further, any Farmer (with family!) from South Africa, seeking to flee that country for reasons of safety, will be invited into the United States of America with a rapid pathway to Citizenship," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
Trump said this process will begin immediately.
Asked for comment about Trump's remarks, Vincent Magwenya, spokesperson to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, told Reuters that South Africa was "not going to partake in a counterproductive megaphone diplomacy."
Magwenya said the country remained committed to building a mutually beneficial bilateral trade, political and diplomatic relationship with the U.S. and this relationship must be based on mutual respect and respect for South Africa's independence and sovereignty.
White landowners still own three quarters of South Africa's freehold farmland. This contrasts with 4% owned by Blacks, according to the latest 2017 land audit, who make up 80% of the population, compared with about 8% for whites.
Partly in an effort to redress this imbalance, Ramaphosa signed a law in January allowing the state to expropriate land "in the public interest", in some cases without compensating the owner.
U.S. foreign assistance commitments to South Africa came in at $323.4 million in 2024, according to U.S. government data.
(Reporting by Susan Heavey and Trevor Hunnicutt Washington, Ryan Patrick Jones in Toronto, and Tannur Anders and Alexander Winning in Johannesburg; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Sandra Maler)
The main topic is the US halting federal funding to South Africa due to disagreements over land policy and diplomatic tensions.
Trump cited disapproval of South Africa's land policy and its genocide case against Israel as reasons for cutting funding.
South Africa rejected 'megaphone diplomacy' and emphasized the need for mutual respect in US-South Africa relations.
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