
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has taken steps on February 4 to ease tensions with the United States over the country’s controversial land reform legislation, by engaging in a conversation with tech mogul Elon Musk.
Musk, who is an adviser to US President Donald Trump, had joined the criticism of South Africa’s new land law, calling the country’s ownership laws “openly racist”. This followed Trump’s threat on Sunday February 2 to cut all future funding to South Africa, accusing the nation of confiscating land and mistreating certain groups of people.
In a response to the backlash, Ramaphosa’s office confirmed that the President had reached out to Musk, reiterating South Africa’s commitment to upholding constitutional values such as justice, fairness, and equality. The new law, which Ramaphosa signed into effect last month, allows land expropriation without compensation under specific circumstances deemed “just and equitable”. Land reform remains a sensitive issue in South Africa, as much of the country’s farmland is still owned by the white minority, more than three decades after apartheid officially ended.
The law has sparked concern, with critics fearing that it could lead to economic destabilisation, reminiscent of Zimbabwe’s disastrous land seizures. However, the South African government maintains that the law only applies to land that is unutilised, or where the owner has no intention to develop or profit from it. Ramaphosa has defended the law as a necessary step to address historical injustices, with land ownership having been a contentious issue since the 1913 Natives Land Act, which restricted property rights for the country’s black majority.