South Africa will defend sovereignty, ANC chair says amid US tensions

A senior determine from South Africa’s ruling ANC get together has defended his nation’s sovereignty amid rising tensions with the US over race relations and a brand new land regulation.

“We’re a free nation, we’re a sovereign nation. We’re not a province of the US and that sovereignty can be defended,” ANC Nationwide Chair Gwede Mantashe stated on Sunday.

US President Donald Trump has hit out at South Africa’s new expropriation regulation, signing an govt order in February stating it was a method to which the federal government might “seize ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property with out compensation”.

President Cyril Ramaphosa says the regulation ensures “public entry to land in an equitable and simply method”.

The expropriation regulation does enable the federal government to grab land with out compensation, however solely in sure circumstances.

Trump’s February order additionally opened the door for Afrikaaners to be admitted to the US as refugees, describing them as “victims of unjust racial discrimination”.

However standing in for Ramaphosa in a speech at South Africa’s Freedom Day celebration within the japanese province of Mpumalanga, Mantashe criticised South African residents who’ve known as on Trump to “punish” the nation.

“Now they’re informed to go there and be refugees, they’re refusing. They need to go,” he stated.

Tensions have additionally performed out publicly on Elon Musk’s X web page, the place he has described his nation’s possession legal guidelines as “racist”.

At the moment white South Africans, who’re a minority of the inhabitants, personal many of the nation’s non-public land and wealth, regardless of the racist system of apartheid ending a long time in the past.

In an effort to quell tensions which have rumbled on for months, South Africa appointed a particular envoy to Washington earlier this month.

Mcebisi Jonas can be tasked with advancing the nation’s “diplomatic, commerce and bilateral priorities,” Ramaphosa stated.

The transfer comes after Washington expelled South Africa’s ambassador, Ebrahim Rasool, after he accused Trump of “canine whistle” politics.