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A senior figure in South Africa’s ruling ANC party has defended the country’s sovereignty in the face of rising tensions with the United States over race relations and a controversial new land law.
“We are a free country, a sovereign country. We are not a province of the United States, and that sovereignty will be defended,” ANC National Chair Gwede Mantashe said on Sunday, addressing a Freedom Day celebration in Mpumalanga province.
The row intensified after US President Donald Trump criticized South Africa’s new expropriation law, signing an executive order in February claiming it would allow the government to “seize ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation.” The order also opened the door for Afrikaners to seek US refugee status, framing them as “victims of unjust racial discrimination.”
However, President Cyril Ramaphosa has defended the law, insisting it seeks to ensure “public access to land in an equitable and just manner.” The legislation allows for land seizures without compensation, but only under specific conditions.
Mantashe also criticized South Africans who had appealed to the US to “punish” their own country. “Now they are told to go there and be refugees, they are refusing. They must go,” he said.
Tensions have spilled over onto social media as well, with South African-born tech billionaire Elon Musk describing the country’s land ownership reforms as “racist” on his platform, X. Despite the formal end of apartheid nearly three decades ago, land ownership in South Africa remains heavily skewed, with the white minority controlling a significant share of private land and wealth.
In an effort to ease diplomatic strains, South Africa recently appointed Mcebisi Jonas as a special envoy to Washington. Jonas is tasked with advancing South Africa’s “diplomatic, trade, and bilateral priorities,” following the expulsion of South Africa’s ambassador to the US, Ebrahim Rasool, who had accused Trump of using “dog whistle” politics.
Adding to the controversy, officials from Orania, a whites-only Afrikaner town founded after the end of apartheid, visited the US last month seeking recognition as an autonomous state.
Mantashe addressed Orania directly in his speech, suggesting greater integration: “Black people must go and build there, and we mix them,” he said. He added, “Hatred can never survive peace. It is peace that builds a nation.”
The tensions highlight the delicate balance South Africa faces between addressing its historical injustices and navigating complex international relationships.
