Feb. 8 (UPI) — South Africa is responding to an executive order signed by U.S. President Donald Trump, saying the move to freeze American aid “lacks factual accuracy.”
Trump on Friday signed an order to stop financial assistance to South Africa, which he accuses of having a “shocking disregard of its citizens’ rights” after passing legislation “to enable the government of South Africa to seize ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation.”
South Africa on Saturday fired back, accusing the Trump administration of misinterpreting its new laws
“It is of great concern that the foundational premise of this order lacks factual accuracy and fails to recognise South Africa’s profound and painful history of colonialism and apartheid,” the country’s Ministry of International Relations and Cooperation said in a statement.
“We are concerned by what seems to be a campaign of misinformation and propaganda aimed at misrepresenting our great nation. It is disappointing to observe that such narratives seem to have found favour among decision-makers in the United States of America.”
White South Africans currently account for less than 8% of the country’s population.
The law replaces the country’s Expropriation Act of 1975, which was put in place before South Africa gained democracy in 1994.
Trump’s executive order also calls out the African nation for taking “aggressive positions towards the United States and its allies, including accusing Israel, not Hamas, of genocide in the International Court of Justice, and reinvigorating its relations with Iran to develop commercial, military, and nuclear arrangements.”
Trump also accused South Africa of “undermining” U.S. foreign policy, causing a national security threat.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed Wednesday he would boycott the upcoming G20 meeting in South Africa because of the new law.
The meeting is slated to take place Feb. 20 and 21 in Johannesburg.
South Africa holds the G20 presidency until the end of November.
“It is ironic that the executive order makes provision for refugee status in the US for a group in South Africa that remains amongst the most economically privileged, while vulnerable people in the US from other parts of the world are being deported and denied asylum despite real hardship,” Saturday’s statement from South Africa states.
“We reiterate that South Africa remains committed to finding diplomatic solutions to any misunderstandings or disputes.”