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Picture: ANNA MONEYMAKER/GETTY IMAGES
Picture: ANNA MONEYMAKER/GETTY IMAGES

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office says the president has cleared up any “misinformation and misunderstanding” with US billionaire Elon Musk relating to Ramaphosa’s signing of the Expropriation Act. 

Ramaphosa was resolute that the Expropriation Act was subject to a long process with the expectation of compensation subject to adjudication by the courts. 

Reuters reported on Tuesday that Ramaphosa spoke to SA-born US businessperson Musk on Monday evening in a telephonic conversation arranged by his father, Errol Musk.

The US-based billionaire had publicly accused his post-apartheid government of anti-white racism, and now Musk’s key ally, US President Donald Trump, said he would cut more than $400m in funding to the country.

“We were perturbed because there were clearly inaccuracies. X is an extremely powerful platform. We have asked Musk to invest in SA — so we have had open engagements with him. What the president did in the call is to reinforce his own understanding of the Expropriation Act and flag the misunderstand in Trump and Musk’s own response. We have a highly [respectful] rule of law and judiciary in SA, so there is no crisis,” presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said. 

Reuters reported Bejani Chauke, Ramaphosa’s former adviser, called Errol Musk, an 78-year-old engineer who lives in a Langebaan.

“I was asked if I can arrange a quick talk between Ramaphosa and Elon last night ... so I did and then they spoke a few minutes later,” Errol Musk told Reuters.

He briefly showed an exchange of WhatsApp messages between himself and Chauke that backed up his account.

Chauke did not respond to questions by Reuters about his role in contacting Errol Musk.

Ramaphosa’s office confirmed the phone conversation with Elon Musk in a post on the tycoon’s X social media platform.

The trigger for the sudden flurry of backdoor diplomacy was a post on Sunday by Trump who said — without citing evidence — that “SA is confiscating land” and “certain classes of people” were being treated “very badly”.

He added that he would cut off funding to the country in response, prompting a nearly 2% slide in the rand in early trading on Monday, and a fall in stocks and government bonds. The cost of insuring SA debt against default rose to its highest since early August.

SA had previously set a target for the government to transfer 30% of farmland to black hands that has been repeatedly pushed back.

By 2018, only 8% had been transferred, according to a government survey of title deeds.

White landowners possess three quarters of SA’s freehold farmland, compared with 4% for black landowners, according to the most recent state audit.

Ramaphosa responded to Trump’s comments on Monday, saying the government had not confiscated any land and he looked forward to engaging with Trump to foster a better understanding of a policy designed to ensure equitable public access to land.

Trump’s attack was echoed by backer Elon Musk, who addressed Ramaphosa in a post on X on Monday accusing SA of having “openly racist ownership laws”.

Washington committed $440m in assistance to SA in 2023, of which $315m was for HIV/Aids. Ramaphosa said US funding accounted for 17% of SA’s programme to prevent and treat HIV/Aids.

SA’s land reform policies since the end of apartheid in 1994 have never involved the forced seizure of white-owned land.

With Reuters

omarjeeh@businesslive.co.za

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