Trump says US ending all federal funding to South Africa

The United States state department has ordered an immediate end to all federal funding to South Africa.

This follows an executive order signed last month by US President Donald Trump who has repeated his false claim that the South African government is confiscating land owned by white farmers.

Trump, writing on his Truth Social post, also reiterated his offer of sanctuary to farmers fleeing the country because they fear for their safety, with a “rapid pathway to Citizenship”.

The announcement comes a week after a lobby group of minority white Afrikaners met with the president at the White House.

Their visit was criticised by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who accused them of undermining the country’s sovereignty.

Afrikaners are the descendants of the Dutch colonisers who implemented the apartheid  regime in the 1940s which ended with the country’s first democratic election in 1994.

US government data shows that foreign assistance commitments to South Africa came in at $323.4 million in 2024.

The money was used in initiatives and programmes as wide-ranging as climate change, the promotion of gender equality, and improving healthcare.

South African born billionaire and Trump’s new super-ally, Elon Musk, is widely seen as influencing the US administration’s stance on the country.

More than 30 years after the end of apartheid, white South Africans, who make up just 7 per cent of the population, still own most of the country's private farmland.