South African leader defends land reform to Elon Musk

Elon Musk got on the phone Wednesday with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa following the Tesla CEO’s condemnation of Pretoria’s “openly racist” land ownership laws and threats by US President Donald Trump to withdraw $400 million in aid. The conversation was facilitated by Musk’s father, Errol Musk, at Ramaphosa’s request, to “clarify misinformation” about South Africa’s land reform policies, which were recently amended to allow for expropriations “in the public interest.”

Why was the law changed? Even though apartheid ended 30 years ago, and white South Africans are only 7.3% of the population, as of 2017 they still possessed 72% of privately owned farmland. Critics warn, however, that a new expropriation law risks replicating the experience of neighboring Zimbabwe, where seizures of white-owned land in the name of racial equity devastated agricultural productivity and discouraged foreign investment.

This week, Republican US Sen. Ted Cruz said he will use his position as chairman of the Africa subcommittee of the Foreign Relations Committee to “investigate these and other concerning decisions” by South Africa. Cruz also criticized Pretoria’s directive last month to Taiwan that it relocate its Taipei Liaison Office from the capital before the end of March, posting to X that “the South African government seems to be going out of their way to alienate the United States and our allies.” China is South Africa’s largest trading partner and encouraged the country to sever relations with Taiwan in 1997.