Elon Musk has taken aim at South African political leaders and condemned what he called the country’s ‘openly racist’ policies in a series of posts on X.
The tech tycoon used his platform to blast Julius Malema, who leads the communist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party, labelling him a ‘genocidal lunatic’ as he shared an old video clip in which the politician can be heard telling a crowd to ‘cut the throat of whiteness’.
Musk, who was born in Pretoria, additionally called for ‘immediate sanctions’ on Malema and for him to be branded ‘an international criminal’ over his ‘Kill the Boer’ chanting in the clip.
The chant, which refers to white farmers, is rooted in the anti-apartheid struggle and has been defended by rights campaigners as a metaphor rather than a call for ethnic violence.
However, in recent years Musk and many other commentators have labelled it as incitement to attacks on the country’s white minority.
Musk previously shared the clip of Malema, which was filmed at a EFF rally and is several years old, back in 2023, writing on Twitter at the time: ‘They are openly pushing for genocide of white people in South Africa.’
Firebrand Malema, who founded and leads the militant party which advocates for radical land ownership reforms, hit back at Musk at the time calling him ‘illiterate’ and saying ‘the only thing that protects him is his white skin.’
It comes as President Donald Trump, who Musk advises and is closely allied with, said that racial discrimination against white people in South Africa justified Washington officially freezing aid to the country.
Elon Musk has taken aim at South African political leaders and condemned what he called the country’s ‘openly racist’ policies
Julius Malema, who leads the country’s Economic Freedom Fighters opposition party, said he wanted to ‘remove’ Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Athol Trollip specifically because he ‘is a white man’
Trump’s executive order on Friday to halt assistance came in response to a new law in South Africa that gives the government powers in some instances to expropriate land from people.
The White House said the law ‘blatantly discriminates against ethnic minority Afrikaners.’
The Expropriation Act was signed into law by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa last month and allows the government to take land in specific instances where it is not being used, or where it would be in the public interest if it is redistributed.
It aims to address some of the wrongs of South Africa’s racist apartheid era, when Black people had land taken away from them and were forced to live in areas designated for non-white citizens.
South Africa’s white population – which includes Afrikaners, the descendants of mainly Dutch-colonial settlers – amounts to roughly seven per cent of the country’s total population.
More than 30 years after the end of apartheid, this demographic still owns some 72 per cent of the country’s private farmland, according to government data.
The White House has said that Trump is going to announce a program to resettle white South African farmers and their families as refugees, proposals many South Africans have hit back at as unfeasible.
The White House said Trump is going to announce a program to resettle white South African farmers and their families as refugees
Musk has repeatedly highlighted the new law in recent social media posts and cast it as a threat to South Africa’s white population.
The country’s affirmative action laws have deterred him from launching his satellite internet service Starlink there.
To qualify for the licence, the law requires him to provide 30 per cent of the equity in the project to black-owned businesses – a hurdle he has described as ‘openly racist’.
President has Cyril Ramaphosa has repeatedly called on Musk to invest in his birth country, but has also said that his government is ‘unequivocal’ on the issue of black empowerment, describing racial inequality as an ‘existential challenge’.
Writing on Truth Social on Sunday, Trump said of the new land ownership law: ‘South Africa is confiscating land, and treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY.
‘It is a bad situation that the Radical Left Media doesn’t want to so much as mention.
‘A massive Human Rights VIOLATION, at a minimum, is happening for all to see. The United States won’t stand for it, we will act.
‘Also, I will be cutting off all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has been completed!’
Trump shared to Truth Social on Sunday that he’s now set his sights on South Africa
Trump’s order also references South Africa’s role in bringing accusations of genocide against Israel before the International Court of Justice.
‘As long as South Africa continues to support bad actors on the world stage and allows violent attacks on innocent disfavored minority farmers, the United States will stop aid and assistance to the country,’ the White House said in a summary of the order.
The United States allocated nearly $440 million in assistance to South Africa in 2023, the most recent government data showed.
Last month, President Ramaphosa said he was not worried about the country’s relationship with Trump.
He said he had spoken to Trump after the latter’s election victory and looked forward to working with his administration.
