Billionaire Elon Musk has questioned the South African government’s purported racist property ownership legislation. The land problem in South Africa has long been divisive, with efforts to address the inequalities of white dominance receiving condemnation from conservatives like as Musk, the world’s richest person, who was born in South Africa and is a prominent adviser to US President Donald Trump.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa signed a bill last month that allows the government to offer “nil compensation” for property that it decides to expropriate in the public interest. Pretoria contends that the statute prohibits the government from arbitrarily expropriating property and that it must first establish an agreement with the owner.
However, other groups are concerned about a situation comparable to the Zimbabwe government’s seizure of white-owned commercial farms, frequently without compensation, following independence in 1980. Ramaphosa responded to Trump’s criticism by saying in a statement on Monday that his administration was not confiscating any land.
“The recently adopted Expropriation Act is not a confiscation instrument,” Ramaphosa stated in his statement. It refers to a “constitutionally mandated legal process that ensures public access to land in an equitable and just manner as guided by the constitution” .
“We look forward to engaging with the Trump administration over our land reform policy and issues of bilateral interest,” according to the statement. Musk wrote on X, “Why do you have openly racist ownership laws.”
Musk was born in Pretoria on June 28, 1971, to an engineer father and a Canadian-born model mother; he left the nation in his late teens. Apartheid was officially abolished in 1990, and multiracial elections were held in 1994.
