Ramaphosa Speaks to Musk About ‘Misinformation’ on South Africa
(Bloomberg) -- President Cyril Ramaphosa spoke with Elon Musk after the South African-born billionaire joined President Donald Trump in criticizing the country’s new land-expropriation law.
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Ramaphosa spoke to Musk “on issues of misinformation and distortions about South Africa,” his office said in a statement on X on Tuesday. He “reiterated South Africa’s constitutionally embedded values of the respect for the rule of law, justice, fairness and equality.”
Musk accused Ramaphosa’s government of having “openly racist ownership laws” in a post on X Monday. He’s has also spread the baseless conspiracy theory that a “genocide” is being carried out against White farmers in South Africa.
Last year, Ramaphosa and Musk held talks about potential investments in South Africa, including by the billionaire’s Starlink business. In return, Musk wants the government to dilute local Black ownership requirements for his satellite network.
Trump had earlier warned the US would halt future funding to South Africa because of the new legislation, which like laws in other countries including the US allows the state to seize private land in the public interest, in some cases without compensation.
The rand weakened as much as 2% against the dollar after Trump’s tweet was posted on his Truth Social platform on Sunday. By Tuesday, it had recovered all of those losses to trade little changed so far this week.
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