South African Official Matches Trump’s Energy By Threatening To Cut Minerals Off From U.S.

That's called matching energy....

South Africa’s Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources Gwede Mantashe is stunting on President Donald Trump’s threats to cut off funding to South Africa, stating the country will just cut off mineral supply to the U.S., Democracy Now reports.

Trump alleged that South Africa is confiscating land, referring to land reform legislation in South Africa where the country’s white minority still owns the vast majority of farmland 30 years following the end of apartheid rule. After claiming “terrible things are happening in South Africa” and threatening to end funding, Mantashe caught wind and devised a plan of his own. “You passed an Exploration Act, therefore Trump will withhold funding to South Africa. And I said, ’Let’s mobilize Africa. Let’s withhold minerals to the U.S.,’” he said.

“That is it. If they don’t give us money, let’s not give them minerals.”

To help Trump get a grip on what exactly he is referring to, South African officials said the president and his administration need to get a better understanding of the new law, targeting assistance in addressing the massive impact of the white minority rule under the apartheid reign, ending 30 years ago 1994. According to the Associated Press, government officials believe Trump’s thoughts were a reaction to the new Expropriation Act passed in January 2024. It gives the government a new way to acquire land from private parties if it’s in the public interest. In a statement, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said, “The South African government has not confiscated any land.”

During the apartheid era, it was the opposite. Land was stolen from the nation’s Black majority, and residents were forced to live in areas labeled for Blacks only.

Ramaphosa’s office said the act is not a “confiscation instrument” but more of a legal process to guarantee public access to land. “South Africa, like the United States of America and other countries, has always had expropriation laws that balance the need for public usage of land and the protection of rights of property owners,” the statement read.

An avid critic of South Africa’s government, Trump’s threats would target funding for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which gives close to $400 million a year to South Africa’s HIV/AIDS program. Advocates claim that funding cuts would only hurt the people of the nation. While some advocates are critics of the nation’s newest legislation, if Trump carries out his threat, they ask that “punitive measures” be targeted more at senior government leaders rather than South African natives.