/ 5 February 2025

Presidency: Ramaphosa corrected Musk’s misconception of SA

Rama Musk
President Cyril Ramaphosa called Elon Musk to correct his reading of South African policy, and as part of efforts to resolve the turbulence in ties with Washington, the presidency said on Wednesday. (@PresidencyZA/X)

President Cyril Ramaphosa called Elon Musk to correct his reading of South African policy, and as part of efforts to resolve the turbulence in ties with Washington, the presidency said on Wednesday.

“We are obviously perturbed by the current disturbances,” Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Vincent Maqwenya said of US President Donald Trump’s suspension of all donor aid to South Africa on Sunday.

Ramaphosa’s call to the South African-born tech billionaire and key Trump ally was prompted by his apparent misrepresentation of South Africa’s land legislation in a post on X, Magwenya told a media briefing. 

It was important that Musk has the benefit of a better understanding of South African policy given not only his influence in the Trump administration, but beyond that as the owner of X, he added.

“Why did the president speak to Elon Musk? Following President Trump’s announcement, we issued a statement which was posted on X, out of the president’s handle as well as the presidency’s handle.

“There was a response to that statement by Elon, and generally we are obviously perturbed by the substance of the announcement because there were clearly inaccuracies with respect to the country and what was happening in the country.”

Musk responded with the cryptic post: “Why do you have openly racist ownership laws?”

It necessitated correction, Magwenya said, noting that Ramaphosa and Musk had previously spoken about the possibility of the latter’s Starlink investing in South Africa. He said Musk was one of the business people the president had “on speed dial”. 

“In light of this recent development, it was sensible and logical and quite important that the president engages with him, so that we reinforce his own understanding of what is happening in South Africa and we flagged our concern with regard to the disinformation that we saw in the announcement by President Trump, but also in his own response to our statement.”

He said Ramaphosa emphatically told Musk that “South Africa does not have racist ownership laws”. 

He also stressed that South Africa was a constitutional democracy with an independent judiciary. 

“There are certain things that we don’t do and there are certain things that will never happen in South Africa,” Magwenya said.

“It was important that they have that conversation and that that understanding is emphasised, at least to benefit Elon, but also considering his influence within the Trump circle for the president to deliver that message.”

Ramaphosa’s office issued a post X about the phone call. Musk had not responded with one of his own by the time of writing.

The presidency on Monday said Ramaphosa hoped to speak directly with Trump.

On Wednesday Magwenya said that phone call had not yet happened but would eventually and Ramaphosa still hoped to host Trump for a state visit, possibly before the G20 heads of state summit in South Africa in November.

“Ultimately, there will be a conversation between the two heads of state, but I can’t give the time.”

He said the government remained in the dark as to what precisely prompted Trump to withhold all donor aid to South Africa, pending an investigation. The step followed Ramaphosa’s signing of the Expropriation Act, which sets out the limited circumstances in which the state can expropriate land without compensation.

“We can’t speculate around the reasons that led to the recent announcement by President Trump,” Magwenya said. 

“All we know is that that announcement is informed by things that are not true about our country, about things that are not true about the manner in which we apply legislation. As to what discussions took place in the White House leading up to that announcement, we cannot speculate and draw parallels with other issues.

Trump announced the step in a post on his Truth Social platform on Sunday.

“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,” he wrote. 

“The United States won’t stand for it, we will act. I will be cutting off all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has been completed!”

It closes the tap on funding that last year totalled some R6 billion and mainly supports health initiatives, notably HIV/Aids programmes, in South Africa.

Magwenya said the presidency did not believe South Africa was facing “a massive crisis” in its relationship with the US, its second largest trading partner.

“We will get over the current bumps.”