‘Clearing the air’: Inside Dirco’s meeting with US officials

The International Relations Department (Dirco) said it has set the record straight with senior White House and State Department officials about South Africa’s Expropriation Bill and equity laws following misinformation by some lobby groups.

Dirco said a delegation of senior officials, led by South Africa’s G20 Sherpa and the Director General Zane Dangor, visited the United Nations General Assembly to brief them on South Africa’s G20 Presidency.

Discussions

It said during their visit, the delegation followed through with discussions initially initiated by the former US Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool before his expulsion by the US State Department last month.

International relations minister Ronald Lamola’s spokesperson, Chrispin Phiri, said it’s satisfied that “issues and misconceptions” have been clarified following disinformation campaigns by some lobby groups who’ve travelled to the US to complain to the Donald Trump administration about the treatment of white South Africans.  

“The delegation clarified key issues and misconceptions in meetings with the National Security Council’s Africa Director, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, and Treasury Department representatives.

“We believe that these dialogues will assist in refining the current administration’s understanding of South Africa’s position on critical matters, fostering a more nuanced perspective,” Phiri said.

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Misconceptions

Phiri explained that the delegation directly addressed the perception that the South African government’s policies are designed to violate the human rights of minorities in post-apartheid South Africa.

“Amongst the issues addressed was the matter of how the Expropriation Act’s nil compensation clause is not designed to facilitate unlawful land seizures.”  

Phiri said during the discussion, the senior officials also addressed misconceptions on what has been presented by some as race laws designed to undermine minority rights in South Africa.

“To this end, the senior officials presented information which highlights the persuasive racial and structural inequality that continues to divide South Africa in all areas of the nation. The post-apartheid administration is constitutionally mandated to correct the injustices of the past.

“These initiatives are consistent with the efforts to ensure that post-apartheid South Africa entrenches human dignity, the achievement of equality and the advancement of human rights and freedoms, non-racialism, non-sexism and the supremacy of our constitution and the rule of law,” Phiri said.

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Trump order

Phiri added that Dirco’s engagements will be carried out at various levels of government following Trump’s Executive Order on 7 February.

“This includes ensuring that the 7th administration positions itself as a strategic partner in a manner that avoids conflagration of our national interests against those of our strategic partners across the world,” Phiri said.

The Citizen reported that Trump signed an executive order in February, halting federal aid to South Africa after President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the Expropriation Act, which the US president said imposes “unjust racial discrimination” against white Afrikaner farmers.

“In shocking disregard of its citizens’ rights, the Republic of South Africa (South Africa) recently enacted Expropriation Act 13 of 2024 (Act), to enable the government of South Africa to seize ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation,” Trump’s order read.

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