US President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order on Friday cutting off all US aid to South Africa, citing his disapproval of a land reform bill and the genocide case South Africa has brought against Israel at the International Court of Justice in the Hague, and making good on a threat he issued earlier in the week.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa was defiant in the face of Trump’s threat delivering a spirited “state of the nation” speech on Thursday, in which he said South Africa “will not be bullied” and called for national unity in the face of growing international tensions.

“We are witnessing the rise of nationalism, protectionism, the pursuit of narrow interests and the decline of common cause,” Ramaphosa said. “We will stand together as a united nation,” the South African president said, “and we will speak with one voice in defense of our national interests.”

The core of Trump’s complaint against South Africa is a law – recently passed – allowing the expropriation of land without compensation in rare cases.

South African officials have insisted the taking power is limited and tightly circumscribed, similar to eminent domain laws existing in many jurisdictions and part of measures designed to address lingering – and persistent – Apartheid-era disparities in land ownership.

White South Africans own more than three quarters of all freehold agricultural land in the country, while Black South Africans – 80% of the population – own only 4% of freehold farmland according to 2017 statistics.

“They’re confiscating land,” Trump told journalists early this week, prompting a denial from Ramaphosa on social media. “South Africa is a constitutional democracy that is deeply rooted in the rule of law, justice and equality,” Ramaphosa wrote on the X platform owned by Elon Musk, who was born in South Africa and now serves Trump as the head of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (or DOGE), a semi-official outfit Trump has attempted to invest with sweeping powers.

“The South African government has not confiscated any land,” Ramaphosa wrote on X.

On Thursday, Ramaphosa also spoke with Musk, who has been vocally critical of the new South African law.

In his February 6 address, Ramaphosa said his government will introduce reforms aimed at driving inclusive growth and job creation, reducing poverty and tackling the high cost of living, and building a capable, ethical and developmental state.

“Our most urgent task is to grow our economy so that we can create jobs, reduce poverty and improve the lives of all South Africans,” Ramaphosa said.

The Jesuit Institute South Africa said those goals align with Catholic Social Teaching, but they criticized the president for not reaffirming property rights protections and balancing individual property ownership with national interests, as highlighted in Catholic Social Teaching.

In a February 7 statement provided to Crux and published to the Institute’s website, the Jesuits said they were “disappointed that the president missed an opportunity to re-emphasize the Constitution’s guarantee of the right to own property and not to have it arbitrarily expropriated.”

“In the Catholic Social Tradition,” the Jesuits explained, “the ownership of property is not absolute. It is to be used for personal prosperity, while at the same time, it is a common resource for the good of all citizens.”

The Jesuits called on Ramaphosa “to strike the correct balance between protecting personal property and the national interest.”

“Addressing this issue could have allayed many fears,” they wrote.

The statement from the Jesuit Institute said Ramaphosa’s speech “reiterated South Africa’s grave concern for the poorest of our society, who are most vulnerable to the failure of basic services like the provision of clean water, electricity, affordable housing, quality healthcare and education, waste management, road and rail infrastructure.”

The Jesuit Institute also welcomed Ramaphosa’s commitment to strengthening law and order to ensure the safety and security of all residents of the country.

The Jesuits also said they were pleased with Ramaphosa’s commitment to multilateral institutions including the United Nations, the African Union, Non-aligned Movement, and others.

“We laud the country’s engagement in collaborative efforts toward a just peace in Ukraine, Palestine-Israel, Eastern DRC, and other scenes of international law violations. We support the president’s ambition to reform the United Nations Security Council to make it more representative of the world’s population,” the Jesuits’ statement said.

The president has argued that Africa, with its 1.4 billion people, remains excluded from key decision-making structures, and has pushed for the continent to be having two permanent seats and five non-permanent seats on the Security Council.

Ramaphosa has also called for the abolition of the veto power held by the five permanent members (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States). If the veto power cannot be abolished, he suggests that it should be extended to all new permanent members. He says these reforms are critical to making the UN a functional organization capable of fulfilling its core missions: securing global peace and ending poverty and unemployment.

The Jesuits however faulted the President for failing to mention Russia’s “illegal invasion of Ukraine” and the need for Russia to adhere to international law.

“[H]e did not specifically mention Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukrainian territory and Russia’s obligation to adhere to international law to resolve disputes peacefully,” the Jesuits said of Ramaphosa’s speech.

“We call on him to use his influence on Russia to end its conflict with Ukraine,” they also said, adding that the Jesuit Institute “would value a congruency between an uncompromising stance towards Israel and a similar stance towards Russia.”

They said South Africa’s G20 presidency – which began in December of last year and has been eyed with suspicion by the Trump administration – offers a chance to influence positive outcomes, noting that he could use this influence to help resolve the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

On Wednesday of this week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he will not attend an upcoming G20 meeting in South Africa.

“South Africa is doing very bad things,” Rubio wrote. The Secretary of State said South Africa is “[e]xpropriating private property,” and “[u]sing G20 to promote solidarity, equality, & sustainability.”

“In other words,” Rubio wrote on X, “DEI and climate change.”

The Jesuits said the president’s plans could be quite costly. They emphasized the need for sustainable financing, and for maintaining a low debt-to-GDP ratio.

According to official statistics, South Africa’s economic growth rate was 0, 3% in the third quarter of 2024. About 40% of South Africans live below the poverty line.

“Over the coming year, we will initiate a second wave of reform to unleash more rapid and inclusive growth,” Ramaphosa noted.

He said reforms will be deepened in growth-driving sectors like energy, mining, tourism and public services.

“To achieve higher levels of economic growth, we are undertaking massive investment in new infrastructure while upgrading and maintaining the infrastructure we have,” he said.

“Government will spend more than 940 billion rand (about $50 billion US) on infrastructure over the next three years,” he announced.

How, exactly, Ramaphosa will do that, is an open question in South Africa.

They also point out lawlessness in the mining industry and the president’s omission of illegal mining issues in his speech.

They called for reforms in mining rights and a thorough analysis of economic challenges to prevent further exploitation of South Africa’s critical minerals by capitalist-imperialist forces.

“Our wealth in critical minerals should not be the occasion for a second capitalist-imperialist capturing of the economy,” they said.