JOHANNESBURG — President Donald Trump’s executive order penalizing South Africa released on Friday has hit a raw nerve in the African nation. The order primarily aimed at land seizures comes as Pretoria has faced ongoing U.S. criticisms that it has operated against U.S. interests, including its support of the Palestinians in the International Criminal Court and its warm relations with China, Russia and Iran.

Friday’s executive order stated in part, “In shocking disregard of its citizens’ rights, the Republic of South Africa recently enacted Expropriation Act 13 of 2024, to enable the government of South Africa to seize ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation.”

“It is the policy of the United States that, as long as South Africa continues these unjust and immoral practices that harm our Nation:
(a) the United States shall not provide aid or assistance to South Africa; and
(b) the United States shall promote the resettlement of Afrikaner refugees escaping government-sponsored race-based discrimination, including racially discriminatory property confiscation.”

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, left, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin are shown during the BRICS summit on Oct. 23, 2024. (ALEXANDER ZEMLIANICHENKO/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

She continued that the DA “will be pursuing legal action to safeguard property rights. It is now time for the ANC to re-evaluate both their domestic and foreign policy positions, which actively undermine our national interests.”

Powell told Fox News Digital, her party will send “a high-level delegation to Washington D.C. in coming weeks to engage with decision-makers. The DA remains committed to protecting private property rights, fostering economic growth, and strengthening diplomatic ties with the U.S.”

Afrikaners, descendants of predominantly Dutch settlers who landed in Southern Africa in 1652, became the country’s rulers and are widely believed to have developed the apartheid system that separated Whites and Blacks, treating Blacks as second-class citizens.

U.S. and South African flags are shown at Union Buildings in Pretoria. (STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN/AFP via Getty Images)

In a statement released on Saturday, AfriForum, a civil rights group that largely represents Afrikaners, expressed “great appreciation” for Trump’s action, which it said was “a direct result of President Cyril Ramaphosa and his government’s irresponsible actions and policies.”

It continued, “However, the civil rights organization and its sister institutions in the Solidarity Movement remain committed to Afrikaners’ future at the southern tip of Africa and insist that urgent solutions must therefore be found for the injustices committed by the South African government against Afrikaners and other cultural communities in the country.”

Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema greets supporters in Pretoria, South Africa, on Feb. 2, 2019. (PHILL MAGAKOE/AFP via Getty Images)

One of the more outspoken and extreme members of the government of national unity, Julius Malema, head of the South African minority party Economic Freedom Fighters, said on X, “In light of the aggression by the USA against South Africa, we must as a nation seriously consider strengthening ties with Russia, China and nations who belong to (the international trade body) BRICS to avoid unnecessary confrontations with maniacs such as Donald Trump.”

Malema has been taken to court on hate crime charges. In one instance, he sang the genocidal anti-apartheid struggle song “Kill the Boer, the farmer,” referring to the White descendants of Dutch settlers or “Boers” in South Africa.