Elon Musk has appeared to endorse a message about race-based emigration from his native South Africa, after President Donald Trump threatened the country over new land expropriation laws.
The string of events that led to Musk’s one-word endorsement of immigration by his white fellow countrymen started when South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in January signed into law a bill that could flip the script on the minority ownership of the majority of the country’s farmland. In post-apartheid South Africa, where Trump’s “first buddy” was born in 1971, Black people remain the overwhelming land-owning minority, despite being the ethnic majority. Ramaphosa’s bill would allow the government to seize farmland without compensation to landowners.
In a wild Truth Social posting spree Sunday night, Trump railed against the new law, calling it a “human rights VIOLATION” and threatening to cut funding to the country in response. Musk made his chagrin clear on Monday, quoting an X message by Ramaphosa defending his move and asking: “Why do you have openly racist ownership laws?”
A reply under Musk’s Ramaphosa rebuttal said white immigration to Europe should be encouraged. “White South Africans are being persecuted for their race in their home country,” the author claimed.
“Also White South Africans are one of the few population groups that are fiscally positive when immigrating to Europe. We should allow more immigration of White South Africans.”
“Yes,” the Tesla and X chief posted in his quote of the reply on his X timeline.
The issue of land ownership in South Africa is politically charged, and both Trump and Musk failed to caveat their opinions with the fact that white ownership of farmland in the country exists in part due to a colonial and apartheid era where many Black people had their land snatched before being systematically denied ownership rights.
The ruling ANC Party has dominated politics in the country since the end of apartheid in 1994. Its aim, according to Reuters, is to “transfer 30% of farmland owned by white farmers to black farmers by 2030.”
In 2018, the South African government complained that Trump’s comments about the issue “only seek to divide our nation and reminds us of our colonial past.”
