The President of South Africa expressed his concern to Elon Musk about "misinformation" after US President Donald Trump claimed that the government was "seizing land".

"We expressed our concern about the misinformation we saw in President Trump's announcement, but also in his own response to our statement," Ramaphosa's spokesman Vincent Magwenya told reporters.

Following Trump's accusation on social media on Sunday, Musk used his X platform to accuse Ramaphosa's administration of having "openly racist property laws".

According to a AFPRamaphosa rejected Trump's claims on Monday, saying that the Expropriation Act is not an "instrument of confiscation", but a "constitutionally mandated legal process that guarantees public access to land in a fair and equitable manner".

The law stipulates that the government can, in certain circumstances, offer "zero compensation" for property it decides to seize in the public interest.

However, it does not allow arbitrary seizures and states that attempts must be made to reach a compensation agreement with the owner.

In his allegations of racist laws, Musk may be referring to a black empowerment policy that is allegedly behind licensing delays in South Africa for his Starlink satellite internet service.

The policy, which aims to mitigate the legacy of racial inequality left by apartheid, says that large companies - including foreign investors - must provide 30% of capital to historically disadvantaged groups.

Magwenya said Ramaphosa wanted Musk, the world's richest man, to invest in South Africa, which he left in the late 1980s when he was 17.

Ramaphosa met Musk in September on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly "with the intention of seeing him invest more in South Africa," said the spokesman.

(Photo DR)