Trump Weaponising Dollar

US leader accuses SA of human rights violations, treating some people badly.

- Ina Opperman

President Donald Trump's threat to cut funding to South Africa because the government is confiscating land and treating certain classes of people very badly has local economists worried, with one questioning whether Trump was weaponising the dollar against South Africa.

Trump said in a post on his Truth Social page on Sunday it was a massive human rights violation at a minimum and that the US would not stand for it, but would act. "Also, I will be cutting off all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has been completed," he wrote.

Prof Bonke Dumisa, an independent economic analyst, said the message from Trump unleashed the worst of the current weaponisation of the dollar, as the rand opened significantly weaker against all three major foreign currencies.

The rand opened at R18.97/$, straying above the R19 psychological barrier levels occasionally, compared with Friday's opening rate of R18.56. The rand opened relatively weaker at R23.32/£ compared with Friday's opening rate of 23.06 and significantly weaker at R19.39 against the euro compared to Friday's opening rate of 19.28.