US President Donald Trump’s threats of punitive action against South Africa for signing a contentious land reform bill into law unleashed a diplomatic storm, with both sides squaring off over trade and financial aid. In the aftermath, viral posts in multiple languages claimed South Africa imposed a moratorium against US companies locally and banned mineral exports to the United States. But this is false; both the South African government and mining industry bodies refuted the claim, which started circulating after an off-the-cuff comment by a South African minister was misrepresented.

“South Africa has officially suspended all American businesses within South Africa also stopped the exporting of minerals to the United States of America (sic),” reads an X post published on February 16, 2025.

It adds: “This comes just a few days after Donald Trump cut off all funding from the US to South Africa and the USAID to South Afrika (sic).”

Shared more than 12,000 times on X, the post includes pictures of Trump and his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa.

The same claim has been shared thousands of times on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and blogs, and is also circulating widely in French.

The posts emerged after South Africa’s mining minister Gwede Mantashe suggested a freeze on mineral exports to the US.

“If they don’t give us money, let’s not give them minerals,” Mantashe said on February 3, 2025, during an address at an annual summit known as the African Mining Indaba...

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