Mr Musk is a close adviser to US President Donald Trump, who on Sunday threatened to cut all future funding to South Africa over allegations that it was confiscating land and “treating certain classes of people very badly”.

The South Africa-born tech billionaire joined in the criticism asking on X why Ramaphosa had “openly racist ownership laws”.

Ramaphosa’s office said that in the call to Mr Musk the president “reiterated South Africa’s constitutionally embedded values of the respect for the rule of law, justice, fairness and equality”.

Last month, President Cyril Ramaphosa signed into law a bill that allows land seizures without compensation in certain circumstances.

Land ownership has long been a contentious issue in South Africa with most private farmland owned by white people, 30 years after the end of the racist system of apartheid.

• South Africans’ anger over land set to explode

There have been continuous calls for the government to address land reform and deal with the past injustices of racial segregation.

In his initial response to Trump, the South Africa’s president said that his “government has not confiscated any land”.

On Sunday, Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social: “I will be cutting off all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has been completed!”

He later said, in a briefing with journalists, that South Africa’s “leadership is doing some terrible things, horrible things”.

“So that’s under investigation right now. We’ll make a determination, and until such time as we find out what South Africa is doing — they’re taking away land and confiscating land, and actually they’re doing things that are perhaps far worse than that.”

South Africa’s new law allows for expropriation without compensation only in circumstances where it is “just and equitable and in the public interest” to do so.

This includes if the property is not being used and there is no intention to either develop or make money from it, or when it poses a risk to people.

Land ownership has been a burning issue in South Africa for more than a century. In 1913, the British colonial authorities passed legislation that restricted the property rights of the country’s black majority.

The Natives Land Act left the vast majority of the land under the control of the white minority and set the foundation for the forced removal of black people to poor homelands and townships in the intervening decades until the end of apartheid three decades ago.

Anger over these forced removals intensified the fight against white-minority rule.

In 1994, leader of the African National Congress (ANC) Nelson Mandela became the country’s first democratically elected president after all South Africans were given the right to vote.

But until the recently passed law, the government was only able to buy land from its current owners under the principle of “willing seller, willing buyer”, which some feel has delayed the process of land reform.

In 2017, a government report said that of the farmland that was in the hands of private individuals, 72% was white-owned. According to the 2022 census white people make up 7.3% of the population.

However, some critics have expressed fears that the new land law may have disastrous consequences like in Zimbabwe, where seizures wrecked the economy and scared away investors.

Trump on Sunday accused the South African government of “confiscating land” and treating “certain classes of people” badly, without elaborating or providing evidence.

The US president had already announced a temporary freeze on almost all foreign assistance as part of his “America First” agenda, pausing billions of dollars in global funding.

South Africa adopted a bill for the state to expropriate land to address racial disparities in ownership.

Writing on Truth Social, Trump stated: “I will be cutting off all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has been completed!”

Later, in a briefing with journalists, he accused South Africa’s leadership, without providing evidence or details, of doing “some terrible things, horrible things”.

In  response, South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation said, “We trust President Trump’s advisers will make use of the investigative period to attain a thorough understanding of South Africa’s policies within the framework of a constitutional democracy.

“It may become clear that our expropriation act is not exceptional, as many countries have similar legislation,” it added.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa also denied that the government is confiscating land.

“We look forward to engaging with the Trump administration over our land reform policy and issues of bilateral interest. We are certain that out of those engagements, we will share a better and common understanding over these matters,” Ramaphosa said in a statement.

“South Africa is a constitutional democracy that is deeply rooted in the rule of law, justice and equality.”

President Ramaphosa added that, except for the US Aid programme for AIDS relief – PEPFAR, no other significant funding is provided to South Africa by the US.

Elon Musk, who was born in South Africa but is now closely allied to Trump, replied to Ramaphosa, writing, without providing evidence: “Why do you have openly racist ownership laws?”

Last month, Ramaphosa signed a bill into law that would make it easier for the state to expropriate land in the public interest to address racial disparities in land ownership after apartheid in 1994.

According to the government, the bill does not allow it to expropriate property arbitrarily; the landowner must reach an agreement.