South African President Cyril Ramaphosa spoke to Elon Musk “on issues of misinformation and distortions about South Africa,” the presidency announced on Tuesday.

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".

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa defended his land reform policy on Monday against an attack by Donald Trump that laid bare deep divisions within South Africa over racial disparities in ownership,