Democratic Alliance leader John Steenhuisen has called on the country to unite in the face of a “new threat” of possible US tariffs and even sanctions, following a rapid deterioration in relations with the superpower since President Donald Trump returned to the White House in late January.

However, he has also called for the Expropriation Act to be amended and for equity equivalent empowerment schemes to be opened to all sectors.

Steenhuisen was speaking in a Parliamentary debate on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address (SoNA), in which Ramaphosa said South Africa would not be “bullied” amid threats by Trump that aid to the country could be cut because Trump alleged, without evidence, that South Africa was confiscating land from white farmers.

That threat materialised days later in the form of an executive order, stating that South Africa’s new Expropriation Act enabled it “to seize ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation”, while also opening the way for the resettlement of Afrikaner “refugees” in the US.

“When a country faces a crisis, it needs to unite and navigate against the threat. That is what we must do now,” Steenhuisen said, while calling for the Expropriation Act to be amended to “better protect property rights”.

Ahead of the speech, the Democratic Alliance (DA) confirmed that it had filed papers in the High Court to challenge the Act, describing it as “unconstitutional, both substantively and procedurally”.

Steenhuisen said the Government of National Unity, of which the DA is part and in which he serves as Agriculture Minister, should also approach its trading partners to “seek to lower tariff barriers across the board to compensate for any increase in tariffs by the US”.

However, he also argued that equity alternatives to black economic empowerment (BEE) ownership requirements be allowed in every sector. This, an indirect reference to the objection being made by Pretoria-born Elon Musk, who heads Trump’s newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, to a South African requirement in the telecoms sector that would require Starlink to sell 30% to BEE partners to secure a satellite licence.

While acknowledging that the wrongs of the past must be redressed, Steenhuisen argued that it should be done in a way that grew the economy and brought down unemployment.

“We must remember that South Africa cannot succeed unless everyone in it succeeds. And I mean everyone. No exceptions,” Steenhuisen said, while emphasising the need to respect cultural and language rights and to guarantee the security of farmers and farmworkers.

Speaking on behalf of the official opposition, the uMkhonto weSizwe Party’s Parliamentary leader, Dr John Hlophe, was less compromising, arguing that South Africa should respond to Trump's recent “bullying tactics”, by deepening relations with the expanding BRICS Plus bloc of countries.

Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema, meanwhile, also agreed that the country should not be bullied, including by “power-hungry individuals intoxicated by the wealth of apartheid”, an allusion to Musk with whom he recently sparred on X.

Malema also called on Ramaphosa to provide details when he replied to the debate on Thursday, on how South Africa would be responding to Trump.

In his SoNA address, Ramaphosa announced that he would be sending a “delegation of government and other leaders to various capitals on our continent and across the world” to outline the theme of South Africa's G20 Presidency and to explain “the many positions that we have taken”.

The country’s G20 theme of “solidarity, equality and sustainability” had already triggered US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to announced that he would not attend the G20 gathering in Johannesburg, as it conflicted with the Trump administration’s rejection of diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as climate action.

Meanwhile, Rise Mzansi national leader Songezo Zibi urged government to act with urgency in the face of the threat being posed to South Africa’s vital trade relationship with the US.

But he also said that South Africa needed to find ways to safeguard its democracy from the spread of “dangerous misinformation” by Musk on X, the social media platform he owns.

“The truth and accuracy of information are fundamental blocks of democracy and they are being taken apart daily,” Zibi said, arguing that South Africa should use legislation to enforce fact checking by social media platforms, because national consensus “is not possible when millions exist in an imaginary universe”.