Race policies or Israel - what's really driving Trump's fury with South Africa?

Legend has it Bernard Shabangu's grandfather, Bhobho, once speared down a lion that was terrorising his community in Mpumalanga, a province in eastern South Africa. The story goes that the lion was so fearsome that even the white people who had guns would run away when it roared.

"One day, my grandfather is said to have walked up the hill where the lion was roaring with his spear and shield," says Bernard. "The lion charged at him, but my grandfather speared him to death and was made Headman for his bravery."

As a Headman, or traditional leader, Bhobho owned cattle and land. Then one day in the mid-1950s, it was all taken away from him with no compensation under a law introduced in 1950 called the Group Areas Act. This stated that South Africa's apartheid government could choose certain areas to be used by a single race.

In the early 1990s, democratic South Africa's new constitution allowed for land taken from black farmers to be returned to them. But it did so with great care and the setting-up of new cross-community partnerships were encouraged.

In this spirit, when Bernard, now 48, and his community decided to reclaim their land, they agreed to work in partnership with the white farmers who had been working on it.

"We did not say we want the white folks to leave," says Bernard. "They are here, they are working with us, they are supporting us… we are saying that partnership is what's going to take this country forward."

Trump is not the only figure in his administration to have taken an interest in South Africa's internal affairs. So too has Elon Musk, who's been tasked with managing government efficiency in the US. Musk, who was born in Pretoria, has been trying to license his Starlink telecommunications business in South Africa.

But under the country's Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) policy telecom firms are required to have 30% ownership by black people. Musk called BEE "racist". Currently, only 3% of the country's top companies are controlled by black South Africans.

A blunt tool?

Every year, the US president reviews which African countries should continue to be part of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). It allows some African countries to export goods to the US duty free and is credited with creating thousands of jobs across the continent, including in South Africa.

But now there are fears Donald Trump's promise to cut all "future funding to South Africa" may see South Africa excluded.

Doing so may, however, be a bit of a blunt tool - Prof Hall points out that coming out of AGOA would ironically disproportionately affect the white farmers Donald Trump says he wants to protect.

"I can assure you that most white farmers are far more worried about this punitive act on our trade deal with the US than they are about land expropriation," she said.

Can the circle be squared?

So can the South African government, and President Cyril Ramaphosa's ANC specifically, satisfy those who believe further land reform is a must without being frozen out economically by the US and losing foreign investors?

One job is to work out what is really driving Donald Trump. Nomvula Mokonyane, Deputy Secretary General of the ANC, does not believe this is solely about the issue of land and thinks South Africa's position over Israel may well be the driver.

She says: "Our view is that we need to let our government engage the American administration, so that then we understand whether are we dealing with the issue of the expropriation of land, or are we dealing with many other issues… related to Palestine and so on and so forth."

The signing of the expropriation bill comes in the context of the ANC finding itself in a coalition with other parties for the first time, and it may be trying to signal to black voters that it's still willing to fight for their rights.

After Mr Trump's funding freeze, Mr Ramaphosa said South Africa will not be bullied in his state of the nation address earlier this month. It's one of the few positions that all his coalition partners appear to agree with.

Prof Hall does not detect much possibility of any kind of u-turn on the new law. She says: "We have said very clearly the Expropriation Act is a law that was passed by a democratic parliament. He has signed it into law, which is his obligation as state president."

South Africa is already feeling the effects of US' diplomatic pressure: both the US secretary of state and the treasury secretary have refused to join their counterparts at this month's G20 meetings hosted by South Africa. And there are concerns Donald Trump could also be absent from the leaders' summit later this year.

President Ramaphosa has promised to send envoys to the US and other countries to explain his country's positions on the expropriation act, the war in the Middle East, as well as some of its other foreign policy decisions.

Whether South Africa can soften the current hostility coming from Washington, without compromising on its national priorities is a huge test for this fledgling democracy.