The Expropriation Act allows the South African government to seize land, in the name of public interest, with or without compensation. Its purpose is to repossess land and distribute it to address what the government refers to as historical injustices.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday formalizing his announcement earlier this week that he’ll freeze assistance to South Africa for a law aiming to address some of the wrongs of South Africa’s racist apartheid era — a law the White House says amounts to discrimination against the country’s white minority.

Trump’s comments waded into a sensitive racial issue and deepened already sharp divisions between the United States and South Africa.