US President Donald Trump has waded into South
Africa's incendiary land reform debate, instructing his secretary of
state to look into "land seizures" from whites and what he falsely
termed "the large scale killing" of farmers.
Trump's tweet appeared to come after he saw a piece on US cable
broadcaster Fox News in which anchor Tucker Carlson labelled the
majority-black South African government "racist."
"I have asked Secretary of State Pompeo to closely study the South
Africa land and farm seizures and expropriations and the large scale
killing of farmers," Trump's tweet read.
South Africa erupted with outrage that the US leader - who drew ire
on the continent earlier this year when he reportedly labelled some
African countries "shitholes" - has dared to take sides in such a
racially-charged national debate.
While Trump's tweet suggests farm seizures are underway, no land has
been taken from whites and a rigorous national debate process
introduced by the government is ongoing. A parliamentary committee is
currently wrapping up public hearings on the matter.
"South Africa totally rejects this narrow perception which only seeks
to divide our nation and reminds us of our colonial past," the South
African government responded on Twitter.
"South Africa will speed up the pace of land reform in a careful and
inclusive manner that does not divide our nation," the government
continued.
Foreign Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said she would be seeking
clarification from the US over the "unfortunate comments."
In the absence of a US ambassador to South Africa - an appointment
Trump has failed to fill - the acting top envoy in Pretoria met
Thursday with the government, US State Department spokeswoman Heather
Nauert said in Washington, without confirming a formal summons from
the ministry.
She confirmed that Trump had discussed South African land reform "in
the last day or so" with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
"He will take a look at it," she said of the president.
Uncompensated expropriation of land "would risk sending South Africa
down the wrong path," she said, without responding to official South
African assertions that no seizures have taken place.
Nauert refused to say if Pompeo attempted to brief Trump on the facts
on the ground in South Africa: "We never get into the private
conversations between the secretary and the president - on any issue,
for that matter."
White South Africans - who make up less than 10 per cent of the
population - still own the majority of the country's land 24 years
after the end of the racist apartheid regime.
During apartheid, black people were not allowed to own land, a
regulation President Cyril Ramaphosa has described as South Africa's
"original sin."
A 2017 government audit showed white people still own 72 per cent of
private commercial farms.
In an effort to address this inequality, Ramaphosa's ruling African
National Congress (ANC) earlier this month announced they are
planning to change the constitution to allow the expropriation of
private land without compensation.
Some South Africans have condemned the ANC's land policy, and
white-interest groups have dubbed it a "white genocide" because of a
number of brutal farm murders.
As with land ownership figures, it is difficult to confirm the number
of farm murders.
But agricultural organization AgriSA said earlier this year that farm
murders were at a twenty-year low, with 47 murders over a one-year
period in 2017-18.
Analysts are also quick to point out that the murder rate for the
country as a whole is extremely high and black people are the primary
victims of violent crime. Black farm workers are also often the
victims of farm robberies.
Afriforum, an Afrikaner advocacy group, retweeted Trump without
comment on Thursday, but it has been lobbying Washington on the issue
and will be pleased to have caught the attention of the world's most
powerful nation.
Earlier this year, Australia also caused a diplomatic tiff with
Pretoria after Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said white South
African farmers who wished to migrate should receive fast-track
visas.
Ramaphosa has said his land reform programme will be carefully
carried out, to avoid what happened in Zimbabwe when former President
Robert Mugabe's farm seizures sent the economy into a tailspin.
In an op-ed in Britain's Financial Times on Thursday, Ramaphosa -
himself a millionaire businessman - decried commentators for using
"soundbites" and not "substance" when talking about the issue.
"This is no land grab. Nor is it an assault on the private ownership
of property. The ANC has been clear that its land reform programme
should not undermine future investment in the economy or damage
agricultural production and food security," he wrote.
People on South African social media were having a field day with
Trump's controversial comments on Thursday.
"A nation that illegally invaded countries like Iraq to grab oil, and
still has land reservations for indigenous Americans, is not morally
qualified to interfere in SA and our domestic land issue," tweeted
Simon Grindrod.
Meanwhile, populist politician Julius Malema, who heads the radical
left-wing Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), dubbed Trump "a
pathological liar."
"Donald 'the pathological liar' Trump, we are not scared of you and
your USA or Western imperialist forces," he said at a press
conference, while pointing out that the US has its own race problems.
"There is no white genocide in South Africa. There is black genocide
in the USA, black people are killed every day," he said.