The South African government Thursday slammed US President Donald Trump for his tweet on the country’s land reform plans and said it would raise the matter with the US embassy in Pretoria and US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo.
Following a Fox News report that the SA government had begun expropriating land based on racist criteria, Trump tweeted: “I have asked Secretary of State @SecPompeo to closely study the South Africa land and farm seizures and expropriations and the large scale killing of farmers. South African Government is now seizing land from white farmers.”
Deputy President David Mabuza rejected the ‘’falsehoods’’ that were spreading about land reform and the mooted expropriation without compensation, saying the government will work within the law and the Constitution.
Mabuza made his remarks yesterday while addressing delegates at the Agri-SA land and agricultural summit held in Bela Bela, Limpopo.
Meanwhile, the department of international relations said Trump’s tweet was based on false information and is factually incorrect.
The department said Minister Lindiwe Sisulu would communicate with Pompeo and had instructed officials to meet with the US embassy.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office said Trump was “misinformed”.
“South Africa rejects this narrow perception which seeks to divide our nation and reminds us of our colonial past,” he said.
“South Africa will speed up the pace of land reform in a careful and inclusive manner that does not divide our nation.”
Trump’s tweet came hours after Ramaphosa told National Assembly government would push plans to amend section 25 of the Constitution to make explicit the circumstances under which the state could expropriate land without compensation.
He reiterated that South Africa risked instability if it failed to speed up land reform to redress the dispossession of land of the majority of South Africans under apartheid, but rejected a call by the left-wing Economic Freedom Fighters to nationalise all land.
EFF leader Julius Malema warned Trump: “We want to send a strong message to the USA authorities, just like we did to the Australian authorities, stay out of South Africa’s domestic affairs.
“South Africa is a post-colonial country with deep racial inequalities that were long designed by apartheid and colonisation. Our land expropriation programme seeks to realise the ideal of equality and human dignity.”
Civil rights group Afriforum, whose leaders travelled to the US in May to lobby support against the proposed land reform measures, welcomed Trump’s tweet. The organisation, which has declared that apartheid was not a crime against humanity, claims Trump’s tweet is proof that its lobbying is working.