The South African government has hit back at US President Donald Trump's unsolicited suggestion to "closely study" the country's land reform programme, saying on Thursday that this view sought to divide the nation.
Trump tweeted on Thursday that he had asked the US secretary of state to closely study the proposed land reform by the South African government.
"South Africa totally rejects this narrow perception which only seeks to divide our nation and reminds us of our colonial past. South Africa will speed up the pace of land reform in a careful and inclusive manner that does not divide our nation," the SA Presidency said in a statement.
"South Africa has taken bold steps to address the colonial and historical injustices, including the dispossession of land and build a more inclusive and stable society in South Africa and the world.
"Government supports land restitution and redistribution, which will redress the sins of the past by allowing access to the land in a way that grows the economy, ensures food security, and increases agricultural production."
In the offending tweet, Trump said: "I have asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo 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".
Earlier this year, Afrikaans rights lobby group Afriforum - which has declared that apartheid was not a crime against humanity - travelled to the United States in May to lobby international investors to divest in South Africa if the government went ahead with land expropriation without compensation.
Afriforum has also been very vocal about the killings of white farmers in South Africa, even inviting British controversial TV personality Katie Hopkins to South Africa to report on farm murders which she claimed was a result of ethnic cleansing.
Meanwhile, the Constitutional Review Committee of Parliament said on Wednesday that it was considering a preliminary report on written submissions, and an initial report on the nationwide public hearings conducted over the past two months on the proposal to amend section 25 of the Constitution to allow for expropriation of land without compensation.
Replying to questions in the National Assembly on Wednesday President Cyril Ramaphosa urged members of Parliament to focus on stability in the country and on the achievement of development through transformation.
He said a programme of land redistribution was required to heal the historical “festering wound” of land dispossession and enable the transformation and development without which South Africa will experience instability.
Ramaphosa said the government was working with its social partners to address the immediate economic challenges and to effect far-reaching reforms, that will place the economy on a new path of inclusive growth and job creation.
- African News Agency (ANA)
