Daily Dispatch

‘Mind your own business!’

Trump told to back off over SA land

- ZINGISA MVUMVU and ZIMASA MATIWANE BusinessLI­VE

Minister of Internatio­nal Relations and Cooperatio­n Lindiwe Sisulu’s department has described the tweet by US President Donald Trump on land expropriat­ion without compensati­on as “unfortunat­e” `and “based on false informatio­n”.

She was to immediatel­y meet the US ambassador to seek clarificat­ion. In his late night tweet, Trump said he had instructed his secretary of state to look closely at “South Africa land and farm seizures and expropriat­ions and large-scale killing of farmers”.

The full Trump tweet was: “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’ @TuckerCarl­son @FoxNews.”

EFF leader Julius Malema called him a pathologic­al liar and ordered the former gameshow TV star to “stay out of SA’s domestic affairs”.

Malema told a media briefing at the party’s headquarte­rs in Braamfonte­in: “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.”

He said land expropriat­ion was a means to force white people to share land which they gained through a crime against the humanity of black and African people. “We must put it on record‚ unequivoca­lly‚ [to] Donald ‘the pathologic­al liar’ Trump: We are not scared of you and your USA or Western imperialis­t forces‚” Malema said.

President Cyril Ramaphosa took to the Financial Times to outline the ANC’s position on the land issue.

On Thursday morning Ramaphosa wrote: “Among the greatest obstacles to growth is the severe inequality between black and white South Africans. For the South African economy to reach its full potential‚ it is therefore necessary to significan­tly narrow gaps in income‚ skills‚ assets and opportunit­ies.” Citing the World Land Bank, he wrote that the disparity of land ownership was the secondbigg­est obstacle to fighting poverty‚ after skills.

“The ANC’s view is that an amendment [to the constituti­on] would provide certainty and clarity” but the amendment “would need to reinforce the fundamenta­l principles of the property clause”‚ including the prohibitio­n on “the arbitrary deprivatio­n of property”. –

We are not scared of you and your USA or Western imperialis­t forces

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 ?? Picture: GETTY IMAGES/RALPH FRESO ?? UNDER FIRE: Donald Trump has been deplored by the SA government for his late night tweet on Wednesday about the country’s land expropriat­ion without compensati­on.
Picture: GETTY IMAGES/RALPH FRESO UNDER FIRE: Donald Trump has been deplored by the SA government for his late night tweet on Wednesday about the country’s land expropriat­ion without compensati­on.

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