Come to Oz, South African farmers told

AUSTRALIA is considering fasttracking visas for white South African farmers so they can flee for a ‘civilised country’, a senior minister has said.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, who oversees immigration, said the South Africans deserved ‘special attention’ on refugee or humanitarian grounds. He cited reports of land seizures and violence targeting the white farmers.

‘If you look at the footage, you hear the stories and you read the accounts, it’s a horrific circumstance that they face,’ Mr Dutton said. ‘I’ve asked my department to look at options and ways in which we can provide some assistance because people need help, and they need help from a civilised country like ours.’

Despite reports of violence, South African government spokesman Ndivhuwo Mabaya told the BBC that there was ‘no need for anyone to be scared’.

‘The land redistribution programme will be done according to the law,’ he said. ‘We remain a united nation here in South Africa – both black and white.’

White people still own around 72 per cent of individually- owned farms and South Africa’s new president, Cyril Ramaphosa, has vowed to ‘escalate the pace’ of redistributing land to poorer blacks.

The country’s ruling ANC party has backed expropriation of land without compensation.