Donald Trump’s moves to discredit impending land reforms in South Africa has been met with stern reactions. The country’s best known critic, Julius Malema, has responded to Trump’s tweet alleging ‘large scale killings of farmers.’
Trump said he had asked his Secretary of State to look into the matter of “seizing land from white farmers”.
However, in a media briefing in Johannesburg, Malema countered Trump.
He said the US President was not saying “anything new we haven’t heard from white people. I don’t have time for nonsense. I expected it.”
Malema noted it was not just the US that would criticise expropriation of land without compensation.
“Britain will come for us and EU will come for us. For everything good comes the pain before.
“Donald Trump hasn’t said anything painful. The pain is still to come. They will kill us for this.”
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On the allegation that white farmers are being killed in South Africa, he said:
“There’s no white genocide here. They are killing black people in the US.
“There’s no white genocide here. It’s absolute rubbish to say there’s white genocide. There’s black genocide in the USA. They’re killing black people in the USA.”
Malema’s party has been pushing hard for land reform – and now the ruling African National Congress (ANC) is pushing ahead with lands to expropriate land without compensation.
But Malema hinted that President Cyril Ramaphosa’s heart wasn’t in it, saying it was difficult to explain a policy one didn’t believe in.
Meanwhile, South Africa’s presidential spokeswoman has said that Trump was “misinformed”.
Last month, South Africa said it would go ahead with plans to amend the constitution, allowing land to be expropriated without compensation.
The redistribution of land was a fundamental principle of the governing African National Congress (ANC) during its struggle against white-minority rule.
But 24 years after apartheid ended, white people – who make up just 9% of the population – own 72% of the farmland held by individuals, according to government figures.