President Thabo Mbeki's silence on controversial statements by Agriculture Minister Lulu Xingwana about abuse of farm workers were both telling and disturbing, the African Christian Democratic Party said on Thursday.
"It creates the impression that Xingwana is speaking with the consent of Mr Mbeki, and that they are working in unison to act out African National Congress strategy," ACDP agriculture spokesperson Francois van Wyk said in a statement.
In the meantime, he said, South Africa was "reeling" under the effects of the brutal killings of farmers who had added enormous value to the country after 1994.
He said Xingwana's recent "exaggerated" statements about the purported widespread abuse of farm workers were nothing but opportunistic and dangerous 2009 election talk.
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"It amounts to cheap politics, at the risk of endangering the lives of farm owners and their workers."
Xingwana last year claimed that violence against women and children was rife in the sector, and claimed that farmers inhumanely evicted workers.
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