Johannesburg - Zambian authorities intend asking its vice-president Guy Scott if his reported remarks about South Africa and President Jacob Zuma were accurate, SABC News reported on Saturday.
Zambia's High Commissioner to SA Muyebe Chikonde was summoned to the International Relations Department in Pretoria on Friday to explain Scott's remarks.
Chikonde said the comments did not reflect the official view of South Africa, the broadcaster reported.
Zambia assured South Africa of its close ties and said it would ask Scott, when he returned from holiday, whether the remarks attributed to him were accurate.
South Africa on Thursday demanded an explanation from Zambia after the report was published by a UK newspaper earlier this week.
Scott said Zuma was like former apartheid leader FW de Klerk.
Said Scott: “He's 1/8Zuma 3/8 very like De Klerk. He tells us: 'you just leave Zimbabwe to me.' Excuse me, who the hell liberated you anyway, was it not us? I mean, I quite like him, he seems a rather genial character but I pity him his advisers.”
Scott went on to speak about South Africans, and black citizens.
“The South Africans are very backward in terms of historical development... I hate South Africans... they really think they're the bees' knees and actually they've been the cause of so much trouble in this part of the world,” he was quoted as saying.
“I have a suspicion the blacks model themselves on the whites now that they're in power.” - Sapa