JOHANNESBURG – Deputy President David Mabuza said on Thursday that land restitution “Will be done within the confines of our constitutional framework”, and the ANC “Will not support ‘land-grab’ processes intended to undermine the economy and the work of the agriculture sector”.
The Deputy President was addressing farmers at a meeting on Thursday near Bela Bela, Limpopo, whom he told that the government would also safeguard the estimated R460 billion worth of investment in agricultural assets and would protect the sector to prevent any contraction and threat to food security.
Mabuza’s comments follow a tweet by US President Donald Trump that he had asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to study land seizures in South Africa, raising concerns of possible sanctions.
“We would like to discourage those who are using this sensitive and emotive issue of land to divide us as South Africans by distorting our land reform measures to the international community, and spreading falsehoods that our ‘white farmers’ are facing the onslaught from their own government,” Mabuza said.
Mabuza said claims that South Africa’s white farmers face an onslaught were “far from the truth” and should not be used to distort the government’s land-reform measures, Deputy President David Mabuza said.