South Africa Hits Back At Trump Over Land 'Seizure' Tweet

The South African government has lashed out at President Donald Trump after he tweeted that his administration would be looking into farm seizures and the "large scale killing of farmers" in South Africa.

The government said Trump's tweet was based on "false information" and reflected a "narrow perception which only seeks to divide our nation and reminds us of our colonial past."
 It said it will be meeting with the U.S. Embassy as it seeks to clarify Trump's remarks.

Though the ruling African National Congress, which has been in power since 1994, has pledged to close that gap, progress has been slow. In July, President Cyril Ramaphosa said his party would amend the constitution so the state could expropriate land without compensation to speed up the land reform process.

Trump's tweet followed a segment on Fox News on Wednesday in which host Tucker Carlson claimed Ramaphosa had already started "seizing land from his own citizens without compensation because they are the wrong skin color," calling the alleged seizures "immoral."


Though South Africa's constitution has not yet been amended and the government has not seized any major agricultural land, the prospect has sent panic through some white farming communities who worry the policy will strip them of their land, cause land prices to plummet or make them the target of potentially violent land seizures.