SA says Trump’s land tweet serves to polarise debate

South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation said it met with a representative from the US Embassy and expressed its disappointment with Washington’s failure to use available diplomatic channels about land reform in the country.

President Donald Trump’s “tweet serves only to polarise the debate on this sensitive and crucial matter,” the department said in an emailed statement on Friday. “The people of South Africa, of all races, are working together through parliament and other legal platforms to find a solution to” land reform.

Trump said in a tweet that he’s asked US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to “closely study the South Africa land and farm seizures and expropriations.” He was intervening in a controversy about whether South Africa should implement a policy of seizing land without paying for it in a bid to address inequalities built up during apartheid and colonial rule.

Source: moneyweb.co.za