UK PM backs SA's land reform programme

President Cyril Ramaphosa held a bilateral meeting with the UK Prime Minister Theresa May earlier this year. Image source: Flickr

The prime minister said this in response to a question by the SABC at a business forum event in Cape Town ahead of meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa at the Presidential headquarter’s in Tuynhuys on Tuesday, 28 August.

Her remarks come not long after US President Donald Trump posted a tweet over South Africa’s land reform programme last week, a tweet that the Department of International Relations and Cooperation has since described as “unfortunate”.

“The UK has for some time now supported land reform. Land reform that is legal, that is transparent, that is generated through a democratic process,” May said.

She went on to say that SA’s land reform programme is “…an issue that I raised and discussed with President Ramaphosa when he was in London earlier this year. I’ll be talking about it with him later today”.

Conditional support

The prime minister said that during those discussions, President Ramaphosa had further briefed her about South Africa’s approach to the talks, which she welcomed. She reportedly went on to say that the support was on condition that there will be no land grabs during the process.

Her remarks come after international relations minister Lindiwe Sisulu said at a media briefing on Monday that the department had decided not to sit back and allow lobby groups to go around the world spreading false information about SA’s land reform.

“We indicated to the chargé d'affaires that what they had reported was unfortunate and it was based on information that was not verified,” she said during the media briefing, adding that she wished they had contacted South Africa first to clarify the information.