SA is no Zimbabwe, says US state department on land expropriation
'It may be easy for some to draw comparisons but there are very big differences. In Zimbabwe we saw the government there squash civil society, shut down the media from doing their jobs'
US secretary of state Mike Pompeo will “focus” on SA’s plans to expropriate land without compensation following a discussion with US President Donald Trump, spokesperson Heather Nauert said at a briefing on Thursday night. She confirmed that the South African government and the US embassy in Pretoria had discussed the matter. The meeting follows a tweet in which Trump said: “I have asked Secretary of State @SecPompeo to closely study the South Africa land and farm seizures and expropriations and the large scale killing of farmers. “South African Government is now seizing land from white farmers.”
Nauert said on the possible expropriation of land without compensation, “Our position is that that would risk sending SA down the wrong path.” But Nauert said SA’s land plans could not be compared to Zimbabwe’s disastrous land seizures. “I think that the situation between SA and also Zimbabwe are quite different. “It may be easy for some to draw comparisons but there are very big diff...
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