Cape Town - As the call for land expropriation intensifies, Australia's home affairs minister has reportedly instructed his department to consider fast-tracking the visa applications of white South African farmers who want to escape the "horrific circumstances" they are forced to endure in their home country.
Peter Dutton's order came after an Austrialian media house ran an explosive article alleging that white farmers in South Africa are being murdered, tortured and having their land forcibly seized.
According to a report in the Telegraph, Dutton cited the "horrific circumstances" of land seizures as a reason for Australia to give white SA farmers preferential treatment.
The issue of land expropriation without compensation has been a hot topic in SA and abroad after Parliament gave the go-ahead for Section 25 of the Constitution to be amended to give effect to the ANC government's policy of expropriating land without compensation.
According to a land audit by the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform last year, whites own 72% of SA’s farm and agricultural land, with coloureds coming in at 15% and blacks at 4%.
Social media users condemned Dutton's statements, with some calling out Australia on its own human rights record.
#auspol #Demented #Dutton🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮 considers fast-track visas for white South African farmers https://t.co/VPEzUNFJiJ
— DameFreeradicalone2u (@freeradicalone) March 14, 2018
Western governments do not like any redistributive approach to justice. I guess theirs is the shared history of disposessing the other/the less human who must die of poverty. Australia considers fast-track visas for white South African farmers https://t.co/4fyHS65rtZ
— VusiK (@vwkweyama) March 14, 2018
Amazing: Australia considers fast-track visas for white South African farmers "due to their horrific living conditions". Same country that pays Papua New Guinea to keep dark skinned far away from its waters. https://t.co/LAKuRWjlbt
— Carlos Lopes (@LopesInsights) March 14, 2018
@PeterDutton_MP On the issue of possibly fast tracking visas for South African farmers. Could you provide ONE SINGLE example of land being seized from a white SA farmer? Taken by force as was the case in Zimbabwe. Just one example.
— Jo'burg_BBC (@BBC_Joburg) March 14, 2018
"Peter Dutton announces fast track visa program for dispossessed white South African farmers" is a satirical headline and I eagerly await waking up tomorrow to learn it was an obvious joke
— phil (@Superchair14) March 14, 2018