Cape Town - EFF leader Julius Malema has blamed the Democratic Alliance (DA) and president Cyril Ramaphosa for US President Donald Trump’s tweet on South Africa’s land reform.
In a tweet which sparked social media outrage, Trump said he had asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to “closely study the South Africa land and farm seizures” and the killing of farmers in South Africa.
Malema speaking during a media briefing accused the DA and Ramaphosa’s "Group" (faction) of being responsible for the utterances by Trump.
“We'll not engage government about Trump, this is a government of cowards. Our suspicion is that the DA is involved in this thing. Our suspicion is that Cyril’s group is involved in this thing.
“They do not believe in the expropriation of land without compensation, including Cyril himself. So they want to use these types of threats to get out of this thing. We must never be fooled here, we're not kids,” said Malema.
During an answer and question session in Parliament, Ramaphosa hinted that land will be expropriated, but was mum on whether without compensation.
Ramaphosa also rejected a proposal by the EFF that all land should be under the sole custodianship of the state.
Malema said South African Communist Party and Jeremy Cronin, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan did not agree with the view that land should be appropriated without compensation.
“Our suspicion is that Cyril's group, the DA are involved in this thing. They don't believe in land expropriation of without compensation. They are lobbying for international support against this. At least Afriforum is doing it in the open,” said Malema.
Lobby group Afriforum has claimed credit for Trump’s tweet, saying that its work in the US has led to his tweets on land expropriation and murders on farms.