'There are no concerted efforts to kill white farmers in this country'

24 August 2018 10:23 AM

An associate professor of Law at North-West University says calling farm murders in South Africa a genocide or even ethnic cleansing is not supported by facts.

Prof Elmien Du Plessis, is responding to a tweet posted by US president Donald Trump on Thursday in which he states that he has asked the US Secretary of State to "closely study the South Africa land and farm seizures and expropriations and the large-scale killing of farmers".

She says that she doesn't support 'spinning' past incidents in such a way to prove that there is a concerted effort to kill white farmers in the country now.

Read: AfriForum 'proud' of Trump's stance on SA land expropriation, farm killings

Spinning this issue of real safety into an issue that is connected to a concerted effort to kill white people, drive them from their farms so that we can seize their farms - I don't support such a view and I don't think the facts on the ground support such a view.
— Prof Elmien Du Plessis, Associate Professor of Law at North-West University

I think we must see land reform as something that must happen. It's a legitimate aim, we are trying to redistribute land and we are basically having conversations on how to go about that.
— Prof Elmien Du Plessis, Associate Professor of Law at North-West University

Du Plessis says although she is still trying to get information from the department, through her research she hasn't found land that was expropriated for land reform purposes, with or without compensation.

I don't think if there's going to be a change in the constitution it's going to be drastic but it will require the balancing of rights. It will still require us to look at the interest of the owner versus the interest of the public in land reform.
— Prof Elmien Du Plessis, Associate Professor of Law at North-West University

To hear the rest of the conversation with Prof Elmien Du Plessis, listen below:

This article first appeared on CapeTalk : 'There are no concerted efforts to kill white farmers in this country'

Written by: Lengwadishang Ramphele