The South African government has begun the process of seizing land from owners in cases where the negotiation for compensation has stalled. Two game farms in Limpopo province are being targeted after the government offered the owners one-tenth of the asking price. 
 
 The process moved forward after negotiations with the white owners of the properties stalled, according to South Africa's City Press newspaper. Akkerland Boerdery, the company of property owners Johan Steenkamp and Arnold Cloete, demanded 200 million rand ($13.7 million) for the land, but is being offered just 20 million rand ($1.37 million). 
 
 Earlier this year, Akkerland Boerdery was sent notice that an inspection of the properties would be held in order to audit their value before being handed over to the state. 
 
 Steenkamp told Newsweek that the decision was delivered on very short notice during a long weekend of South African public holidays in March. The notice demanded that the keys to the farm be handed over within seven days, forcing them to seek legal representation and file an urgent application to the courts. 
 
 The owners obtained an injunction to hold off eviction until a court had ruled on the case. The application was opposed by the Department of Rural Development and Land Affairs. 
 
 Mashile Mokono, head of the department, said via City Press that the government was committed to speeding up land-reform policies, adding that Land Reform Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane signed another two final orders to expedite the seizure. 
 
 Mokono said this was not a case of expropriation without compensation, but the courts would have to decide on what "just and equitable" compensation is. 
 
 MIKE HUTCHINGS/AFP/Getty Images 
 
 According to City Press, South African government documents from 2006 show that a claim by the Musekwa tribe was lodged against Akkerland Boerdery in 1996, which the owners are disputing. Meanwhile, an attempt to purchase the land was made by Coal of Africa (now MC Mining) for the Makhado mining project. 
 
 "What makes the Akkerland case unique is that they apparently were not given the opportunity to first dispute the claim in court, as the law requires,” AgriSA, a union that largely represents white farm owners, said through spokeswoman Annelize Crosby. 
 
 In May, the country’s ruling African National Congress said it would "test the argument" that land redistribution without compensating owners was allowed under current law, Al Jazeera reported. 
 
 That would have prevented the riskier process of trying to amend the South African constitution to do so. However, President Cyril Ramaphosa, who took office in February, said at the end of July that the country would go ahead with plans to change the constitution. 
 
 “It has become pertinently clear that our people want the constitution to be more explicit about expropriation of land without compensation as demonstrated in the public hearings,” Ramaphosa said. 
 
 Twenty-five years since the end of the apartheid system, which saw the majority-black South African population treated as second-class citizens and denied basic rights, most land in the country remains in the hands of white owners. Land reform efforts began when apartheid ended, but the reality of continued white ownership is a lingering reminder of inequality in the country. 
 
 Farmers and some investors have opposed land seizures, arguing that it could negatively impact the country’s already struggling economy. In recent years, South Africa’s economic growth has slowed significantly, falling well below the 5 percent annual growth the government hopes for. Unemployment in the country has also reached near record highs, according to Al Jazeera. 
 
 Afriforum, a group representing South Africa’s white Afrikaner minority, released what it claimed to be a list of 190 farms the government is targeting for seizure. The organization told farmers to check the list and contact it for legal assistance to fight back. 
 
 The South African government Department of Rural Development and Land Reform has denied the validity of the list. ||||| A record 400 farmers attacked in 2017, between one or two murdered a week. 
 
 THE South African government has begun the process of seizing land from white farmers. 
 
 Local newspaper City Press reports two game farms in the northern province of Limpopo are the first to be targeted for unilateral seizure after negotiations with the owners to purchase the properties stalled. 
 
 While the government says it intends to pay, owners Akkerland Boerdery wanted 200 million rand ($18.7 million) for the land — they’re being offered just 20 million rand ($1.87 million). 
 
 “Notice is hereby given that a terrain inspection will be held on the farms on April 5, 2018 at 10am in order to conduct an audit of the assets and a handover of the farm’s keys to the state,” a letter sent to the owners earlier this year said. 
 
 Akkerland Boerdery obtained an urgent injunction to prevent eviction until a court had ruled on the issue, but the Department of Rural Development and Land Affairs is opposing the application. 
 
 “What makes the Akkerland case unique is that they apparently were not given the opportunity to first dispute the claim in court, as the law requires,” AgriSA union spokeswoman Annelize Crosby told the paper. 
 
 These farms are on the goverment's #farmlist that ⁦@afriforum⁩ exposed. And yet government still denies that the list exists... but it is now clear that government is lying to the public. https://t.co/U40G0U1GIv — Kallie Kriel (@kalliekriel) August 19, 2018 
 
 It comes as the South African government pushes ahead with plans to amend the country’s constitution to allow for the expropriation of land without compensation. 
 
 The seizures are intended to test the ability of the government to take land under existing laws, which the ruling African National Congress has previously stated is allowable if “in the public interest”. 
 
 Earlier this month, City Press reported the government had drawn up a list of 139 farms it planned to seize “to test out” section 25 of the constitution. 
 
 The newspaper said employees at the department had been ordered to press ahead with the process at the Land Claims Court. 
 
 If the seizures go ahead, it would be the first time the state refuses to pay market value for land. Since the end of apartheid in 1994, the ANC has followed a “willing seller, willing buyer” process to redistribute white-owned farms to blacks. 
 
 A 2017 government audit found white people owned 72 per cent of private farmland in South Africa. According to the 2011 census, there are about 4.6 million white people in South Africa, accounting for 8.9 per cent of the population. 
 
 ANC spokesman Zizi Kodwa would not reveal details of the farms targeted and attempted to play down investor fears, saying the proposed seizures were “tied to addressing the injustices of the past”. 
 
 “Over time I think the markets as well as investors will appreciate that what we are doing is creating policy certainty and creating the conditions for future investment,” he told City Press. 
 
 Afriforum, a civil-rights group representing the white Afrikaner minority, subsequently released what it claimed to be a leaked list of 190 farms “being circulated in the department”, inviting farmers to check if they were on it and asking them to get in touch “so that we can prepare for a joint legal strategy”. 
 
 The government hit back, with department spokeswoman Linda Page telling News24 the list was a fake. “We don’t know where they got it from,” she said. “There is no truth to this document.” 
 
 News24 editor-in-chief Adriaan Basson slammed Afriforum for “disgusting fearmongering in the highest degree”. “Will Afriforum take action against (deputy CEO) Ernst Roets for distributing fake news?” he tweeted. “Will they apologise? We need cool heads — not arsonists — in this debate.” 
 
 On Sunday, Mr Roets tweeted that the two farms — Salaita and Lukin — were the first two names on Afriforum’s list. 
 
 “So the debate about the authenticity of the list is settled then?” he said. “We hope that the gravity of the state’s plans for expropriation is understood and that people will see through the dishonesty of the Department of Land Reform and Rural Development. 
 
 “We hope that the attempts to discredit the legitimacy of the list has now been proven to be malicious for good. We shouldn’t be misled by those who sing Kumbaya while the state is planning to expropriate property.” 
 
 AgriSA had described Afriforum’s release of the list as “irresponsible” and “inflammatory”, saying “cursory background research showed” several inaccuracies, including that a number of the farms were joint ventures co-owned by black people. 
 
 Earlier this month, cattle farmer Jo-an Engelbrecht told the ABC’s Foreign Correspondent his farm just outside Johannesburg was now “worth zero”. 
 
 “We had several auctions in the last two or three weeks cancelled because there was no people interested in buying the land,” he said. “Why would you buy a farm to know the government’s going to take it?” 
 
 frank.chung@news.com.au ||||| Johannesburg (CNN) South Africa hit back at Donald Trump on Thursday after the US President criticized the country's land reform policies in an overnight tweet. 
 
 The controversy began when Trump tweeted late Wednesday that he had asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to "closely study the South Africa land and farm seizures and expropriations and the large scale killing of farmers." 
 
 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." @TuckerCarlson @FoxNews 
 
 Trump's tweet appeared to be in response to a report on Fox News which alleged that the South African government was "seizing land from white farmers." 
 
 On Thursday, the South African government said Trump's tweet was "based on false information" and said it would call on the US Embassy to explain the President's remarks. 
 
 "South Africa totally rejects this narrow perception which only seeks to divide our nation and reminds us of our colonial past," the government tweeted. "South Africa will speed up the pace of land reform in a careful and inclusive manner that does not divide our nation." 
 
 South Africa totally rejects this narrow perception which only seeks to divide our nation and reminds us of our colonial past. #landexpropriation @realDonaldTrump @PresidencyZA 
 
 "Hysterical comments and statements do not assist in the process," Khusela Diko, spokeswoman for President Cyril Ramaphosa, told CNN. "The majority of South Africans want to see land reform. The majority of our farmers, white and black want to be a part of this initiative." 
 
 A complex and racially-charged issue 
 
 Land is a complex issue in South Africa. Racist policies of the past forcefully removed black and non-white South Africans from the land for white use. 
 
 There has been a land redistribution and restitution provision in the country's constitution since South Africa held its first democratic elections in 1994. The government has been criticized for not moving quickly enough to settle land disputes. 
 
 The political debate over land reform has stepped up a level ahead of next year's elections. 
 
 Farm seizures, as described in the Fox report, are not ongoing in South Africa. However, President Ramaphosa announced on July 31 that the ruling African National Congress would seek to change the country's constitution to explicitly allow land that was seized during apartheid to be expropriated without compensation. 
 
 Ramaphosa delivers his State of the Nation address in Cape Town in February. 
 
 On Wednesday, Ramaphosa told parliament that expropriations formed one part of a broader land redistribution and agricultural development program that would only be introduced following public and parliamentary consultation. 
 
 "Acceleration of land redistribution is necessary not only to redress a grave historical injustice, but also to bring more producers into the agricultural sector and to make more land available for cultivation," he said. 
 
 In an article published in the UK's Financial Times early Thursday, Ramaphosa described access to land as one of the areas where "severe inequality between black and white South Africans" is "most devastating." 
 
 Killings of farmers at a 20-year low 
 
 Despite Trump's claims about the "large scale killing of farmers," research published in June 2018 by AgriSA, one of the country's largest farmer organizations, showed that killings had reached a 20-year low. 
 
 Forty-seven farmers were killed in 2017-18, according to AgriSA, marking a steady decline from the 153 farmers who lost their lives in 1998. 
 
 Crime is a serious problem in South Africa more broadly. There were more than 19,016 murders nationwide in 2017, according to police statistics, a slight increase from 2016. 
 
 The New York-based Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said it was "extremely disturbing" to see Trump echoing "a longstanding and false white supremacist claim that South Africa's white farmers are targets of large-scale, racially-motivated killings by South Africa's black majority." 
 
 In a statement Thursday, the ADL called on Trump to "understand the facts and realities of the situation in South Africa, rather than repeat disturbing, racially divisive talking points." 
 
 Tweet was 'ill-informed' and 'incendiary' 
 
 In a speech to farmers in Bela Bela, Limpopo, which was prepared before Trump's tweet, South Africa's deputy president David Mabuza insisted the government would "discourage" those aiming to divide the country over land reform. 
 
 "We would like to discourage those who are using this sensitive and emotive issue of land to divide us as South Africans by distorting our land reform measures to the international community, and spreading falsehoods that our 'white farmers' are facing the onslaught from their own government," he said. 
 
 "This is far from the truth." 
 
 Trump is not the first foreign politician to take aim at South Africa's land reform policies. 
 
 In March, South Africa reacted sharply after Australian immigration minister Peter Dutton suggested white South African farmers should receive special visas due to the "horrific circumstances" they faced at home. 
 
 Ruth Hall, a leading expert on land issues in South Africa and a professor at the University of the Western Cape, described Trump's tweet as "ill-informed." 
 
 "The kind of statement that Trump made is characteristic of him. It is unfortunate, ill-informed, it is incendiary. What it does demonstrate is that the white right wing in South Africa has been successful in internationalizing their agenda," Hall told CNN. 
 
 "It also puts a spanner in the works of the concerted effort that President Ramaphosa has been making to clarify the land reform issue to the international community and investors. The government has clearly stated that there will be no land grabs." 
 
 Trump's tweet comes a month after his predecessor, Barack Obama, delivered a speech alongside Ramaphosa in Johannesburg in which he warned against the rise of "the politics of fear." 
 
 Obama's speech was seen by observers as a veiled criticism of some of Trump's policies. 
 
 This story has been updated with the correct transcription of Trump's tweet and the correct date of Ramaphosa's proposal for constitutional reform.
– The South African government has begun the controversial process of seizing land from white farmers in cases where negotiations to purchase the plots have fallen through. Per Newsweek, two game farms in the country's Limpopo province will be the first ones taken under the order after their owners declined to sell for a government offer that was a tenth of the asking price. While South African authorities say they still intend to pay Johan Steenkamp and Arnold Cloete, the owners of the land, the equivalent of $1.37 million, the men had priced the land at $13.7 million. Per News.com.au, the farmers' landholding company, Akkerland Boerdery, was sent a letter in April regarding an audit of the land that would be conducted by the government. Akkerland Boerdery reportedly received an injunction to prevent their eviction, however the country's Department of Rural Development and Land Affairs has opposed the injunction. Should the seizures go through, it would reportedly be the first case of the government refusing to pay market value. Under existing laws, such a seizure is allowed only if it's in the public interest. Since the end of apartheid, the government has only redistributed land to black South Africans only from willing white sellers.