‘Tatters and famine’ — DA tears into Ramaphosa’s Zim praise

Ramaphosa

Cape Town – The DA has criticised President Cyril Ramaphosa for praising Zimbabwe’s ruling party, Zanu-PF, over its controversial land reform policies during a speech at the Zimbabwe Agricultural Show in Harare.

According to The Citizen, Ramaphosa said Zimbabwe’s land redistribution was necessary for historical redress and food security, drawing parallels with South Africa’s own history of dispossession.

“Most of the country’s commercially productive land and large-scale commercial farms were owned by whites. The black majority was confined to communal lands and all but completely excluded from commercial farming.

The DA argued his comments amounted to endorsing Robert Mugabe’s destructive Fast Track Land Reform Programme, which displaced farmers, collapsed the economy, and violated human rights.

The party accused Ramaphosa of “whitewashing” Zimbabwe’s failures to justify the ANC’s own expropriation agenda, insisting his stance does not represent the government of national unity (GNU).

“The DA condemns and rejects this praise by Ramaphosa for a process which left Zimbabwe in tatters, destroying its economy, destroying its foreign relations, and creating famine for its people,” DA national spokesperson and Member of Parliament Willie Aucamp said in a statement.

“Ramaphosa is attempting to whitewash the disaster in Zimbabwe, to create momentum for the ANC’s land expropriation agenda in terms of the Expropriation Act of 2025.

“The DA firmly believes in the need to redress the injustices of the past, particularly through fair and lawful land reform that restores dignity and economic opportunity. However, this redress must occur within the bounds of the Constitution and the rule of law, which Expropriation Without Compensation does not meet.

The DA, as a governing partner in South Africa’s government of national unity, reiterates that it is not an agreed or formal policy of the South African government to endorse Zimbabwe’s land confiscation programme.

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