Johannesburg — Government is ready to act if Julius Malema and his organisation, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), act on threats to seize farms, Beeld reported on Friday.
Agriculture Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson told the newspaper that if Malema and EFF supporters occupied farms or agricultural land, action would be taken.
"There is no way we will allow people to sow discord in our farming communties for party-political gains," she was quoted as saying.
She was reacting to the EFF's founding manifesto, released on Thursday, in which the organisation said that all land should be transferred, without compensation, to the state.
Joemat-Pettersson told Beeld that it was a misperception that all commercial farmers were white. Violence and farm murders had already traumatised rural communities. Anyone who encouraged illegal action on farms would face the full might of the law, she said.
She warned farmers not to take the law into their own hands and gave assurances that Cabinet members of the security cluster would do whatever it took to stabilise the situation.
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