Publications
Partners
The SA Communist Party has condemned comments made by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on the issue of land expropriation in South Africa.
During a speech in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia on Wednesday Pompeo said: “South Africa is debating an amendment to permit the expropriation of private property without compensation [and] that would be disastrous for the economy and most importantly for the South African people.”
However, SACP spokesperson Alex Mashilo told City Press that land expropriation was necessary to redress the dispossessions of the past.
“The party [SACP] adopted a programme in 1950 providing for [land] expropriation under democratic conditions to end landlessness and ensure equatable access to natural resources and end inequality,” he said.
“We have our own brains; we are able to assess what European colonialism supported by the US imperialism did in this continent.
“The resources of this continent are what made successful many technological breakthroughs in the US. It is not for him to tell us what to do and what not to do.”
This is not the first time Pompeo’s comments have come under fire this week.
On Tuesday, Chinese ambassador to South Africa Lin Songtian cast a shadow on Pompeo’s speech at the Munich Security Conference in Germany earlier this month. During his address, Pompeo said that China “exerted pieces of national infrastructure as payment when countries can’t meet the onerous loan terms”.
Songtian said Pompeo’s comments were “irresponsible” and unsympathetic to the crisis faced by China amid the coronavirus epidemic.
Mashilo said that Pompeo’s visit to Senegal, Angola and Ethiopia, was an attempt to turn the continent against other countries.
“Pompeo came to Africa to extend the influence and rule of the US dog-eat-dog capitalist system, he said.
“He wants to pit the continent against other countries and China is one of them. His spirit is not one of peace.”
Meanwhile, the EFF said it was not shocked by Pompeo’s comments, because “they are consistent with the imperialist logic that seeks to parent the world”.
“The domestic affairs of South Africa are for South Africans to resolve, the US has too much blood on its hands to act as a leader of the world and Africa,” said the party.
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Get in touchCity Press | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rise above the clutter | Choose your news | City Press in your inbox | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| City Press is an agenda-setting South African news brand that publishes across platforms. Its flagship print edition is distributed on a Sunday. |
