South Africa: Mandela Foundation Seeks Meeting with Zindzi Mandela Over ‘Land Thieves’ Tweets

The Nelson Mandela Foundation has called for a meeting with South Africa’s ambassador to Denmark Zindzi Mandela after she she posted several tweets about land that sparked outrage, The Citizen reports . Luzuko Koti, communications director at the Nelson Mandela Foundation, said the organisation was seeking a meeting with Mandela, adding: “We will comment after we have discussed the issue with her.”
A tweet from the unverified account that seemingly belongs to Mandela read: “Dear Apartheid Apologists, your time is over. You will not rule again. We do not fear you. Finally #TheLandIsOurs”. She also addressed “thieving rapist descendants of Van Riebeck [sic]” and “trembling white cowards”, adding that she wondered how the “world of shivering land thieves” was doing.
According to News24 , Mandela made several additional tweets using a shortened #OurLand hashtag and responded to other Twitter users who disagreed with her comments.
Mandela’s tweets drew criticism from Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane who said it felt as if the reconciliation project had “stalled”, and that it left a lot of South Africans feeling like they “no longer had a stake in a democratic South Africa”, writes City Press . In addition, Advocate André Gaum, a commissioner at the SA Human Rights Commission, stated that any complaints received by the commission over the tweets would be investigated.
Lobby group AfriForum took issue with Mandela’s comments and released a statement calling on Foreign Affairs Minister Naledi Pandor to dismiss her. “With her Twitter messages, Mandela displayed a rancorous attitude towards white residents in the country and in a very public arena, contributed to the division of local communities. With false allegations and demeaning terms such as ‘cowards’ and ‘land thieves’, she is contributing to a dangerous discourse of scapegoating,” the organisation’s deputy CEO Alana Bailey said.