Arthur Mutambara warns South Africa

Former Zimbabwean deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara has warned South Africa against the chaotic approach in the expropriation of land calling on them to learn from their northern neighbours.

"There is a problem that you must watch out for as South Africans, land expropriation is a good idea but might be abused by the elite who take a good idea and use it as a political tool," he said in a presentation at Rhodes University.

He said the politicians abuse the land expropriation subject to gain votes without commitment to the idea.

"The number one lesson is, don't allow a good idea to be used by political elites for their self interests. They will talk about it because it's a popular cause, because there is a historical basis but have no commitment to it," said Mutambara.

He called on ANC and EFF to walk the talk on the land revolution.

"Once the land is taken, it must not be distributed in a partisan manner, don't allow the political elites to seize the land and distribute among themselves, that's the lesson we learnt from Zimbabwe," said Mutambara.

He warned those opposed to the land expropriation that there are some arguments advocating for South Africa not to compensate white farmers when it expropriates land but instead the whites should actually compensate the State for using land for free over years.