Johannesburg – A court battle is looming between President Jacob Zuma and white commercial farmers over his recent statements that South African land was “stolen” from black people.

TAU SA, a union representing mainly white commercial farmers in the country, has announced its intention to take Zuma to the Equality Court if he does not apologise and retract his statement.

The union said on Thursday it had sent a lawyer’s letter demanding an apology and retraction from Zuma and the ANC, and also released the letter publicly.

It said it viewed this statement as constituting hate speech.

In the week leading up to the 104th anniversary of the ANC and its annual January 8 statement in Rustenburg this year, Zuma came out perhaps stronger than he ever has on the land question.

Addressing a cake-cutting ceremony attended by various traditional leaders, Zuma said government now had to buy land that was stolen.

“My problem is the source of poverty, inequality, unemployment is land, which was taken not bought, stolen but the government of the people has to buy it back as if it was sold.

“It was never sold, it was taken, stolen,” said Zuma.

The president also repeated the same sentiments when he delivered the January 8 statement, saying that “the challenges of poverty, inequality and unemployment have their roots in the vast track of land that was stolen from the indigenous people of South Africa”.

With the ANC-led government under pressure to speed up the land redistribution programme, they have appeared to use stronger language on the matter, language usually used by the Economic Freedom Fighters and the ANC’s leftist allies.

This appeared to gain more traction specifically after its National General Council last year, where there were bold admissions about the failures of the land redistribution programme.

But TAU SA has taken issue with these statements, claiming they were factually incorrect as white people who owned land had paid for it.

When pressed on the fact that apartheid and colonialism had, through racist policies on land and forced removals, made it easier for whites to cheaply obtain land while preventing black people from doing so, TAU spokesman Henk van der Graaf said this did not equate to stealing the land.

According to Van der Graaf, they were prepared to present proof in court that there were payments and negotiations with tribal authorities which resulted in land being obtained by white farmers.

“Apartheid was a political system that worked their way, but farmers paid for the land that they now own.

“To say that the land was stolen is not a true reflection of what happened. That is portraying people as thieves and criminals, which they were not. Farmers are not criminals and thieves, they provide food for all South Africans, including Mr Zuma’s own plate of food,” he said.

The ANC said on Thursday it had not received any letter from TAU SA and was reluctant to comment.

However, spokeswoman Khusela Sangoni said Zuma had communicated the views of the ANC that the land was taken illegally from the African majority.

“We would not want to be seen as distancing the ANC from the president’s comments, but we have not received that letter.

“What we do know is that the position of the ANC is that whatever words you use to describe how the land was taken, that was done illegally.

“We are not apologetic about that view, there really isn’t anything to apologise for because those are the views of the ANC.

“The land was illegally taken from the African majority, whether you use the word stolen or any other word, it does not change the facts,” said Sangoni.

She said the ANC leadership would have to make a decision on how to proceed with the issue.

TAU SA said it was ready to haul the president before the Equality Court if he failed to apologise and retract his statements.

The Star