The original theme of Mrs May’s visit to the continent was to discuss trade ties ahead of the UK’s exit from the EU bloc.
But on Tuesday, she revealed she would be discussing the highly-contested removal of white Afrikaan farmers from land, with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday.
The Prime Minister arrived in South Africa amid a fierce debate over expropriation of land in the country.
Speaking at a press conference at the ID Mkhize Secondary School in Gugulethu in Cape Town on Tuesday morning, Mrs May confirmed that the UK wished to support land reform in the country – as long as it was fair, legal and non-violent.
Mrs May said: “The UK has for some time now supported land reform.
“Land reform that is legal, that is transparent, that is generated through a democratic process.
“It’s an issue that I raised and discussed with President Ramaphosa when he was in London earlier this year.
“I’ll be talking about it with him later today.”
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said in July the government will go ahead with changing the constitution to allow authorities to redistribute land.
Many white farmers in South Africa have been living in fear since July 31, after President Cyril Ramaphosa, confirmed his African National Congress (ANC) party would pass an amendment to the country’s constitution.
The president claims taking farms away from white landowners would make South Africa “fairer”.
Mr Ramaphosa claimed the new amendment was designed to “outline more clearly the conditions under which expropriation of land without compensation can be affected”.
Writing in the Financial Times last week, Mr Ramaphosa said: “By bringing more land into productive use, by giving more South Africans assets and opportunities, the country is creating conditions for greater, more inclusive and more meaningful growth”.
But between January and March 2018, there were 109 attacks and 15 murders on white farms, averaging around one death every five days.
Last week, ANC chairman Gwede Mantashe sparked panic among the farming community when he said that any farmers owning more than 25,000 acres of land would have it taken from them – and without any compensation.
White farmers in South Africa claim to have been subjected to horrific attacks this year, which were allegedly ignored by police and encouraged by the government.
During her speech on Monday, Mrs May also announced that the wanted the UK to be “the G7’s number one investor” in the continent by 2022, as she seeks to strengthen ties with countries such as Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa –some of the wealthiest nations on the African continent.
She opened her speech by paying tribute to former South African president Nelson Mandela and former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan.
She said: “While free trade and globalisation have brought huge benefits, they have not been felt by everyone and too many of our citizens fear that they will be left behind. “
She is expected to discuss maintaining the overall British aid budget at 0.7 percent of economic output but will add that she will be “unashamed” to use it in a way that helps Britain.
She said she wishes to use the UK’s aid budget to help British private sector companies invest on the continent.