FILE PHOTO: Residents erect shacks during an illegal land occupation in Khayelitsha township, Cape Town, South Africa, April 7, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States believes that land confiscation without compensation in South Africa would take that country down the wrong path, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said on Thursday after President Donald Trump raised the issue in a tweet.

“The expropriation of land without compensation ... would risk sending South Africa down the wrong path. We continue to encourage a peaceful and transparent public debate about what we consider to be a very important issue,” Nauert said at a briefing.