The US embassy in South Africa has tacitly rebuked President Donald Trump over his controversial tweet about the killing of white farmers and the government's land reform plans, the respected Foreign Policy publication has reported.

The embassy sent a cable, which was entitled “Despite Crime Epidemic, Farm Murders Down" and said that there was “no evidence that murders on farms specifically target white people or are politically motivated,” Foreign Policy reported.

“Farmers suggested that they are more vulnerable to violence because of the remoteness of the farms and inadequate responses of law enforcement agencies, but they also noted that farm violence has never resulted in any kind of land seizure,” according to the cable, which Foreign Policy said it had obtained.

Last week, Mr Trump caused a storm by tweeting that he had asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to closely study "land and farm seizures and expropriations and the large scale killing of farmers" in South Africa.