Mandela made controversial comments about land reform on Twitter over the weekend, labelling white people as “land thieves”.

Pandor says the department has a social media policy that all ambassadors should adhere to.

"We have a social media policy, as the department and it's absolutely imperative that all diplomats observe the policy," said Pandor.

She says her department is in the process of checking the authenticity of the tweets and what prompted Mandela's response.

"Once we have established whether this is genuinely her tweet or set of remarks from her, we will be able to assess whether the comments are in compliance with our social media policy".

eNCA