African Christian Democratic Party MP Louis Green got more than he bargained for in parliament yesterday when he asked President Thabo Mbeki whether he agreed with Stellenbosch University professor Sampie Terreblanche that there were three nations in South Africa.

In a supplementary question during president's question time, Green wanted to challenge Mbeki's two-nation theory - a rich white nation and a poor black nation. He wanted to know if Mbeki agreed that there were, in fact, three nations: a non-racial middle-class of four million whites and 11 million blacks, a poor lower class of mainly working-class blacks and a mainly black unemployed under-class.

Green was referring to the much-debated book by Terreblanche, A History of Inequality in South Africa 1652-2002, which was published in January and criticises the ANC government for neglecting the poor.

Mbeki said he had not read the Terreblanche book and said he would be grateful if Green would give him a copy. "I will read it but I think we should rely on our own eyes," Mbeki said.

"You don't have to go to Stellenbosch or any other university to see what is in front of your own eyes," Mbeki said.

"Just look around Cape Town - it is a continuation of the cleavages that we inherited from the apartheid system."

But Mbeki was not finished with Green, who hit the headlines last month when he was expelled from parliament's ethics committee after alleging the investigation into Deputy President Jacob Zuma's business interests was a cover-up.

The committee later cleared Zuma, although opposition parties also claimed the investigation was a whitewash. Mbeki said he had no intention of denying Green a chance to be a member of the black middle class.

"It is a good thing if the honourable member, who was discriminated against during the apartheid era, becomes very successful and prosperous," Mbeki said to chuckles from the government benches.

Mbeki said it did not have a negative effect on society if some prospered.

"I do not agree that we should keep the honourable Louis Green poor because other black people are poor," Mbeki said.

"So, indeed, read Sampie Terreblanche," Mbeki concluded. "But also use your eyes."

With acknowledgements to John Battersby and the Cape Times.