Terreblanche's death should not spark racial chaos

RAMPHOLO MOLEFHE | Friday April 16, 2010 00:00

Midweek, the hotels and lodges in the otherwise insipid farming village-town of Ventersdorp in South Africa's Northwest Province were bursting at the seams with bookings that could only have been managed by seeking help from surrounding settlements and towns.

And what is the excitement about?  Could it be about the contribution of Terreblanche's farm to the bourgeoning economy of the new South Africa?  Could it be about his proven love for humanity?  Could it be because he so impressed the board that looks after the Nobel Peace Prize that they feel a sense of guilt because they did not reward the man for his humanitarian work?

None of the above!  The excitement comes from the age-old proclivity of the European tribes towards seeking to undermine African achievements.

South Africa will be the first African country to host the largest international spectacle represented in the 2010 World Cup.  Nelson Mandela, the first black president of the country, mobilised immeasurable goodwill for the country in his selfless pursuit of the political objective of freedom and enjoyment of civil liberties for the Africans and the Europeans who oppressed them for four centuries, notwithstanding 27 years of underserved torture for a crime committed to save the humanity of mankind. Who would not quit apartheid until they were threatened with an AK47, cultural boycotts?

The one thing that could ruin the World Cup, and by extension, every one of the minute achievements that South Africa has made in the 16 years of non-racial democracy, is the outbreak of racial violence, which would provide the exquisite excuse for flight of the event to Australia or any other European venue.

Modern white Australia, after the genocide that was committed against the aboriginal peoples, still settles comfortably among the Commonwealth of Nations, which still subscribe to the imperial authority of the Queen of England.

That country would provide the necessary political and cultural relief that is so badly lacking in the scenario in which a non-racial, non-sexist and democratic South Africa hosts the most venerated sporting occasion known to human kind, next to the Olympics perhaps.

And so the European and American journalists will arrive, cloaked in their all knowing demeanour, coupled with the arrogance of ignorance, to attempt to confirm the prejudices that they brought with them from back home.

At the beginning of the week, there were already reports from Europe, accompanied by sketches that placed Ventersdorp next to Rustenburg where some of the teams are expected to camp, suggesting that there could be a spill over of racial violence into the host town.

Other reports speak about the threat of hatchet wielding gangs of Afrikaners and Africans that will face off in the streets all over the country threatening the lives of the visiting spectators and celebrity soccerites..

As early as three weeks ago, websites originating from Europe advertised knife proof vests that are a 'can't do without' for visiting spectators from the civilised West, which is accustomed only to harmless football hooligans who do no harm to anybody.

At worst they might cause the collapse of a stadium or bruise a few of their opponent's fans with beer bottles and metal chains.

Aaag, that's nothing compared to marauding gangs of Zulus carrying 'traditional weapons' and other varieties of savages wielding pangas and bows and arrows, around the venues where the World Cup matches will be played.  Oh my God!

Combine that with khaki clad AWB fanatics wielding hunting rifles on horseback, seeking revenge for the loss of life of their revered leader, Eugene, most famous for releasing vicious dogs upon the kaffirs at petrol filling stations and mooring them for their slow work rate on the potato farms.

Motsweding, the South African Broadcasting Corporation radio station based in Mafikeng also in the Northwest Province, yesterday morning relayed personal testimonies of victims of beatings by Afrikaner farmers in the Ventersdorp vicinity.

A certain Van Rensberg (not to be confused with the founder of Mmegi) kept a shelter inside, which he kept metal weapons, hammers chains, which he used to hammer the heads of lazy Africans who feared to run for their lives because the man carried a gun, which he would use if his victims ran.

He has been arrested.  A Mr Van Rooyen, speaking for the AWB from Johannesburg said he could not confirm whether that raving lunatic was a member of the AWB 'because I do not have access to our membership list on our computers, which are not where I am speaking from'.

He did, however, confirm that they were processing hundreds of membership application forms since the murder of Terreblanche last Saturday.

Asked why the AWB members sang Die Stem the South African national anthem under apartheid in their bereavement, Van Rooyen replied: 'It is our national anthem, and because we respect the cultures of other people, we believe they are also entitled to sing Nkosi sikelele'.'Your final 30 seconds is up,' signalled the announcer.  'Yes, but ken I say something before you go,' Van Rooyen pleaded.  'Please, fast,' the announcer obliges.  'Look, I just want to ask Mr Zuma that he is the president of this country and he must stop this.'

'Stop what?'  'All this violence that is going around, not just in Ventersdorp, but all over the country.  And these people that is going around singing Kill the Boer and all.  We are not just going to stand there and watch our people get killed.  But we are willing to help Mr Zuma if he wants to stop all this krime.  Thank you.'

All week, the link was made between ANC youth leader, Julius Malema's celebration of his birthday with chants of the old 'liberation song' which carries the words Kill the Boer, shoot the farmer,  which he heard and started singing when he was nine-years-old, a few years ago.

Gwide Mantashe, the secretary general of the ANC cautions that the liberations songs are a historical record of 'the struggle' and should not be outlawed. 

However, they should be sung under conditions where they will not incite violence and racial animosity.

'It is not the song that is the cause of this problem,' he argues. 'The media has rushed to the question of the song, but it has said nothing about the fact that one of the accused in this murder case is a 15-year-old farm labourer.  That is child labour and it is illegal under our law.

'In addition to that there is the question of the wage dispute,' which he believed to be partly responsible for the actions, though unjustified, of the farmers.

President Jacob Zuma nervously called for calm sending his chief of police to the murder site at Ventersdorp.

The battle cry of Afrikaner farmer in the years before majority rule in 1994 was the call for an independent state. When Terreblanche was murdered, Malema had been to Zimbabwe in order to study President Robert Mugabe's style of dealing with land reform.

Van Rooyen is not impressed.  'Zimbabwe is not the best example for land reform and we don't want that in South Africa.  We can produce food to feed ourselves, but if we go the Zimbabwe route, we will fail,' he predicts.

But is that precisely the reason for the resurrection of the issue for which the liberation movement was founded? First for non-violent resistance to iniquitous distribution of land between the whites and the Africans as early as 1912, and later for armed struggle when peaceful methods had failed.

Mandela's first priority was to dampen tempers when he came to power, pre-empting what could have been a racial bloodbath.

He visited Mrs Verwoed, the Afrikans universities and declared that any land acquired by the Boers more that 200 years ago was legitimately theirs.

That is probably a good chunk of the 86 percent of arable land that the Afrikaners hold against 13 percent for the Africans, and the statistic had not changed by, say five percent?

Clearly, Terreblanche's death, for whatever reason he was killed has rekindled the flames of the racial acrimony that Mandela fought hard and carefully to smother.

It is not certain whether President Zuma or the AWB have any reserve resolve to avert racial tensions in the way that Mandela did.  Both seem embarrassingly short of the moral authority to cope with the task.

Their failure - God forbid - can only serve to fuel the prejudices of the western press, which is not known for its empathy towards the African revolution, let alone successful post-independence governance on the continent.

We must avert violent racial clashes and give the western press nothing to report back home.