South Africa: The demise of Terre'Blanche the Rise of Julius Malema

[General Duke]

The late Eugene Terre'Blanche, at a meeting with the Afrikanerr Weerstandsbeweging movement

 

Yesterday, with the murder of Eugene Terre'Blanche, the era of Nelson Mandela died. Few on the South African centre or left will mourn Terre'Blanche's passing; he was a rightwing, neo-Nazi thug with little relevance to, or in, the "new" South Africa. He was a relic of a bygone age – that of the Soweto uprisings, Sharpeville and South Africa's Afrikaner police state. However, the fact that he was also able subsequently to participate as a full citizen of Desmond Tutu's "rainbow nation" is precisely what made post-apartheid South Africa so special: a country that, following centuries of the most entrenched division and brutality, managed to find within itself some kind of peace. At a stroke, Terre'Blanche represented all that was despicable about the old apartheid regime and, at the same time, all that was progressive and hopeful about the new.

 

Irrespective of the unsavoury nature of Terre'Blanche's racialised ideology and approximation of Nazi regalia, South Africa's constitution, arguably the most liberal document in the world, provided explicitly for a political space for dissidents and dinosaurs. In retrospect, though, the robustness of the rainbow nation of 1995 was inextricably linked to the power of "Madiba magic" and, as Mandela has aged, so the rainbow nation has frayed, to the point where it has become an increasingly monochrome facsimile of the original.

 

[General Duke]

 

There are not many people in Britain who could name the leaders of Conservative Future or Young Labour. In South Africa, it's a different story. Julius Malema, the president of the African National Congress youth league, is one of the most high profile figures on the political landscape.

 

 

David Smith on the outspokenness of ANC Youth leader Julius Malema Link to this audio Barely a day goes by without Malema pronouncing on one issue or another. He has a reputation as a motormouth, a loose cannon, a purveyor of politically incorrect gaffes that make president Jacob Zuma seem the voice of moderation. The pick of these have been collected in a book, The World According to Julius Malema, and prompted one former MP to denounce the 28-year-old firebrand as "an uneducated, loud-mouthed, ignorant and arrogant lout, and an embarrassment to both the ANC and all of South Africa".

 

Yet Malema was recently praised by Zuma as a potential future leader; opposition politicians said this was like saying Goebbels was a romantic poet. The youth league is something of a nursery for future presidents, including Nelson Mandela himself, but the prospect of President Malema sends more than a few South Africans running for the hills.

 

So there was an expectation of fireworks at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Johannesburg last week, where Malema was guest speaker at the annual dinner of the Foreign Correspondents Association. In the lobby I passed a gaggle of Miss World beauty queens who were presumably part of the second most glamorous event of the evening.

 

In the gloomy ballroom, journalists from around the world sat pushing cutlery and wine glasses around white tablecloths. Malema stood up on a podium behind a microphone and opened fire on the guests.

 

"The majority of the people, particularly foreign correspondents, report Africa as a continent with no hope and always define it as a continent which is facing massive challenges," he chided. "We also know that the majority have decided to report about Africa as if it's the same without geographic and ethnic differences."

 

He complained about the projection that we foreign correspondents offer the rest of the world. "That African leadership is a group of drunkards, lazy people who can't think, who are obsessed with women and easy money, and we are corrupt."

 

Malema argued that this was already happening with the 2010 World Cup.

 

"The manner in which the foreign media has reported about us has led to people believing that to visit South Africa you need to be well prepared wearing a bullet proof vest and you must be driven in a bullet proof car.

 

"Many people think the people who live in South Africa stay with wild animals in their own houses and families. A true story and a true picture of our country has not been told."

[Gheelle.T]

One less of racist redneck. He's been preaching for hatred and violence for all of his life and it finally caught him. Karma is what.....?

[General Duke]

^^^That man was an old Habeen, however Malema is a dangerous buffoon who can spark a race war and further ruin the reputation of the ANC..

[General Duke]

South Africa leaders visit Eugene Terreblanche family

 

South African leaders have visited the family of white supremacist Eugene Terreblanche to pay their respects after he was killed on Saturday.

 

North West province premier Maureen Modiselle passed on the government's sympathies, while an opposition leader also travelled to the family farm.

 

There was heavy security for the visit, amid fears of rising racial tensions.

 

President Jacob Zuma has appealed for calm, while some of Mr Terreblanche's supporters have vowed revenge.

 

Police say that two of Mr Terreblanche's farm workers have admitted killing the leader of the AWB party in a pay dispute.

 

Some members of his party have blamed ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema for inflaming the situation, after he recently sang a song about killing white farmers.

 

Mr Terreblanche, 69, was fiercely opposed to the end of apartheid in South Africa. It led to the ANC winning the country's first democratic elections in 1994 and Nelson Mandela becoming the country's first black president.

 

Hate speech

 

Mr Terreblanche is to be buried on Friday, his family reportedly told Ms Modiselle.

 

"As government we are calling for calm and respect of the law, especially here in this region," her spokesman, David Sengiwe, quoted her as telling the family.

 

"We are encouraging people not to take the law into their own hands."

 

A crowd of mourners gathered at the farm near the town of Ventersdorp.

 

Mosiuoa Lekota, leader of the opposition Cope party, also visited the Terreblanche home.

 

A veteran of the fight against apartheid, he condemned Mr Malema's singing of the "Shoot the Boer" song.

 

Following complaints by Afrikaner groups, this was recently banned as hate speech by a South African court, although the ANC says it will appeal.

 

Boer is Afrikaans for a farmer, but is sometimes used as a disparaging term for any white person in South Africa.

 

Mr Malema is due to return from Zimbabwe later in the day, and correspondents say his response to calls for calm is keenly awaited.

 

Mr Zuma was quick to condemn the attack amid criticism that he had failed to rein in the ANC Youth League.

 

The president went on television on Sunday to condemn what he said was a "cowardly" murder.

 

He said he had spoken to Mr Terreblanche's daughter.

 

"This is one of the sad moments for our country that a leader of his standing should be murdered," said Mr Zuma.

 

The AWB (Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging, or Afrikaner Resistance Movement) echoed Mr Zuma's call for calm.

 

Violent country

 

But the far-right movement's secretary general, Andre Visagie, said Mr Terreblanche's killing had political overtones.

 

"The next step for the AWB will be to bury their leader in peace, but thereafter we shall avenge the death of our leader," he told the BBC.

 

 

 

The AWB accuses Julius Malema of inflammatory actions

"The death of Mr Terreblanche is a declaration of war by the black community of South Africa to the white community that has been killed for 10 years on end."

 

More than 3,000 white farmers are estimated to have been murdered since the end of apartheid in 1994.

 

A committee of inquiry found in 2003 that only 2% of farm attacks had a political or racial motive, although critics said this figure was far too low.

 

Others point out that some 50 people, mostly black, are killed every day in South Africa - a country with one of the world's highest rates of violent crime.

 

Mr Terreblanche had founded the white supremacist AWB in 1973, to oppose what he regarded as the liberal policies of the then-South African government.

 

His party threatened civil war in the run-up to South Africa's first democratic elections, before sliding into relative obscurity.

 

Mr Terreblanche served three years in jail after being convicted in 2001 of the attempted murder of a farm worker.

[General Duke]

'Malema could end up in hospital or mortuary'

March 26 2010 at 01:56PM Get IOL on your

mobile at m.iol.co.za

 

The Pan Africanist Congress Youth League's threat to kill ANC Youth League president Julius Malema proves how dangerous his recent utterances have become, Afriforum said on Friday.

 

The PACYL is demanding that Malema apologise for misleading the country about the Sharpeville massacre.

 

"We are saying to Malema to apologise within five days or we will injure him to death... He will either end up in a hospital or in a mortuary," PACYL president Pitso Mphasha said at a press conference.

 

AfriForum has threatened legal action if Malema does not apologise in writing by 4pm on Friday for repeatedly singing the phrase "shoot the boer".

Continues Below ↓

 

 

"It has gone a bit far. It actually shows how dangerous these kinds of remarks are and how critical it is to get rid of these remarks and to get it out of our system," said AfriForum spokesman Willie Spies.

 

The PACYL and the ANCYL are at loggerheads over who arranged the Sharpeville pass law uprising of 1960 - in which police shot dead 69 people.

 

At a commemoration on Monday, Malema said the protest had been organised by the ANC, but was then hijacked by the Pan Africanist Congress. the PAC is outraged at this suggestion.

 

Mphasha said the threat to Malema was a way of teaching Malema discipline the "militant way".

 

He gave the government ten months to change the name of Human Rights Day to Sharpeville Day.

 

If the government did not listen, the PACYL would "turn the country upside down", he warned.

 

Spies said that freedom of expression was important in a democracy, but could become uncontrollable if used in a divided society. "And that is what I am hearing now."

 

Afriforum would seek an urgent court interdict to stop Malema from singing the lyrics "shoot the boer" if he failed to apologise, he said. Spies said he did not miss the irony that this may have the effect of "protecting Malema against himself".

 

"This is not only to protect the victims of what is being said, but also to protect Mr Malema against himself because he is causing a great deal of harm to himself.

 

"... This is not only good for us, but it is also good for him." ANC Youth League (ANCYL) spokesman Floyd Shivambu said he would respond once he had either received a written statement on the matter from the PACYL, or when the threat was directly conveyed to the ANCYL.

 

He did not want to react based on a report from a press conference. - Sapa

[Nin-Yaaban]

The world cup is still on schedule right....?

[Malika]

^Too much has been invested to pull back,but perhaps they will increase security.

[Abtigiis]

Malema was cheering up ZANU PF youth here this week with "cowards are afraid, kill the boer".

[Malika]

^Do you think the 'killed over wage dispute' is a cover up,for a planned assasination?

[-Lily-]

Its incredible one can say he will kill someone in a press conference and get away with it.

[General Duke]

The death of the old man was due to the wage dispute. Ther ignorance of Julius Malema is a threat to the stability of the ANC and their governing of South Africa. The fact that in two years this ***** has ammased such great wealth, while still claiming to be, a Marxist, Leninist, who is out for the poor Blacks is scary.

[SeeKer]

ANC shouldn't have let Malema even talk to grown people let alone

. Kulaha "rubbish is what you have covered in that trouser"

 

This guy is way beyond his depth and is on a mission to regress South Africa to pre-Mandela era. He is Mugabe reincarnate in SA. That he can whip up thousands of ignorant illiterate South Africans with a racist song is evident enough. What are they waiting for next?

 

**Off with his head!!!!**

[Chimera]

"We are saying to Malema to apologise within five days or we will injure him to death... He will either end up in a hospital or in a mortuary,"

 

That is raw

[BOB]

That's what happens when you get rid of an honest, visionary, hardworking and a real leader in favour of a clown, fraudster, rapist called Jacob Zuma.

 

Long before this said Malema came to prominence Zuma has been singing these same songs in every high profile ANC rally or gatherings while he was still the vice president of the country.

 

 

The whites are such a fickle bunch. I just don't know what they were thinking when they were getting rid of Mbeki in favour of this vile, disgraceful excuse of a human being called Zuma.

 

They fast tracked Zuma from a convicted fraudster and a rapist to the most powerful man in S.A so they could loot the wealth of S.A.

 

 

Terre Blanche was a clown with no brain cells and some of his comments would've made a 2 year old kid embarrassed...I DON'T BELIEVE one bit that he was killed by his workers.

 

Some of the most 'powerful' black politicians feared that man more than their creator and you want me to believe that a lowly farm workers killed the most feared white man left in S.A?

 

 

Some of the most hideous crimes ever known to a man are committed by the white farmers against their black workers simply because they know they can and no one would say a thing or these desperate poor workers won't report it either because of fear of losing their ONLY income recourse or worse their life.

 

 

PS. I could be wrong but I highly doubt it that two black farm workers could murder Terre Blanche with pipes and machetes...PLEASE.

 

 

Peace, Love & Unity.