I don’t think I should write another Blog without talking about the murder of Eugene Terreblanche. It will be noticed that at his funeral a number of his mourning followers indulged in the old fascist salute as the hearse went by. Will they never learn?
A black politician sings a song, “kill the Boers” and the ANC support him so obviously they will never learn either.
But for those who may not know, Terreblanche was the extreme right wing leader of an organisation called The Afrikaner Resistance Movement. During World War 2 some Afrikaners, sympathising with Nazi Germany formed an organisation known as Die Broederbond – the band of brothers. They considered General Smuts a traitor for taking South Africa into the war on the side of Great Britain. And why indeed should the Boer have any love for or sympathise with the British who burnt down their homesteads and invented the concentration camp in which so many of their women and children died? And earlier The Great trek was the direct result of British politics in the Cape of Good Hope.
You could say, despite segregation in the states, that the Afrikaner invented apartheid and never wanted to see the end of it. They feared being swamped, as one of Terreblanche’s followers said, “They’ve got the country, what more do they want?” and, although there are those, with British connections for example, who can skedaddle if they feel so endangered, the Boers are African and have nowhere to go. Since the ending of apartheid it is estimated that 3000 farmers in the Transvaal, sorry what used to be the Transvaal – now partly Mpumalanga – have been murdered. The big question is, have these murders been racially motivated or the result of the way the Boer has always treated his servants and workers and believed in his divine right to be the baas and behave as he wished. The sjambok is a very dangerous form of whip and many a black skin has felt its lashes and one wonders how many blacks have been killed by their white masters, deliberately or accidentally. Terreblanche himself served three years for attempted murder and in the instance of his own death it is claimed it was because of an alleged dispute about wages which I can very well believe, though that does not excuse the violent result.
South Africa is considered by the rest of the world to be the most dangerous place in which to live and yes indeed there is the most horrific crime rate; a great deal of it black against black and Indian, but any worse than say Mexico? The White farmer does not take into account just how many blacks have been murdered since the end of apartheid and some of it no doubt racially motivated but most of it economic. If you’ve got what I haven’t got and I want it I will take it from you. Is it any worse than say Philadelphia where it is reputed you can be killed in the street for the trainers you are wearing?
England recently has begun to pride itself on being multi-cultural. South Africa unfortunately is a land of many tribes. There are about fourteen or so Black tribes, an Indian tribe, a Cape Coloured (that is half caste) tribe, an Afrikaans tribe and an English tribe.
People outside of South Africa obviously know about the Zulu tribe and, because of Mandela, probably the Xhosa, but consider the other languages of the country: Ndebele, Sepedi, Tschivenda, Siswali, Swahili, Kissonga, Sesotho, Swazi, Koi, Nama, San. Add to this about eleven other languages from Europe and Asia and you will see it is quite a mix and there is no doubt that tribal rivalries can still be a source of problems. But I will have to continue this another time.