Maravi

(ZIMBABWE GUARDIAN) Terre'Blanche's killing: a sign of a bigger problem in SA

COMMENT - The irony of course is that De Beers is a company named after two Boer brothers who were cheated out of their farm by South Africa's robber baron in chief, Cecil John Rhodes. :) Where is the de Beers family today?

Terre'Blanche's killing: a sign of a bigger problem in SA
By: Nyarai Chidemo
Posted: Wednesday, April 7, 2010 9:42 am

THE killing of Eugene Terre'Blanche should not surprise anyone in South Africa. Many Zimbabweans and other Africans were killed in xenophobic attacks in that country last year and the year before; but there was no public outcry from the Democratic Alliance, AfriForum or any other Right Wing group in that country.

Anyone who thinks Terre'Blanche's killing was inspired by ANC Youth President Julius Malema's 'Kill The Boer' song should inform us what inspired the killing of many of our own people in that country.

Malema is being used as a scapegoat by an arrogant lot that does not want to reform in the face of a changing and evolving South Africa. The silencing of Malema signifies an attempt by the Right Wing element to scuttle the quest for development by an impoverished black lot.

Terre'Blanche was simply responsible for his own demise. When he was preaching hatred and division, the DA and AfriForum did not mount a similar outcry. They did not see his divisiveness.

The killing of Terre'Blanche is a sign of the 'sickness' in that country as a whole. South Africa is bleeding and if the millions of black people in that country remain in poverty, there will always be problems.

The target is different this time.

The peace and reconciliation brokered by Bishop Desmond Tutu and others in that country did not have the accompanying material well-being for black people. There might have been change in the complexion and pigmentation of the ruling class, but the black person still lives in poverty.

There are black people who still live in Soweto who have no access to education, healthcare or a decent living. Over a decade after the end of apartheid, they still haven't witnessed a change in their lives. The streets of Johannesburg are more dangerous today than at the time of independence from the minority white rule.

The economy in that country is still very much in the hands of the whites. Huge companies like DeBeers are still milking that country and the huge wealth in that country has not done muchto change the material well-being of the black population.

Terre'Blanche's killing is not an isolated occurence in South Africa. Over 3,000 white farmers have been killed since the end of apartheid. This is a disease in the South African system and it has to be cured before it is too late.

Those stubborn Far Right elements in South Africa who are holding onto power and resisting change will have to accept that the status quo cannot be maintained anymore in that country. There has to be real change otherwise incidents like the killing of Terre'Blanche and many other white farmers will continue.

Their arrogance that they will revenge the killing of their leader will not do much to ease tensions in that country. The Boer is simply outnumbered and they can never win that war. In any case, these people also employ black people on their farms who see the differences in the standard of living daily. Sooner or later those people will start questioning why they still work for the white man, live in poverty, and get treated like slaves and second class citizens in a 'free South Africa'.

Given his views on race relations in South Africa, it was a shock to some of us to learn that Terre'Blanche was employing 'kaffirs' on his farm. Surely it was a no brainer for an avowed white supremacist to employ black workers on his farm. He couldn't have continued spreading ant--black propaganda and employing the same people on his farm; and not paying them, to make matters worse.

But we should never lose sight of what the problem in South Africa is. It is poverty. It is the gap between the rich few (whites, and a few black millionaires and billionaires) and the rest of the black population that lives below the poverty line many years after gaining independence.

That is the South African problem.

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Nyarai Chidemo is a Zimbabwean living in South Africa She can be reached via: miss_nyari *** yahoo.co.uk

Labels: APARTHEID, EUGENE TERREBLANCHE, NEOCOLONIALISM, RACISM

posted by MrK @ 4:29 PM