Eugene Terreblanche is Dead

The murder of a far right politician and the new victim discourse among white South Africans.

A beach for Whites only near the integrated fishing village of Kalk Bay, not far from Capetown. January 1, 1970. Image credit UN Photo.

The murder of  South African white supremacist leader, Eugene Terreblanche, over the weekend, will surely be exploited in the next few days by racists and those bitter about the country’s transition to democratic rule. Terreblanche was beaten and hacked to death by workers on his farm on Saturday who, according to reports, had “argued with him over unpaid wages.” Terreblanche had a violent history himself, including spending time in prison for beating one of his workers, a black man, nearly to death in 1997.

Though his murder is symptomatic of criminal violence in South Africa – and we don’t know much about the killers’ motives and that most victims of crime are black –  already all kinds of people will be trying to score political points and make claims about a race war against whites.

Watch how this crime (with its own context) will become part of a larger discourse among whites – and on Afrikaans media websites – about a supposed “genocide” or “volksmoord” (murder against Afrikaners).

As The Economist, not known for its anti-white views, reported last week:

According to the South African Institute of Race Relations, a think-tank, research suggests that at least 90% of the attacks on white farmers [since 1994] were “purely criminal”. Labour disputes accounted for others. Only 2% were said to be motivated by “racial animosity.”

The claims of a race war is of course part of a larger discourse that white are being marginalized from public life and the professions, despite evidence to the contrary.

Already, the mostly white leadership of the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) –  a party that never miss an opportunity to score political points of anything bad that happens to white South Africans – was quick to imply that the murder had something to do with “racial tensions” and specifically with an old struggle song with lyrics that include “Kill the Boer” favored by the ANC Youth League leader, Julius Malema.  It is worth noting that there is little evidence that ordinary black people share Malema’s fascist views or that he is linked to the crime.

That Malema exploits genuine grievances that poor black South Africans have with the new South Africa is a more important story.  Or that the workers are now singing songs against Malema and the ANC for its failure to do much about their plight in the last 15 years. So also is the silence about the humiliation, exploitation of and violence against black farmworkers in South Africa’s countryside.

But that wouldn’t stop the DA from scoring political points.

Similarly, I scanned sites like Afriforum (a white farmers’ union) and Solidariteit (a white pressure group passing as a trade union and obsessed with affirmative action) where writers, bloggers or commenters could not stop themselves from recycling these claims.

But it all fits in well with the new victim discourse among white South Africans. Media outlets are partly to blame.  In some instances – as in this Reuters photo story – white poverty is exaggerated and treated as unnatural.  The media and Afrikaner “civil rights” groups, of course, say little about black poverty or crimes against black people.

On a side note: Earlier today I read on Afrikaans newspaper, Rapport, that Terreblance opposed the 1970s “liberal” regime of John Vorster.   Vorster was “liberal”?

Further Reading

A power crisis

Andre De Ruyter, the former CEO of Eskom, has presented himself as a simple hero trying to save South Africa’s struggling power utility against corrupt forces. But this racially charged narrative is ultimately self-serving.

Cinematic universality

Fatou Cissé’s directorial debut meditates on the uncertain fate and importance of Malian cinema amidst the growing dismissiveness towards the humanities across the world.

The meanings of Heath Streak

Zimbabwean cricketing legend Heath Streak’s career mirrors many of the unresolved tensions of race and class in Zimbabwe. Yet few white Zimbabwean sporting figures are able to stir interest and conversation across the nation’s many divides.

Victorious

After winning Italy’s Serie A with Napoli, Victor Osimhen has cemented his claim to being Africa’s biggest footballing icon. But is the trend of individual stardom good for sports and politics?

The magic man

Chris Blackwell’s long-awaited autobiography shows him as a romantic rogue; a risk taker whose life compass has been an open mind and gift to hear and see slightly into the future.

How to think about colonialism

Contemporary approaches to the legacy of colonialism tend to narrowly emphasize political agency as the solution to Africa’s problems. But agency is configured through historically particular relations of which we are not sole authors.

More than just a flag

South Africa’s apartheid flag has been declared hate speech by a top court. But while courts are important and their judgments matter, racism is a long and internationally entrenched social phenomenon that cannot be undone via judicial processes.