From One Genocide to the Next
Open Letter from Rudi Prinsloo, of Die Nuwe Suid Afrika; to John Minto, New Zealands Anti-Apartheid Activist Expert, who only recently visited South Africa for the first time -- doesn't seem to take much 'expertise' to be an 'expert' in New Zealand.
Mr John Minto,
You are a true activist in every sense of the word. You have dedicated your life to the causes you believe in, and I for one can tell from observation, that you are truly passionate about your beliefs and that you work tirelessly to uplift the groups and people that you support. This is the mark of a real man and I respect you for that. Interestingly enough, both friends and enemies of the late Eugene Terre'blanche have attributed the same qualities to him.
Having been at the forefront of the anti-apartheid struggle movement in New Zealand since the early days, it is no wonder that New Zealanders turn to you for moral guidance whenever political and social events in South Africa draw the attention of the international media.
It is for the above reasons that I am writing this letter to you because I believe that it places a great responsibility on you to give New Zealanders an accurate and balanced report. What follows are some undiluted facts about the current dire situation in South Africa and around the murder of Eugene Terre'blanche.
1) The youth leader of the ruling ANC party, Julius Malema, has been, and continues to promote, extreme hatred amongst his followers against the already marginalised Afrikaner minority by his public speeches and the singing of controversial songs which include the words "Kill the Boer".
2) The ANC leadership refuses to condemn these actions, and are actively trying to overturn a court ruling banning the song.
3) As a very small minority, the Afrikaners have no means of defence as they have been largely disarmed and have no political influence any more.
4) Already, well over three thousand farmers (3000) have been brutally murdered, some even tortured on their farms. Gregory Stanton of Genocide Watch has warned that this situation is reaching genocidal proportions due to the extreme brutality of the attacks and dehumanization of the victims. Zimbabwe pales in comparison.
5) Beyond farm murders, it is estimated that over 90 000 Afrikaner women have been raped and over 45 000 Afrikaner men, women and children have been murdered by black Africans. The ANC with its huge influence is downplaying these statistics by blanket labelling them as ordinary crimes. (These numbers would not be tolerated in any other country in the world, especially when the victims are all members of a minority and the perpetrators members of a different race and majority group).
6) The Afrikaner farming community consists of less than 30 000 (used to be 60 000) people whereas the entire Afrikaner population consists of less than three million. The ruling ANC commands well over thirty million people. New Zealanders are acutely aware of the exodus of Afrikaners from the land they occupied for three hundred and fifty years, as many have reluctantly chosen New Zealand as their new home.
7) Julius Malema has just visited Zimbabwe and Robert Mugabe to discuss their plans to nationalise South African mines and farm land. They are discussing ways to expedite their plans based on the Zimbabwe model.
8) Jacob Zuma, the president of South Africa is known for fanning the flames of racial hatred amongst his followers with his own song titled "Bring me my machine gun".
9) White farmers murdering black workers does happen but is extremely rare. The murder rate of white farmers in South Africa is an astounding 300 per 100 000 per year. In this climate, farmers are more afraid of their workers than their workers are of them. Also, one of the biggest issues between farmers and farm workers is the fact that illegal immigrants will work for much less than local workers. This is the result of the 10 000 illegals coming into South Africa each week because the ANC government is not in control of the borders any more. So the pertinent question is: Is it fair to only blame white farmers for wage disputes?
10) The South African police often arrest white farmers when it is clear that they have simply defended themselves and their families from attack. Recently a young white farmer in his twenties was put in jail over night with hardened criminals because he defended himself with his bare hands against a person trying to stab him with a knife on his own farm.
11) You have ANC officials and trade unions turning up at courts in their official capacity, where there may be some or other dispute, sometimes even a farm murder trial where the victim was white, where they then proceed to promote extreme racial tension by blaming the farmers for everything, even making false accusations and chanting and singing these "struggle songs". Aren't leaders supposed to calm people down and urge them to let the law run its course?
12) Granted, more black people are murdered (by other blacks) in South Africa in sheer numbers, but this cannot be used as a means to excuse the brutal black on white murders being committed against Afrikaners of all ages. The perpetrators of the brutal murders against Afrikaners are almost exclusively black so there is a very real racial element to it that should not be down played. Facts are not always politically correct.
13) For almost a decade now, there has been growing unrest amongst black Africans as they feel, correctly, that the ANC has not delivered on its election promises of housing and service delivery etc. Many are saying they were better off under apartheid. The ANC government has responded to this threat to their position of power by blaming everything that is wrong, and all their mistakes and broken promises on the voiceless Afrikaner minority who cannot defend themselves. I should point out that the Afrikaners are no longer involved in the running of the country at any level.
14) The perception that all blacks are poor and all Afrikaners are rich no longer applies. There are close to a million extremely poor Afrikaners, and the ultra rich and middle class amongst blacks is increasing every day. People who claim to only fight for the needs of the poor should consider that the Afrikaner poor are now the most marginalized because the government of South Africa has indicated that the poor blacks are their first priority. Ironically the poor whites are not benefiting from affirmative action.
So here you have a defenceless, marginalised minority, the Afrikaners, a third of them living in abject poverty in squatter camps, being constantly demonised and threatened by an official ruling political party who has a support base of over 30 million people. The disarmed Afrikaner minority does not pose any threat to the overwhelming majority ANC who posses all political and military power in the country.
Times have truly changed in South Africa. The Afrikaners are now the vulnerable group with no real means, political or otherwise to defend themselves. The ANC are now the ruling party and they are openly encouraging violence against the Afrikaner minority.
So, the real question is, which group is most at risk in the current situation in South Africa, if hostilities were to break out? The world needs to take heed of this and carefully measure their (unbalanced) criticism to avoid a genocide from occurring in South Africa. The current racial tension is the highest it has ever been in the history of South Africa, and if things get out of hand the world may be forced to confront the fact that their approach to vilify a small defenceless minority may have contributed to the genocide perpetrated against them.
Mr. Minto, as an Afrikaner living in New Zealand, I urge you to keep an open mind and be aware that things can explode at any moment in South Africa and to realise that what you say can make a difference. Simply believing that the farmers are to blame for everything that goes wrong in the above outlined situation is simply not rational.
To my knowledge, there is now approximately 100 000 South Africans living in New Zealand. According to New Zealand and Australian research they are the most successful immigrants to both countries and integrate very well. With our close history, starting with your participation in the Anglo Boer War and the genocide of Afrikaners in the New Zealand supported British concentration camps, where 27 000 Afrikaner women and children died, New Zealand has a moral obligation to assist in preventing such an event from happening again in South Africa. Wouldn't you want to be on the right side this time round?
Lastly, it is inaccurate for anybody to proclaim that South Africa will be another Zimbabwe. No, South Africa will make Zimbabwe look like West Auckland on a good day.
Oh yes, I am also pleased to hear that you have recently visited South Africa for the first time in your life. Congratulations! I hope you had a great time and plan to return for another visit some time soon.
From one genocide to the next?
Regards
Rudi Prinsloo
Die Nuwe Suid Afrika
» » » » [Die Nuwe Suid Afrika]
Terre'blanche ineffective says activist
Published: 9:22PM Monday April 05, 2010
Source: TVNZ News at 8
Veteran anti-apartheid activist John Minto says the brutal murder of a South African far-right leader is the result of a long history of black workers being treated poorly by farm managers.
President Jacob Zuma has called for calm after the killing of Eugene Terre'blanche in a suspected pay dispute with black workers.
Minto told TVNZ News at 8 that he doesn't believe the murder is linked to any political act but says the rural sector has become more polarised and more violent since the ANC has been in power.
"It was always blacks being murdered, now it's blacks and whites," says Minto.
Terre'blanche's Afrikaner Resistance Movement (AWB) surfaced as the ANC gained strength and international boycotts began to have an effect.
Minto says the white regime realised there had to be some sort of compromise but the AWB wanted to stand on its own with areas set aside as whites-only.
He says Terre'blanche saw himself as inheriting the pioneering spirit of the first Dutch settlers but he was always a minority, even among white South Africans, and was "politically ineffective".
Acknowledging that Terre'blanche was instrumental in establishing a solid rural base for South Africa, Minto says unfortunately that came at the expense of rights for black South Africans. "Most of it was very negative for the original people of South Africa."
The AWB is still very much a minority group, Minto says and he believes most whites support groups wanting to work with the ANC in a parliamentary system.
The killer of Terre'blanche will have a lot of support in the black community which is increasingly unhappy with 15 years of ANC rule, says Minto, adding that many black South Africans are worse off than under the old system.
"The threat of violence coming out this will be from a dispirited black community who have lost hope in seeing real change," says Minto.
"They put their faith in the ANC and the ANC has not delivered."
» » » » [TV New Zealand]
6 comments:
I live in NZ as a SA expat of SA English background.
Prinsloo speaks for himself and maybe some Afrikaner immigrants in NZ, and not English SA immigrants in NZ. Prinsloo does not state how many English AND Afrikaners were killed in SA. Lumping stats together as just Afrikaners being killed in SA, and knee-jerking the tired Boer War brainwashed, emotional blackmail about Boer War concentration camps to propagate his Afrikaner world view, and smear English South Africans, is feeble.
Members of my English SA family and friends have been severely injured and killed in SA too. And there are many English speaking farmers endangered in SA too.
Prinsloo is in denial that Afrikaners did much before and during apartheid to bring them to the present sorry state they find themselves in. He doesn't mention that Afrikaners were paid huge reparations after the Boer War, and that Emily Hobhouse who helped Boers in concentration camps was an English women.
Besides letter writing, what is Prinsloo doing to help Afrikaners and English in SA?
What is your name anonymous? John Minto, perhaps?
Why are you attempting to pretend that Rudi Prinsloo is trying to smear English South Africans? He isn't, he is simply defending Afrikaners, who are smeared by English gatkruiping Nubians, like John Minto! Who wants every white person in South Africa, to adopt black africna culture and breed dozens of illegetimate children, participate in killing bulls withour bear hands, I could go on and on.
John Minto is in denial, big denial, no in fact massive denial. And that comes from an English speaking Johnstone South African, married to an African American; who has far more in common with Afrikaners, even AWB'ers, than with slave and cannon fodder breeding black africans, who treat htier children as if they are slaves worthy of sale for lobola, as sex production factories, as children to be raped to be cured from AIDS, because they are incapable of practicing sexual restraint.
As stated in Amici Curiae to Constittutional Court in The Citizen vs. McBride, and by an African lawyer in Uganda:
Imagine if blacks had chosen to adopt a cultural trait of personal responsibility and concern for their children, whereby they refrained from procreation until they could provide for a stable and loving environment for their offspring in a small committed family environment. If so, South Africa would currently be populated by 10 million predominantly educated citizens, 50% white & 50% black and coloured, most of whom had grown up in loving small family homes, with responsible parents.
Rant acknowledged Andrea. I'm an English speaking South African having lived in Christchurch NZ for many years.
My family is Dutch / British stock. As your life experience is mostly SA, still is, you can't speak for current migrants' experiences in NZ, nor other countries, except past experience in USA.
There were few Afrikaners in Christchurch when I arrived. Now there are lots, and more blacks too. Early SA English immigrants had to put up with much anti SA feelings and snide comments from Kiwis, like Minto's, on arrival in NZ, because of apartheid. They made it much easier for people like Prinsloo to bring their SA baggage to NZ and moan about the Boer War, etc. Prinsloo must acknowledge that not all SA migrants think like him with his mindset, so incorporating all SA migrants in his argument is feeble-minded. Prinsloo's figures insult English migrants to NZ, and English farmers and non-Afrikaner farmers killed in SA.
Prinsloo's stats would've been more credible if he had acknowledged his debt to English SA migrants to NZ before him; broken down his migrant numbers into SA English and Afrikaner migrants (there are coloured SA migrants in NZ with English and Afrikaner names too); and given more realistic stats of the so-called Boer Genocide in SA.
Looking at Censorbugbear's list of SA farmers killed, you will see unnamed farmers, unknown farmers' black farmers', English farmers' and Afrikaners farmers' names. Not to mention unknown Engelse-Dutchmen farmers who lean to English culture rather than Afrikaner culture.
I know Anglicized Bothas, Nels, Pienaars, Visagies, etc. As you know, There are Afrikanerized English too. I know a Botha in NZ who can't speak a word of Afrikaans, only English. Go figure.
Mark,
I am unaware where you or Anonymous come up with the idea that Rudi is an expat in New Zealand. Is he?
I was under the impression that he never left, he is here in SA. He wrote a letter to Minto in New Zealand, suggesting that perhaps Minto was a little clueless about pretending to be an expert on SA.
That was my interpretation. I do not share the English/Afrikaner divide. I am half/half, but I must say that I find allot of English people who pretend they are not bigotted to be extremely bigotted towards AFrikaners. I don't care whether they want to discriminate, but at the very least most Afrikaners who do discriminate don't pretend that they don't. They are at least honest.
Now I really don't know what your point is with knowing anglized English and Anglized Afrikaners.
I am tired of English blaming Afrikaners for African bigotry, when the Afrikaners did not even implement African bigotry originally, the British did; and in fact Afrikaners gave it a different far more benign form of Apartheid, by giving all cultures nad tribes hteir own homelands. By far the most sanest form of goverment we have had in SA in the last 300 years, I'd venture; including all its faults.
Anyway.. I dont get your point, if you could please clarify it for me, then I can give you a more clear response. Sorry.
I never spoke for any migrants experiences, i was speaking for me, in SA. Where did I speak as a 'migrant'?
I am a ex South African and have now lived in the UK for the last six years. On my arrival here I read in a well publicised and read children’s history book how the Boers oppressed the English who went there to look for gold. It was said that they enriched the Boers. What a laugh. The true history is they stole their land. British supremacy in Southern Africa under the guiding hand of the Rothschild banking house and the Boers reluctance to succumb caused their demise. None of this is ever mentioned when discussing this subject and there is enough historic proof to substantiate it all. This book innocently blames the persecution of British subjects as the reason for war. We all know the results of this war and the later establishment of concentration camps as already mentioned.
Just so that no one accuses me of belonging to any specific racial entity and of bias: my great, great grandfather was the vice admiral in charge of the British navy in South Africa at the time of the Zulu war. Another exercise in colonialism. He was later promoted to the Admiral of the entire British fleet. My Grandmother was a British nurse in South Africa in the second world war. I have Dutch and German decent. I don’t care what you call me Boer or Engelsman.
What is happening in South Africa is a crying shame and when I hear ex south Africans still beat the drum of English and Afrikaans South African I just want to laugh. The people in England don’t accept you as English my dear South African English friends. My historic background counts for nothing. I am a foreigner no matter what, and I have been racially abused on many occasions.
All the whites in South Africa are in danger. They should stand together. These farm murders are against the Boer, English or Afrikaans. They don’t care what language you speak.
The greatest cause of trouble in the world ever, has been the colonialists no matter what country they come from and the worst of them all are the British who even stole colonies. You can paint history whatever colour you want but you won’t get away from that fact. There is too much proof of the atrocities that they have so proudly accomplished. Don’t get on a moral high horse ( soap box) and now try to absolve yourself of blame and call yourself less racist than the Afrikaner. If you consider yourself to be British, the British motto has long since been divide, conquer and rule and many of them still hate blacks. Of that fact I can testify.
A three year long skirmish between English colonialists in SA and the Dutch descendants, the Anglo boer war took place at the turn of the Century and is notable for a number of features, such as the first appearance in the Twentieth Century of the Concentration Camp system.
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