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“We in the ANC have declared all white farms war-zones… white men, women and children are targets, they are part of the military and paramilitary units and the local police force…” -- BBC Monitoring, July 10 1987 and October 28 1986; Transcript of Radio Freedom broadcast on MK's landmine campaign, October 24 1986; Why we're targeting white farmers - ANC (Transcript of Radio Freedom broadcast on MK's landmine campaign, October 24 1986, BBC Monitoring)
“Killing whites is an action that gives hope to blacks and makes white South Africans used to bleeding… such deaths can be beneficial. When blacks have learnt that a white has died in the violence, that kind of thing comes like the drop of rain after a long drought.” – Oliver Tambo to Trevor Huddlestone, New York Times, 24 Jan 1987; Radical Honesty Amicus in Afriforum v. Malema: Mandela & Fanon’s Black Liberation: Absolute Necessity of Violence on Rotting Corpse of Settler
- Malema has all the makings of a demagogue - TAU SA, Politicsweb, 10 May 2011
- South Africa youth leader says 'criminal' whites stole land from blacks, Telegraph.UK, 09 May 2011
- Separating Free Speech From Hate in South Africa, New York Times, 30 April 2011
- Malema: White people are criminals, IOL, 08 May 2011
- Threat to TAU-SA Advocate family in Malema case, Pretoria News, 18 April 2011
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Malema has all the makings of a demagogue - TAU SA
In ANCYL president's militancy contains the kernel of another African catastrophe
TAU SA, Politicsweb
10 May 2011
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South Africa Bulletin from the headquarters of TAU SA in Pretoria, May 10 2011:
A LUTA CONTINUA! MALEMA'S REVOLUTIONARY ROAD
Reverberations from the recent hate speech trial of Julius Malema, defendant, and TAU SA, co-plaintiff, have revealed an ominous prognosis for a peaceful future South Africa . TAU SA was part of the case because it represents the group that is most affected by Malema's "shoot the Boer" song.
On the face of it, Julius Malema has become the superstar of the masses - irreverent, racially indignant and well within the African political template of telling the crowds what they want to hear, whatever the merits of his pronouncements. His intemperate and ludicrous outpourings have however struck a chord, and have elicited the same reaction from the uninformed masses as do the rantings of Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe who, despite presiding over the collapse of what was termed the breadbasket of Africa, is still greeted with standing ovations when he travels to South Africa! Such is the logic of this part of the world, born of a racial resentment that blurs vision and skews reasoned thinking! The fact that someone like Malema can attract the media and crowd attention that he does should warn us he cannot be taken lightly.
Malema has all the makings of a demagogue - thoughtless of the feelings of others, contemptuous of differing opinions, and utterly confident in his ability to forge ahead on a wave of racial animosity that strikes chords among the masses. The 30-year-old ANC Youth League president whose constant singing of the "Shoot the Boer" song that has provoked the legal case against him, remains defiant, even triumphant. (Screaming fans mobbed him the street singing "my president, my president"! Others repeated the song "Shoot the Boer" outside the court, the very song that Malema is defending within the court.)
He arrived at court with bodyguards wielding semi-automatic rifles, and attendant police did nothing. It was up to the judge to remove the weapons from the court.
There appears to be not a shred of remorse, not an iota of introspection, within him. He is thus seemingly impervious to the thought that he may have hurt others, and therein lies his menace. Malema is part and parcel of the ANC. He is in effect speaking for South Africa 's governing party, the ANC, and his words have not been repudiated by president Jacob Zuma. Those who thought 1994 was the end of the revolution have now realized it was just the beginning.
NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION
What has emerged is his absolute devotion - if that is the word - to the National Democratic Revolution, in all its aspects. The press has been remiss in not accentuating this factor, instead focusing on his bravado and bluff, his antics, and even his gallows humour. He has been portrayed as a fairly harmless buffoon, as "jovial". One press report said he arrived at the court "relaxed and smiling". "It was his joking attitude that often had the gallery laughing", declared a journalist.
Plaintiff's evidence was glossed over, with some of plaintiff's legal personages ridiculed as "right wing", "lugubrious" and "heavy handed". One cartoon showed a smiling Malema mocking a caricature of the plaintiff's attorney, all safari suit, beard and glowering countenance!
Malema's hard core has been lost in the flurry of vacuous reporting and a flimsy narrative. The crux of the case centred around respect for one's fellow South Africans, and in particular the "Boere" - specifically the farmers of this country, a minority group of 0.1% of the population who, paradoxically, hold the key to food security and its corollary, political stability.
Urging supporters to "shoot the Boer" is, on the face of it, a suicidal act because it declares that this group whose farm murder rate is 700% higher than anywhere else in the world, should be wiped out. Malema's evidence, under oath, should be taken very seriously by South Africans. He is part of an ongoing revolution, he declared, despite the 1994 ANC takeover, and he has said that he will "kill for the revolution".
What does he want as a self-declared revolutionary?
All the ANC witnesses declared unambiguously that the revolution is not over because the goals of the Freedom Charter have not been attained. The struggle must continue, and a revolution is the only way for the masses to get what they want. This revolution - the National Democratic Revolution (NDR) - was communist inspired, and this is confirmed by Malema. Part of this revolution is an armed struggle. Was Malema prepared to instruct his heavily-armed bodyguards to shoot if he was mobbed outside the court?
LAND OCCUPATION
One integral part of the NDR is land ownership, and this aspect was highlighted by Malema during his evidence. As is the ANC's wont, Malema repeated the falsity that only 13% of the land is in black hands. (TAU SA and others have time and again quoted the 2001 Development Bank showing that 54% of SA's land is in the hands of blacks, coloureds and Indians. Add to this the land that has already been given to blacks under the ANC's restitution legislation, and the figure is more like 65%.)
Under oath Malema declared the Constitution will be changed so that land shall be expropriated without compensation if farmers do not make it "available". Zimbabwe is a democratic country, he says, and is an example of how his policy will run its course.
From his evidence and his pronouncements it is clear that he and his ilk hold South Africa's white farmers responsible for everything that went wrong in the past and that it is the farmers who must be held responsible for solving today's problems!
(TAU SA asks: what about the other 99.9% of South Africa 's white population who today live in security complexes with empty bedrooms that are not occupied. Read the Freedom Charter and draw your own conclusions!)
Nowhere does Malema even touch on the problems of food security, or the economic implications of a destroyed farming sector.
What is the connection between Malema's song, his attitude and speeches, and the high crime rate in South Africa ? The international organization Genocide Watch gave its opinion, and Malema was cognizant of this. Under oath he confirmed the country was already at Phase 5 towards a genocidal situation, where phase 7 epitomized anarchy and massacres. Are we sufficiently aware of and prepared for the ANC's and Malema's revolution and its ultimate goals?
We have learnt that dialogue with communists and those who use communism's ideologies is a complete waste of time. Communism uses dialogue as a means to an end - their win and their opponent's loss. Correspondence which TAU SA has sent to the ANC regarding matters for discussion has been ignored.
They are not interested in dialogue. They are interested in control, and this is reflected in their attitude towards the DA-run Cape Town municipality. The fact that it is a success is irrelevant - success and good governance are not the ANC's goals - power is, at any cost, even the cost of a broken and food-scarce South Africa .
(A point to ponder: If a white leader had continuously sung a song exhorting whites to kill blacks, the matter would surely have ended up in the United Nations Security Council for censure.)
If South African whites ignore Julius Malema, they do so at their peril. His threats to the plaintiffs that if they gave the ANC 80% of South Africa 's land, he would withdraw his defence and "the killing will stop" reveal an agitator of the first order. He is dangerous not because he knows nothing about governance or world affairs, but because his ignorance and vindictiveness mask a militancy and aggressiveness containing the kernel of another African catastrophe.
Issued by TAU SA, May 10 2011
» » » » [Politicsweb]
South Africa youth leader says 'criminal' whites stole land from blacks
Julius Malema, South Africa's controversial youth leader, has said that white people who own land in the country should be treated like 'criminals' because they stole it from black people.
By Aislinn Laing, Telegraph.UK
10:07PM BST 09 May 2011
Mr Malema said that the government's attempts to return land to black South Africans through negotiations with white farmers had failed, and called for Zimbabwe-style land seizures.
"We have to take the land without payment, because the whites took our land without paying and transformed them into game farms. The system of willing seller, willing buyer has failed," he told a rally ahead of local elections.
"We all agree they stole the land. They are criminals, they should be treated like that."
His comments will generate concern among South Africa's white farmers ahead of May 18 elections in which the ANC is expected to lose ground.
Mr Malema, 30, is already facing a race hate trial for singing the protest song Shoot the Boer.
Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe said: "It can't be correct to generalise like that. It is not scientific or healing," Mr Motlanthe said.
Theo de Jager, of AGRI SA which represents South Africa's commercial farmers, said Mr Malema made no distinction between white settlers who came to South Africa 360 years ago and individual farmers today.
"If they say land has been stolen, they must show us a farmer who has not paid for his land," he said.
"The worst thing that could happen for current landowners is that the governing party do so badly at the polls that they need to do irresponsible things to establish themselves."
Professor Pieter Le Roux, Director of the Institute for Social Development at the University of the Western Cape, said Mr Malema would never have been given a platform by Nelson Mandela or Thabo Mbeki but is now a useful tool for the ANC to mobilise the radical youth.
"It's for short-term political gain but does create long-term political concerns," he said.
» » » » [Telegraph.UK]
Separating Free Speech From Hate in South Africa
By Celia W. Dugger, New York Times
Published: April 30, 2011
By Celia W. Dugger, New York Times
Published: April 30, 2011
JOHANNESBURG — It seemed like a throwback to the days when a white minority ruled South Africa. Inside a colonial-era courthouse that was once a stage for the political trials of anti-apartheid activists, a white lawyer in robes and frilly bib accused a black leader of being a Communist and fomenting hatred of whites.
“Do you know who Vladimir Lenin was?” demanded the lawyer, rekindling memories of the anti-Communist measures that helped crush dissent during apartheid.
In his defense, the black leader in the dock championed his right to lead his supporters in singing a song with the seemingly bloodthirsty line “Shoot the Boer!” — a historical reference widely taken as a threat by Afrikaners, the descendants of Dutch settlers and the creators of apartheid.
Of course, that racist system ended 17 years ago with Nelson Mandela’s election. The African National Congress has been the governing party ever since. But the past is not really past here. Race remains a fraught issue, riveting the country in recent weeks as the hate-speech trial of Julius Malema, the leader of the party’s youth wing, was broadcast live on television. Closing arguments are expected within weeks.
The decision will help establish where free speech crosses the line into hate speech in one of Africa’s most democratic countries. The trial itself may also have strengthened Mr. Malema’s political allure in a nation where four out of five citizens are black.
He is alternately denounced here as a demagogue and hailed as a future president. Even some senior leaders in the A.N.C. worry that his angry brand of populism could resonate with the country’s millions of dispossessed youths.
The final day of testimony, in a wood-paneled courtroom packed with Mr. Malema’s partisans, presented a polarized version of South Africa’s complicated and never-ending debate about how to deal with its racial legacy.
“It’s a clash of atavisms,” said Nic Dawes, editor of The Mail & Guardian. “It’s like those days when you tune into talk radio and you hear a version of the national conversation dominated by the most unpleasant aspects of white anxiety and the angriest black reactions.”
The imagery was powerful: Roelof du Plessis, an Afrikaner lawyer with a heavy Afrikaans accent, accusing Mr. Malema of being a Communist, suggesting that South Africa was heading toward a genocide against whites and accusing Mr. Malema of having carried a gun “illegally” as a child during the armed struggle against apartheid. (Mr. Malema happily confirmed the claim).
“That seems to be typical of Africa, using children to fight wars,” Mr. Du Plessis harrumphed.
At the other extreme, Mr. Malema, 30, arrived each day at the courthouse in Johannesburg surrounded by bodyguards in dark suits and red ties, assault rifles slung across their chests.
In recent years, he has declared a readiness to kill for Jacob Zuma, South Africa’s president; described the leader of the main opposition party, Helen Zille, as a cockroach; and hounded a BBC correspondent out of a news conference, accusing him of “white tendencies.” He has also pushed the African National Congress into a debate on the nationalization of South Africa’s mineral wealth, though party elders warned it could drive away foreign investment.
Some of his statements last year prompted his party to order him to attend anger management classes. Nonetheless, party leaders rallied to Mr. Malema’s defense in the current case, testifying in support of his assertion that the “Shoot the Boer” refrain was a metaphorical call to defeat apartheid, not a literal incitement to violence.
The debate has played out in newspapers and blogs. Many in the news media and academia who have been harsh critics of Mr. Malema’s have nonetheless argued that his singing of the offending song does not justify banning it as a form of hate speech under South Africa’s Constitution.
Some also found Mr. Du Plessis’s cross-examination ridiculous. Pierre de Vos, a law professor at the University of Cape Town, wrote that Mr. Du Plessis’s line of questioning reminded him of apartheid-era leaders speaking on “the dangers of communism and the evils of A.N.C. ‘terrorism.’ ”
“I must say, Adv. Du Plessis’s performance today is almost enough to make me want to burst out singing: ‘dubul’ibhunu/dubula dubula,’ ” the professor wrote, quoting the Zulu rendition of the “Shoot the Boer” refrain.
But others found the hate speech complaint convincing. It was filed by two groups representing Afrikaners, who contended that the song’s refrain suggested that Afrikaners were “the enemy at least to be shunned and at most to be killed.”
Rhoda Kadalie, a columnist writing in an Afrikaans-language newspaper, said the lyrics were wrong during apartheid years and shocking now, especially in light of the many white farmers murdered since the end of apartheid.
“Justifying these wrongs in the name of apartheid gives carte blanche to yesterday’s liberators to become tomorrow’s oppressors,” she wrote.
The song is not among the famous freedom anthems. Hugh Masekela, the renowned South African trumpeter, said he had not heard of it, adding that there were many such songs. “This was a time when people were very angry,” he said, “and they were singing songs much more violent than that one.”
Mr. Malema, just 13 when Mr. Mandela became president, was too young to join the armed struggle against apartheid, but seemed eager to use the trial to bolster his revolutionary street cred.
“I belong to a radical and militant youth organization, and if you’re not militant in the Youth League, you run the risk of being irrelevant,” Mr. Malema said on the stand.
He boasted that the A.N.C. has taught him to fire a gun and chant slogans since he was 11. In 1993, he said, when he was 12, he marched into white suburbs armed with a gun after a right-wing white assassinated the charismatic black leader Chris Hani — only to be disappointed when Mr. Mandela appealed for discipline and nonviolence rather than ordering an attack.
“We came across white people,” Mr. Malema said. “We never shot any one of them. We had all the reasons.”
Mr. Du Plessis, advocating for white farmers, opened the door for Mr. Malema to make his case for nationalizing the mines and confiscating the land of white farmers without compensation — policies that would constitute a sharp break with the country’s Constitution.
Mr. Malema said he would act according to the law in seeking to change the Constitution to allow land confiscation. But he held up Robert Mugabe, the strongman in neighboring Zimbabwe, as a democrat who had led that nation’s drive to seize white-owned land — a drive that Mr. Malema noted regretfully had relied on violence.
“It’s a democratic country,” Mr. Malema said of Zimbabwe, flashing a grin. “They have been holding elections every five years.”
“Oh, I see!” Mr. Du Plessis sputtered sarcastically.
After his testimony, Mr. Malema told hundreds of his followers who had stood outside for hours that Mr. Du Plessis “couldn’t hide the racism in his face.” He said the lawyer’s clients were far more worried about the confiscation of their land than about a song’s lyrics.
“We are going to take their land whether they like it or not!” he exclaimed, as the crowd roared.
His supporters then serenaded Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Mr. Mandela’s former wife, who had been at Mr. Malema’s side throughout his trial. Ms. Madikizela-Mandela, who was implicated in the murders and beatings of township youths in the late 1980s, thanked AfriForum, one of the complainants in the case, for bringing Mr. Malema’s supporters together “to baptize” him as “the future president of South Africa.”
“This is the leadership that is going to run the very last mile of transformation for this country,” she proclaimed.
» » » » [New York Times]
Malema: White people are criminals
May 8 2011 at 10:03am, IOL
May 8 2011 at 10:03am, IOL
White people should be treated as “criminals” for “stealing” land from black people, ANC Youth League president Julius Malema told an enthusiastic crowd in Kimberley yesterday where he appeared on the same platform as President Jacob Zuma.
Malema was the main attraction as he pulled out all the stops in his campaign for local elections, now just days away.
“They (whites) have turned our land into game farms… The willing-buyer, willing-seller (system) has failed,” Malema said.
“We must take the land without paying. They took our land without paying. Once we agree they stole our land, we can agree they are criminals and must be treated as such,” he said to cheers from a crowd of about 3 000 people at the Galeshewe stadium, just outside Kimberley.
Although Zuma was billed as the main speaker, it was Malema – affectionately known as “Juju-baby” in these parts – who stole the show.
As service delivery protests continue across the country, Malema chastised the “spoilt brats” who complained that the ANC had not delivered basic services.
He said protesters were “burning tyres in townships on a tar road delivered to them by the ANC”.
The youth leader also said he had seen people interviewed on television who said they were not going to vote in the coming election.
“But this person is watering his garden and behind him stands an RDP house – and then he says he doesn’t see delivery. We must never entertain such spoilt brats,” he said to more cheers.
Malema also criticised corrupt practices by councillors, such as selling on RDP houses or giving preference to family and friends on housing lists. This went down well with the crowd, which got to its feet and roared with approval when he said: “You shouldn’t have to sleep with a councillor to get an RDP house.”
Malema pushed his nationalisation agenda, saying the government could not afford to create jobs or to build a university in the Northern Cape – a 2009 campaign promise made by Zuma – because “there is no money”.
“Where is the money? It is in the hands of the Oppenheimers, who mine diamonds right here in Kimberley and leave nothing behind.
“One family has benefited for generation after generation, but there is nothing looking like a diamond here in Galeshewe,” he said to enthusiastic applause.
“Political freedom without economic power means nothing. You can vote until you turn yellow, but without economic freedom it means nothing,” he added, saying the youth league was not “requesting permission” to nationalise the country’s natural assets.
In its recently released economic policy discussion document, the league makes it clear that land, minerals and other key assets should be nationalised, without compensation to current title holders.
The issue will be debated at the ANC’s policy conference next year after the league succeeded on getting it on to the party’s agenda at its national general council in September last year.
Malema said his calls for nationalisation were “nothing new” as the Freedom Charter spelt out the same goals. Former president Nelson Mandela himself had urged the party to strive for economic emancipation once political freedom was attained, according to Malema.
He went on to dish out his customary insults to opposition parties, calling DA leader Helen Zille a “dancing monkey” from “monkey town”.
“You allow the madam to kiss your children when you know the madam does not care about your children. They kill our people when they confuse them with baboons. The madam will never be president,” he said.
Cope, the PAC and the IFP received similar treatment.
Referring to Cope’s leadership squabbles, Malema joked, “You can’t form a political party when you are angry because the day you smile that party will die – you must then be angry forever.”
The PAC was a spent force and the IFP was never a political party, but was formed as a “cultural organisation”, he said.
Malema also came to the defence of Northern Cape ANC provincial chairman John Block, who is facing corruption charges. Block has been implicated in a multi-million rand tender scandal related to the provision of medical oxygen and water purification plants.
People were out to “destroy” Block because he was the face of the ANC in the province, but such attacks were in fact attacks on the “integrity” of the ANC, Malema said.
Malema’s wooing of the crowd quickly dissipated when Zuma took to the stage, however. People listened intently to what he had to say.
The president urged people not to “waste” their votes on opposition parties and criticised those who planned not to vote as having fallen victim to “effective propaganda”.
“If you love yourself and you love your vote, why do you vote for a party that you know is going to lose anyway? What is the logic – to vote to lose?” he asked.
Zuma said the ANC was different to other parties, saying it was a “movement of the people” first, and a political party second. - Deon de Lange
» » » » [IOL]
Threat to family in Malema case
April 18 2011 at 07:47am
By Graeme Hosken, Pretoria News
April 18 2011 at 07:47am
By Graeme Hosken, Pretoria News
Threatening late-night phone calls, slashed car tyres, computer sabotage, attempts to force their cars off the road and sinister burglaries are among the threats a Pretoria advocate and his family have faced since he became involved in ANC Youth League president Julius Malema’s hate speech case.
But for Roelof du Plessis, SC and his family nothing will deter them in the fight for what they believe to be justice.
Du Plessis is acting for the Transvaal Agriculture Union in the case.
The advocate has not reported the intimidation because of his lack of faith in the police.
Now he has been forced to beef up his family’s security and hire guards.
But they are not the kind seen guarding Malema at court last week. The youth wing leader surrounded himself with semi-automatic machine gun wielding guards, who sparked Judge Colin Lamont’s ire.
The judge ordered the removal of the armed men from his courtroom in the Equality Court in the Johannesburg High Court on Tuesday.
The reason for Malema’s strongmen is unknown. ANC Youth league spokesman Floyd Shivambu refused to comment on any possible threats against the organisation’s president or his legal team, saying the matter was “none of your business”.
In an SMS sent to the Pretoria News late on Friday Shivambu, first asking what threats the newspaper was enquiring about, said: “There are standing threats on the ANCYL president from segments of Afrikaner, particularly those who were at Eugene Terre’Blanche’s funeral waving the racist apartheid flag and holding up posters threatening the president.
“Their folly and anger is not very different from what we notice from some insecure Afrikaners.”
Asked for a clarification, Shivambu could not give one.
Speaking from their home in an exclusive interview, the Du Plessis family, who now have 24-hour security, said they were scared but were not going to let the advocate quit the trial.
Du Plessis’s wife, Renette, asked that neither the location of their home nor the private security they had hired be identified.
Being farmers, the family said that despite the harassment initially stopping “overnight” when Du Plessis raised his concerns in a pre-hearing meeting with all the parties involved, those behind the intimidation had started their campaign again. “We do not know who is behind this, but it all started the moment my husband first began working on the case.”
After discovering that the tyres on the car of their eldest daughter were sabotaged and cut in such a way that they would burst, causing a potentially fatal accident, the family now fear that the attacks are taking on a more sinister tone.
“To say we are not scared would be a lie. These incidents, especially the latest, are far worse than before,” said Renette du Plessis.
Among recent “attacks” were Du Plessis’s narrowly avoiding being rammed off the road last week.
After a recent night out the family returned to find that their house had been broken into.
“Nothing was missing, but our family pictures were placed with newspaper clippings of the court case on our garden rubbish dump.
“When we turned on our computers that night they crashed. When we took them to a computer store the next day we discovered someone had planted a string of highly sophisticated viruses on the computers, destroying everything on them.
“Added to these attacks was when two men driving a bakkie tried to force our daughter off the road.
“These incidents are becoming more sinister. We now fear for our children’s safety.
“While we do not know what will happen next, one thing is sure, Roelof will continue with this case.
“He will not stop because if he does it means that those who are behind this have won,” she said.
The couple’s eldest daughter, Marinette, said she became truly afraid when she discovered that her car tyres had been sabotaged.
Roelof du Plessis said: “It makes one feel as though we are back in the dark apartheid days where state agents followed you, tapped your phones, broke into your homes and intimidated your family.”
Du Plessis said even if he opened a case “nothing is likely to come of it”. - Pretoria News
» » » » [Pretoria News]
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