Americans march in solidarity with boer brethren to protest ‘racist’ crime in SA

Americans march in solidarity with boer brethren to protest ‘racist’ crime in SA

February 27, 2012 | Big Issue | Rebekah Funk

Marches are being held across the United States to draw attention to what one group calls widespread “black on white racist crimes” in South Africa.

The rallies, scheduled for later today and organised by Louisiana-based South Africa Project, are planned for 13 states across the US.

According to a recent post on the group’s website, the goal of the February 27 rallies is “to arouse the attention of the mainstream media to the rapes, murders and other atrocities our brethren in South Africa endure on a daily basis”.

The post continues: “We simply want to get the message out to the media and elected officials — without anyone spewing ‘hate rally‘ — that the South African Boers…need our help now!…If the United States is so adamant about sending funds to places like Haiti and Zimbabwe, why won’t they do anything for the White Boers in South Africa?”

Lucy Holborn, Research Manager at the South African Institute of Race Relations, said the American group has no legitimate claim for genocide against white South Africans.

“There’s no evidence to suggest that’s the case,” she said in a telephone interview from Johannesburg.

Claims that white South Africans are facing an organised attempt at ethnic cleansing is detrimental to the reconciliation work people have done since the end of apartheid, Holborn added.

“There is a danger in suggesting genocide is going on…it builds resentment in the other direction,” she said. “The more people hear white people complain about their situation, the more goodwill, promoted by people like Mandela, will fade. For a lot of people that’s frustrating, because in most cases crime is still happening in greater numbers against blacks.”

Holborn pointed out that while white farmers have been the victims of violent crime, research shows 80% of these attacks were motivated by robbery, while only two % were racially driven.


Genocide Watch

Disturbing posters — stating, “Stop the Genocide of Boer Farm Families” with graphic images of bloodied bodies in bathtubs and beds — have been produced in preparation for marches in California, Washington, Texas, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, Maryland, New Hampshire, Idaho, Florida and Connecticut.

Organisers of the marches argue that South Africa should be ranked at stage seven — the “extermination” stage” — on Genocide Watch’s eight-stage risk chart due to the high level of violent crime against whites.

Genocide Watch downgraded the nation’s status from a stage six “preparation” stage, to a stage five “polarisation” stage on February 2 — though it “continues to be alarmed at hate crimes committed against whites, particularly against Boer farmers.”

Anticipated attendance figures for the American rallies have not yet been released and the South Africa Project’s coordination chief, Michael Myers, was not available for comment at the time of press.

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