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SOUTH
AFRICA UPDATE
Dispatches from a Darkening Corner of the Dark Continent
SNIPPETS FROM SOUTH AFRICA:
JUNE 2008
by Shaun Willcock
The purpose of these articles is to provide insightful comment on the
contemporary South African and southern African scene from a Christian,
“politically-incorrect” perspective, in order to counter the propaganda of the
Reds, almost-Reds (liberals and others), religious Reds (“liberation
theologians”), and all their fellow-travellers; and to encourage Christians to
pray for the people of this beautiful but desperately needy part of the world,
and especially for their Christian brethren living here; and to do what they can
to assist them.
In this article:
*South Africa is the most violent country in the world
*Violent Crime Makes Farming the Most Dangerous Job in South Africa
*Nelson Mandela and the ANC No Longer on U.S. Terror List
*Street Renaming Presses Ahead in Durban, Honouring Killers and Terrorists
*A Wave of Xenophobic Attacks Spreads Across South Africa
*A Small Victory
South Africa is the Most Violent Country in the World
It has been this way for years and years. South Africa is the murder and crime
capital of the world. It has been declared the most violent country in the world
outside of a war zone. And, let it be noted, this is under the ANC government –
supposedly this great and wonderful “government of the people” that managed to
fool the world into thinking it is a democratic government when in truth it is a
Marxist terrorist organisation that came to power through a bloody revolution.
In 2007-2008, South Africa, with a population of an estimated 49.9 million
people, had 31000 murders – that’s a murder rate of 65.27 per 100 000 people.
Only one country had a higher number of murders for the same period: India, with
32000. This makes SA the country with the second highest number of murders in
the world. But when one takes into account India’s huge population – 1.13
billion people – then 32000 murders is a very tiny percentage. It works out to
just three per 100 000 people. SA’s population, by contrast, is far, far
smaller, and yet it only had 1000 murders less than India! So it can safely be
said that SA, not India, is the most violent country on the planet. And that’s
not all. In the same 2007-2008 period, 54 900 women were raped in SA. That’s a
rate of rape of 115.8 per 100 000 people. India, by contrast, has a rate of rape
of four per 100 000.
The statistics are horrifying: over 4.6 million South Africans have been victims
of violent crime; over 291 000 people have been murdered since the ANC came to
power in 1994; in the five years up to March 2007, 100 000 people in South
Africa were murdered; there have been over 675 000 rapes in South Africa since
the ANC took power in 1994; in SA a woman is raped every ten minutes; and over
1600 farmers have been murdered in over 10 000 farm attacks. The mind boggles at
these statistics. This is a country in deep, deep crisis. A crisis caused, not
by apartheid as the ANC wants the world to believe, but by the ANC government
itself.
South Africans are facing a veritable crime holocaust. It is epidemic, and it
has been like this year after year since the ANC came to power, with no signs of
letting up. The government is soft on criminals, while making it increasingly
difficult for ordinary law-abiding citizens to defend themselves. Ordinary
citizens live in fear for their lives, living like criminals behind bars in
their own homes, as the ones who should be behind bars, the rapists and
murderers, prowl the streets openly and without fear of the law. It is a society
in terror, brutalised by men acting worse than animals.
Violent Crime Makes Farming the Most Dangerous Job in South Africa
Pieter Groenewald, an MP for the Freedom Front Plus, an Afrikaner political
party, has correctly stated that crime, especially the murders of farmers, makes
farming the most dangerous job in South Africa today. More white farmers are
murdered than any other group of people in the country. The murder rate among
SA’s white farmers is 313 per 100 000 people. The next highest is the murder of
policemen, at 153 per 100 000 people.
According to the South African Institute of Race relations’ 2006/2007 survey,
1564 farmers were killed in the period between 1991 and March 2006. According to
the official statistics released by the Minister of Safety and Security, 560
farmers were killed in the period 2000 to 2004. It thus can be accepted that
from 1991 until the present, over 1600 farmers have been murdered in 10 000 farm
attacks!
Put this into perspective: the world average for murder is 5 in every 100 000 of
the population. In the United States, the figure is 4 per 100 000 people, and in
countries such as Australia, Chile, France, etc., the figure is only one per 100
000 people.
As Groenewald pointed out: “Agriculture feeds the people. The government knows
that sector policing in rural areas does not work and a vacuum in rural safety
exists. It is clear that the government is not bothered about the farming
community and farm murders.”
This is very true. The ANC government is intent on driving the white farmers off
the land, so that it can be given to blacks. It does not care how many white
farmers are killed, as long as the end objective is achieved. And yet, in its
criminal complicity, its racist short-sightedness, the ANC is shooting itself in
the foot, because without these farmers the country will not be able to feed
itself. As in Zimbabwe, the government is sowing the seeds of its own
destruction.
Nelson Mandela and the ANC No Longer on U.S. Terror List
In April, the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs voted on a bill aimed at
removing official notation that branded the ANC and its leaders as terrorists.
Despite the fact that the ANC has been the government of South Africa for
fourteen years, it was still officially labelled as a terrorist organisation in
the United States, and its leaders, including Nelson Mandela, were still
officially listed as terrorists on the U.S. blacklist. This means that when ANC
leaders apply for visas to the USA, they are flagged for questioning and need a
waiver to be allowed into the country. This was because, in a somewhat better
era not so long ago, the United States (at least on paper) acknowledged the
truth about the ANC. It was labelled a terrorist organisation just like the PLO
and many other similar organisations around the world. And this was how it was
labelled despite the fact that the USA was doing all it could to see to it that
the ANC became the government of South Africa. For in the U.S. as in most
countries, intrigues go on behind the scenes, at high levels, unknown to the
people. America had decided that SA’s white, conservative, anti-Communist
government had to be replaced by the ANC – even though it knew and officially
admitted that the ANC was a terror organisation.
And now, after fourteen years, the U.S. has decided to finally admit to the
world that it is quite happy to work with the ANC. Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif.,
pushed a bill to remove current and former ANC leaders from the watch lists.
Supporters hoped to get it passed before Mandela’s 90th birthday on July 18.
Berman said: “What an indignity. The ANC set an important example: it
successfully made the change from armed struggle to peace. We should celebrate
the transformation.” U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that it was
time to remove Nelson Mandela and the ANC from an apartheid-era U.S. blacklist.
“This is a country with which we have now excellent relations,” she told the
Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs. “But it is really a rather embarrassing
matter that I still have to waive in my own counterpart, the foreign minister of
South Africa, not to mention the great leader Nelson Mandela.”
Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., called ANC members’ inclusion on the watch lists a
“bureaucratic snafu” and pledged to fix the problem. And Homeland Security
Secretary Michael Chertoff said “common sense” suggests Mandela should be
removed from the list. He added that the issue “raises a troubling and difficult
debate about what groups are considered terrorists and which are not.” Actually,
Sir, it’s very easy, really: a terrorist is someone who commits or plans acts of
terror, and a terrorist organisation is an organisation which commits acts of
terror. Simple and straightforward. And based on that obvious and
easy-to-understand definition, the ANC should be labelled as a terrorist
organisation, and its leaders, both current and former, should be labelled as
terrorists – as they once were, very correctly, in SA and in the USA. The fact
that the ANC is now the government of SA should make absolutely no difference.
They came to power through terrorism.
Ah, but the U.S. is very selective in its use of the term “terrorist”. If its
own people are attacked by terrorists, then it labels the wicked men responsible
for the deed as terrorists. If it suits its purposes to label people in another
part of the world who commit acts of terror as terrorists, then it does so. But
if it is not expedient (as in the case of the ANC today) to label terrorists as
such, then it doesn’t do so. In fact, it labels them as “freedom fighters” or
“democrats” or some such thing, and develops close relations with them, to
promote its own ends. It’s American government hypocrisy, and thinking South
Africans know it well, having been on the receiving end of it for many years
now.
Well, in May the bill was adopted by the U.S. House of Representatives, in a
raised-hands vote with no objection. “This long-overdue bill is the direct
result of a stunning and, frankly, embarrassing story for the United States,”
said Berman. “Despite recognising two decades ago that America’s place was on
the side of those oppressed by apartheid, Congress has never resolved the
inconsistency in our immigration code that treats many of those who actively
opposed apartheid in South Africa as terrorists and criminals.”
Here’s the thing: those who, as Berman says, “actively opposed apartheid”, did
so with bombs, guns, and the horrific “necklace” murder method. If these same
men had committed those acts in America, he would doubtless label them as
terrorists. But because they were committed in a country far away, against a
people he cared nothing for, he can justify it and say they were “oppressed by
apartheid”. And now all of SA is oppressed by the very same ANC who people like
Berman and Condoleezza Rice now speak of so highly! Is the United States going
to do anything about it? Pigs will fly first.
The USA, the supposed “leader of the free world”, worked hard to deliver SA into
the hands of Marxist terrorists. It deliberately turned against its own western
ally, as did the rest of the “free world”. Just how “free”, then, is the west in
reality? As Prime Minister Ian Smith of Rhodesia said, “We were not defeated by
our enemies, we were betrayed by our friends.” One has to ask: just whose side
is the United States really on? The side of freedom and anti-Communism – or the
other side?
The answer is obvious.
Street Renaming Presses Ahead in Durban, Honouring Killers and Terrorists
Not long ago, in a previous news article, we showed how the ANC is forging ahead
to obliterate the history of everyone except its own revolutionary heroes, by
renaming cities, streets and other landmarks across the country. In Amanzimtoti,
near Durban, they have decided to rename Kingsway Street as Andrew Zondo Street.
Zondo was a terrorist who set a limpet mine in Kingsway in 1985, which killed
five people. And now, despite massive public outrage and opposition to the move,
the ANC has renamed the street to honour this killer’s memory. For one young
white woman, it was just too much. Elaine Shearer’s mother was one of the five
people killed by that limpet mine. And after the decision was taken to name a
street after the man who caused her mother’s death, she has decided to emigrate.
Her father still lives in Kingsway. He said, “She is very bitter, as she was
only 19 months old when her mother died.”
It is disgusting that a brutal terrorist will be honoured for killing five
people. What a cruel, callous slap in the face for people like the Shearers, who
lost loved ones in that cold-blooded, cowardly act. This shows the true face of
the ANC: it rides roughshod over the feelings and sensibilities of ordinary
people, particularly if they are white, in its mad crusade to obliterate their
history and to glorify its murderous “heroes”. And the ANC in Durban didn’t stop
there. The Higginson Highway is to be renamed after none other than Yasser
Arafat, the Arab terrorist leader of the Palestine Liberation Organisation.
This, too, just shows the ANC’s true colours: they are willing to honour a man
who was not even a South African, and was a brutal killer to boot, merely
because of his close ties and support for the ANC during its own revolution
against the South African state.
Yet another slap in the face was administered by the ANC in their street
renaming fiasco, this time to Zulu Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, the leader of
the mainly-Zulu Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), the ANC’s main rival in the
province of KwaZulu-Natal. The Mangosuthu Highway in Umlazi, a black township of
Durban, which was named after Buthelezi years ago, is now to be renamed after an
ANC “hero”. Although Buthelezi was clearly angry and lashed out at the ANC,
branding the advocates of Durban’s street renaming process a “bunch of very
small minds”, he showed true statesmanship in his response. Addressing thousands
of his supporters at a stadium in Umlazi, he said, “I view with a sense of pity,
the shoddy efforts of the ANC to try to belittle me and the people of Umlazi by
changing the name of the highway named after me.” He said that the controversial
street renaming process was “a nonsensical flaunting of power” by the ANC-run
municipality. “Removing my name from a street does not demean me in any way. It
does not change the history of what I achieved in extremely difficult and
challenging circumstances. It is a pity that this sort of mischief is being
perpetrated, when the whole country is being ravaged by xenophobic violence.
These people [those backing the renaming of the highway] deserve pity rather
than condemnation.”
The IFP’s national chairwoman, Zanele Magwaza-Msibi, warned that the renaming of
the highway could spark violence in the province. “If they [the ANC] know what
is best for the people of [Durban] and the people of South Africa, they will
never dare change the name,” she said. South Africa sits on a powder keg all the
time, thanks to the ANC’s arrogance, greed, and desire to hold power at all
costs and get its own way as it seeks to re-mould SA in its own image. A
Wave of Xenophobic Attacks Spreads Across South Africa
“It took South Africans [black South Africans, that is] just two weeks to kill
nearly 50 people, displace 15000 others, and get images of their burning,
bloodied and terrified victims into the international spotlight.”
In May, in the black township of Alexandria, near Johannesburg, seemingly out of
the blue, black South Africans began violently attacking black foreigners living
among them, most of whom were refugees from their own war-torn and
poverty-stricken countries such as Zimbabwe, Somalia, Nigeria, and elsewhere.
Within an incredibly short space of time, the violence spread across the
province of Gauteng, and then into KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape as well.
The number of displaced soon reached over 20 000.
The irony of it all is that, when the ANC was conducting its terrorist campaign
against white-governed South Africa, neighbouring black-ruled countries gave
refuge to ANC terrorists, allowing them to hide out in these countries and to
conduct their revolution from bases there.
Then, when the ANC took power in SA, this country
was seen as the land of milk and honey by millions of blacks in other African
countries, suffering starvation, oppression and war at the hands of either their
own corrupt governments or rebels. And so the refugees started to arrive, in
their millions, expecting to be treated well by black South Africans because of
the support their own countries had given to the ANC during its revolutionary
years. They braved all kinds of dangers, including their own hostile
governments, the hostility of the SA government, wild animals and flooded rivers
to sneak into SA. And once here, despite facing deportation if arrested, they
sought work and usually proved themselves to be very good workers, hard-working,
undemanding, prepared to put in an honest day’s labour for an honest day’s wage;
unlike so many black South Africans, who are too busy demonstrating and holding
marches through city streets, demanding higher wages and various unrealistic
handouts from the government.
But the foreigners were in for a shock. They were not welcomed by their black
“brothers”. They were viewed with suspicion, and accused of stealing jobs
belonging to South Africans at a time when millions of black South Africans are
unemployed. They expected that black South Africans would welcome them with open
arms because they had welcomed ANC members into their own countries in the past;
but it did not happen. Simmering just below the surface of this very violent
society was discontent and mounting anger at the presence of the foreigners.
And in May it erupted, and spread like wildfire. In scenes reminiscent of the
1980s, when the ANC was going all out to make the country ungovernable, South
Africans and the world saw, on their TV newscasts and in their papers, images of
burning, looting, rampaging mobs of blacks, violently driving the foreigners
out. In at least one terrible case, a mob in Alexandria township attacked a man,
believed to be from Malawi, and set him alight in the street. He later died of
his injuries.
Within days, thousands were homeless, hundreds had been physically and viciously
attacked, dozens were dead. Refugees were constantly pouring into police
stations, church buildings, and other places, seeking shelter and protection.
Many expressed the desire to return to their own countries, even many from
places such as Zimbabwe, which they had left in order to seek a better life in
South Africa. After the recent horrific events, even life back in their own
ruined countries looked better to them than this. As one woman from Zimbabwe
said, “I really want to go back to Zimbabwe. I cannot live like this. I’d rather
suffer in my own country.” An estimated 30 000 Mozambicans in SA were
rushing to leave the country and return home in the wake of the violence.
What can we expect from people who were actually encouraged to commit such acts
or terror in the 1980s and early 1990s, by the ANC, before it came to power in
SA? An entire generation of blacks was brutalised by the ANC, turned into
killers with no conscience, all in the name of “liberation from apartheid”. And
when that so-called “liberation” came, those killers didn’t just suddenly
metamorphose into decent, law-abiding citizens! How could they? They remained
the brutal killers they were before. Former State President P.W. Botha warned
many years ago that if the ANC was unbanned, it would be like unleashing wild
horses upon the country; and he was right. The ANC was unable, and unwilling, to
rein in these thugs. They have remained at large in society. And the recent wave
of attacks on foreigners is merely the inevitable result in a society filled
with such vicious criminals, to whom life is cheap.
Of course, SA should have properly secured its borders long ago. As the United
States is finding with its waves of illegal Mexican immigrants pouring across
the borders, no country can long survive such an uncontrolled influx of illegal
immigrants. Our hearts go out to the suffering millions in other countries even
worse off than our own, and it is right to do whatever we can to assist them
with food, clothing and shelter; but at the same time we cannot support an “open
border” policy. It will always spell doom for any country, sooner or later. SA
should have a proper refugee policy, to assist genuine refugees fleeing
persecution or starvation in their own countries; but the present situation, in
which people just pour across our borders willy-nilly, is totally unworkable.
It is very clear that the violence didn’t “just happen”. It was deliberately
orchestrated. This was in fact known to the ambassadors of other African
countries, who warned the South African government via a letter, in April
already, of impending xenophobic attacks! Pamphlets warning foreigners to leave
SA or be killed indicated a degree of deliberate organisation that some African
diplomats appeared to find disturbing. Yet Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Aziz
Pahad described the violence as “a totally unexpected phenomenon.”
Ominously, the ANC government was quick to start speaking darkly about the
violence being caused by a mysterious, sinister “third force” at work behind the
scenes. Just who could this “third force” be? Essop Pahad, Minister in the
Presidency, hinted that it might be “right wing” elements – meaning of course,
white anti-Communists. He would not clarify when pushed. And Manala Manzini, the
director-general of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), said that in the
run-up to the 1994 elections that brought the ANC to power, “elements” that
supported the previous white government had delivered weapons to black hostels
for use in attacking communities. “We are beginning to see those movements
taking place currently.
People are beginning to organise and resuscitate
some of those people that they have had contact with in the past in hostels. To
provoke and encourage them to unleash violence”. He added that the NIA believed
that as SA prepared for its national election early next year, the black on
black violence that the country witnessed during the 1994 election “has
deliberately been unleashed and orchestrated against our people.” He also said
that the violence had been deliberately orchestrated ahead of the election
“because we believe there are forces in this country and outside who continue to
refuse to accept that we are capable as a people to rule and govern ourselves.”
While it is not utterly outside the realms of possibility that some whites could
be behind the attacks, it remains highly doubtful at this stage. One has to ask:
what would they gain from it? The government has suggested that it could be
being organised to disrupt the 2009 elections. That’s a stretch. We’re only in
the first half of 2008. The elections are many months away. Plus, blacks killing
blacks on such a scale is not likely to be something any whites could easily
bring to pass in this day and age.
What is ominous, however, is that once again, the ANC is to some extent blaming,
or hinting at the need to blame, the whites for trouble in SA. This is its
favourite tactic which it has used over and over again in the past 14 years. If
ever it could convince large numbers of its black supporters of supposed “white
right-wing” involvement in the violence, they would then start directing their
anger at white South African as well. They already brand the whites as
“settlers” and “foreigners”, an outright lie. It’s a small step. And if that
ever happens, there could be full-scale civil war in SA.
Mobs of chanting, rampaging blacks were heard singing Jacob Zuma’s signature
song, “Bring me my machine gun,” as they attacked foreigners. Zuma spoke out and
urged them not to do so, but it leaves one wondering. Collen Makumbirofa, a
black Zimbabwean who runs the Foundation for Reason and Justice, is in no doubt
about who is behind it. He wrote: “South Africa has unleashed violence against
foreigners. This violence is well planned by black political leaders.” He also
wrote: “It is the ANC’s unspoken goal to rid South Africa of foreigners,
especially Zimbabweans, and whites as well. Most members of the South African
Police are ANC supporters. The ANC government is an utter failure. Male police
demand sex from immigrant women. Police demand bribes from victims of recent
xenophobic violence. Police have no respect of foreigners, men, women and
children. Most of these crimes are committed by black police officers.
I have encountered white police officers, they
have never demanded bribes from me, but a lot of black police officers have
demanded bribes, this included a top immigration official” (italics added).
Indeed, as foreign refugees have tried to return to their own countries in the
wake of the attacks, they have testified that SA policemen swooped on them at
bus and train stations, threatened them with arrest if they didn’t pay them
bribes in cash or sex, and beat them if they refused. One man from Zimbabwe, who
lost R300 to the police, said, “I’m really scared of staying in this country.”
Women testified of how policemen demanded sexual favours. A refugee from
Zimbabwe said, “I’m 41 years old. Imagine a 20 year old male constable demanding
sex from me? OK, I’m a refugee, but I wouldn’t stoop so low as to sleep with a
boy. I’ve been beaten, lost my valuables, have no place to go”.
One thing is for certain: South Africa’s aspirations to lead the African
continent are in shreds at this time. Ever since Mandela became the first black
president of SA, the country has been considered Africa’s leader. Other, smaller
African countries looked to it for leadership and guidance as SA spoke for
Africa at global conferences, etc. It was seen as Africa’s leading light, a
beacon of hope on the continent. But no more. And this is a very good thing, for
SA under the ANC has never deserved such a position. Under the ANC it is no
different from any other Marxist state on the continent. In fact, in many ways
it is worse than other African states. And now the world can see this for
itself.
Another good thing: analysts have raised doubts about SA’s ability and
suitability to host the 2010 soccer World Cup. In the words of George Pambason,
director of the Alliance for Refugees: “How can they host the world if they
can’t live side by side with people who are different from them? This violence
shows total ignorance and a society that is very eager to shed blood.” As we
have written elsewhere, it is high time the world stopped rewarding South Africa
with such things as the World Cup, just because of Mandela and the “end of
apartheid”. It doesn’t deserve it. It is an insane, criminal society, a
dangerous place for foreigners and even for its own citizens. Sport should be
divorced from politics. SA, like any country, should only get to host sporting
events on merit, because the sporting world (and not politicians) believes it
can host them. But instead, SA is constantly being given great sporting events
for no other reason than because the world wants to reward SA’s Marxist
political leaders. In addition, the personal safety of the tens of thousands of
foreigners who will be attending the World Cup cannot be guaranteed, in this the
most violent country in the world. The horrific xenophobic attacks should be
proof sufficient of this fact. Foreigners who come here for the World Cup will
literally be taking their lives in their hands. Every single day, South African
citizens already do so just by venturing out to work in the morning.
A Small Victory
In what was a small victory against anti-white racism, the Broadcasting
Complaints Commission decided in favour of the Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus), an
Afrikaner political party, that the hip-hop song, “Get Out”, by black hip-hop
“artist” Zubz, may not be broadcast any longer. The FF Plus’ complaint was
lodged against the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s channel 1, which had
repeatedly broadcast the song.
Some of the words of the hate-filled song are:
Tell the oppressor [i.e. the white man] get out
And tell my people fight
For real you need to watch out
Because you... feel the gun blast [machine gun sounds]
You know you really need to watch out
Because that condescending tone you drop when you talk to me
Could get your head blown, serious
Don’t mistake my kindness for weakness
Just like your forefathers
I’ll blind you with heat quick [“heat” is a reference to a firearm]
Understand I’m gonna get this panga [machete] to your neck
Take what is mine today and I’ll rob you tomorrow
Take my time it’s payback
Tell my people fight
...like corner pit bulls you make us bite
The uninvited guest, we embraced him and placed...
Now it’s time to get out ’cause he violated
We gave him power and our people he annihilated
It’s not all white people that’s racist
And not all white people perpetuate the imbalance
So not all white people need to be addressed
FF Plus MP, Willie Spies, said that the decision was a victory for tolerance and
peaceful co-existence in South Africa. It was indeed. We applaud the FF
Plus for fighting back against this kind of vicious hatred. White South Africans
need to stand up boldly in this bleak “New South Africa” and draw a line in the
sand. A tidal wave of naked anti-white racism is threatening to overwhelm the
Afrikaans and English South African people. If they sit and do nothing, they
will be annihilated. They need to make their voices heard. Black Marxists harp
on and on about “apartheid” (which has been dead for years) and the racism of
white South Africans, and yet songs like this show who the real racists are.
This wonderful country belongs to all its people. Whether these radicals like it
or not, there are two “white tribes” in South Africa, the Afrikaners and the
English South Africans. And they belong here as much as any black tribe does.
June 2008
Shaun Willcock is a minister of the Gospel, and lives in South Africa. He runs
Bible Based Ministries. For other articles (which may be downloaded and
printed), as well as details about his books, audio messages, pamphlets, etc.,
please visit the Bible Based Ministries website, or write to the address below.
If you would like to be on Bible Based Ministries’ electronic mailing list, to
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