Jacob Zuma Says Afrikaners Are the Only True White South Africans

by Shaun Willcock
 

h On the 2nd April, at a meeting in Johannesburg between representatives of various Afrikaner organisations and ANC president Jacob Zuma, the man most likely to be South Africa’s next president after the upcoming April 22 election, he said:

“Of all the white groups that are in South Africa, it is only the Afrikaners that are truly South Africans in the true sense of the word.” “Up to this day, they [the Afrikaners] don’t carry two passports, they carry one. They are here to stay.” “It is the only white tribe in a black continent or outside of Europe which is truly African, the Afrikaner.”
 

These were shocking statements. There are two main “white” nations in the Republic of South Africa, the Afrikaners and the English. English South Africans comprise about 40% of all “white” South Africans. Then there are also various smaller groups of “white” South Africans, such as the Portuguese, Italian, Greek and other groups. All of these are South Africans, no less than the Afrikaners. The vast majority of them do not have two passports, they only have one: a South African passport. They are 100% African, just as the Afrikaners are. South Africa is their only home, and many could not leave even if they wanted to. Zuma’s predecessor, Thabo Mbeki, used to say that white South Africans were “settlers of a special type”, thereby implying that they did not belong and were not true South Africans.

Essentially Zuma has implied precisely the same thing, with one difference: he has implied that all white South Africans except Afrikaners are mere “settlers”, and therefore do not belong and are not true South Africans. We can fully understand the relief felt by many Afrikaner leaders upon hearing Zuma refer to Afrikaners as true South Africans; and certainly any improvement in relations between blacks and Afrikaners (or blacks and English, or blacks and anyone else for that matter) is to be welcomed. All South Africans have to live in this country, and all right-thinking South Africans can only cheer when efforts are made to heal inter-racial tensions. For better or worse, Jacob Zuma is almost certainly going to be the next president of the country, and if meetings such as this one lead to better things for the Afrikaner people, this would be wonderful. But at the same time, all Afrikaner leaders should have strongly condemned Zuma’s statement about Afrikaners being the only true white South Africans.

Sadly, this did not happen. But his comments were immediately slammed by various other people and organisations across the country. Desiree van der Walt of the Democratic Alliance, the official opposition party, said, “In singling out white Afrikaners as the only true white South Africans, Jacob Zuma has revealed an ethnically and racially blinkered world view in conflict with our Constitution. The preamble to our Constitution says that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united in our diversity. It does not say that some people have more of a right to call themselves South African than others.”  The Centre for Constitutional Rights (CCR) laid a complaint with the Human Rights Commission against Zuma’s statement. CCR spokesman Dave Steward said that Zuma’s comments “constitute unfair discrimination against non-Afrikaans-speaking, white South Africans on the basis of their race, ethnic origin, colour, culture and language.” He said it was shocking that the leader of South Africa’s largest political formation should question the right of non-Afrikaans-speaking white South Africans to be regarded as equal in all respects to any other South Africans. Shocking, yes, but not surprising. The truth is that the ANC, a former terrorist organisation which waged a long terrorist campaign against white South Africans in general and the white National Party government in particular, despises whites and wishes they were all out of the way.

Even the Congress of the People (Cope), a new political party formed by breakaway ANC elements, lambasted Zuma for his comments, with its spokesman Sipho Ngwema saying, “In South Africa, we are all equal. Someone must give him [Zuma] a copy of the Constitution. Typical, the president of the ANC is a chameleon. His tune swings with his audience.” And he added: “The Afrikaner community can see through patronising attitude.”
But have Afrikaner leaders really seen through this patronising attitude? It doesn’t appear so. In fact, we have listened in vain for any strong condemnation of Zuma’s statements from the Afrikaner leadership. The silence of most has been deafening; others, almost unbelievably, have welcomed and even praised Zuma’s comments!

After his speech, he actually received a standing ovation from the Afrikaner delegates; and afterwards Dr Dan Roodt, the leader of the Pro-Afrikaans Action Group (PRAAG), told reporters, “I feel very positive about the outcome of the meeting and have the impression that foreign, especially British, influence on the ANC is diminishing. It is almost as if Zuma has some pangs of nostalgia for the old, Afrikaner-run South Africa, with its discipline, sense of patriotism, successful agriculture, frugal public salaries and respect for law and order.” He also said: “I think Zuma’s interest in Afrikaans culture is genuine.”
We were deeply saddened to read this. Firstly because the wool has been pulled over the eyes of many Afrikaner intellectuals. Secondly because Marxism and black African nationalism will pose a far greater threat to Afrikaners than any supposed British neo-colonial threat through the ANC by proxy! Thirdly because Zuma is in no way nostalgic for the old, Afrikaner-run South Africa. This is a man who has not been disciplined in his personal life, who does not receive a frugal salary, and whose organisation has presided over the collapse of law and order, and done much to destroy the agricultural sector; why on earth would he be nostalgic for the old South Africa?

Responding to the DA’s comment that Zuma has displayed an “ethnically and racially blinkered world view” in calling Afrikaners the only true white South Africans, Roodt said, “The DA is itself blind in its colonial liberalism that denies the multiethnic character of our state.” Roodt is absolutely correct in saying that liberals deny the reality of a multiethnic state such as South Africa’s; but the fact remains that in this case the DA was correct, Zuma displayed an ethnically and racially blinkered view and Afrikaners are not the only true white South Africans, and it was deeply troubling to hear no strong condemnation of Zuma’s statement from Afrikaners present at that meeting. Dr Pieter Mulder, leader of the Freedom Front Plus, an Afrikaner political party, welcomed Zuma’s statements, saying they showed clear leadership. But it is not clear leadership to play off one segment of South African society against another, it is dangerous. However, Dr Mulder also said, “the Afrikaners, just like all the other groups, have a rightful claim here... they have as much of a claim as anybody else”; and, “a place has to be created for everyone, because if the South African ship sinks, we all sink together.” And with these statements we concur fully.

The ANC released a statement explaining that Zuma did not mean to belittle other white South Africans. It said, “Any engagement between the ANC and Afrikaners should be seen as part of the organisation’s commitment to reach out to all South African minority groups. Zuma has already addressed Portuguese, Italian, Greek and other minority groups.”
Hmmm...except that of all the white groups, Zuma only told the Afrikaners that they were true South Africans. Not only true South Africans, but the only true white South Africans.
The statement went on: “There is nothing ‘unconstitutional’ or ‘divisive’ – as some want us to believe – in the ANC president’s description of Afrikaners as ‘true South Africans’. [His] saying Afrikaners were the only whites who did not have links to other countries, did not make other white South Africans lesser citizens. He was merely stating a fact.”
 

This is spin, plain and simple. If the likely next president of the country says that Afrikaners are the only true white South Africans, then it most definitely does mean that other white South Africans are lesser citizens; that in fact they are not true South Africans at all. There is no other possible interpretation one can put on Zuma’s words. None. Zero. Nor is it a “fact” at all that Afrikaners are the only whites with no links to other countries: the vast majority of all white South Africans have no second passport, no links to other countries that could enable them to leave, and no desire to leave either. This is their only home and always has been. They are absolutely entitled to live here.

The irony is that a liberal politician could clearly see what many conservative Afrikaners failed to see: that this is simply the typical Communist strategy of “divide and conquer”. Helen Zille, leader of the Democratic Alliance, said, correctly, “It is the well known ‘divide and rule’ tactic, which authoritarian racist governments always use to divide their opponents.” She said that Zuma had patronisingly tried to curry favour with Afrikaners. “Zuma thought he was flattering Afrikaners. He was actually insulting them,” she added. The implication of his message was, “By seeming to flatter, I can actually fool you all into forgetting about the corruption allegations against me. By pressing the ethnic button, I can also distract your attention from the ANC’s power abuse.” She said it was an “outrageous insult” to every Afrikaner.

She was absolutely right. The ANC has turned Afrikaners into second-class citizens in the land of their birth. They are being raped and murdered by their thousands as a direct result of the lawlessness that the ANC has unleashed on the country; they are denied jobs because of the ANC’s racist “affirmative action” legislation; and yet when Jacob Zuma says a few flattering things about them being the only true white South Africans, he completely pulls the wool over the eyes of the representatives of various Afrikaner groups! How utterly tragic that conservative, anti-Communist Afrikaner representatives were mesmerised by a few flattering words. They have been lulled into a false sense of security. Alas, that straw they are clutching at so desperately may prove to be in truth a juicy Red carrot, dangling enticingly on the end of a string controlled by the ANC.

Divide and conquer! Zuma insisted that his spending the day with segments of the Afrikaans community was not mere electioneering. “Our being here today is not because we are campaigning. We are here because we are engaging with the Afrikaner community which we believe is important in terms of this country,” he said. Nonsense. Of course it was electioneering, occurring as it did mere weeks from a general election. But one would be gravely mistaken if one assumed it was only electioneering. No, it was something far more sinister than that. Divide and conquer! The ANC is seeking to divide, firstly, Afrikaners from Afrikaners. And it’s working! Already the divisions within Afrikanerdom are becoming apparent in the aftermath of Zuma’s speech, with the Afrikaner Volksparty branding those Afrikaners who attending the meeting with Zuma as “betrayers of the Afrikaner nation”, in cahoots with Zuma and his Communist ANC. And now Zuma has even been invited to visit the Voortrekker Monument, and a camp of the Voortrekker youth movement.

Secondly, the ANC is seeking to divide the Afrikaners from the English. Those Afrikaners who supported Zuma’s statements at the meeting appear to be so full of fear about the future under a Zuma-led government, that they are willing to turn their backs on their fellow white South Africans and to “suck up” to the ANC in the hope of saving their skins and their culture. Is the Engelsman (English South African) really the enemy here? Yes, there are many English liberals, who have played into the hands of the ANC; but there are many Afrikaner liberals as well, who have done the very same thing. There are, however, multitudes of Afrikaner and English conservative anti-Communists, and this is not the time for Afrikaners and English South Africans to be divided! Afrikaners and English are united by centuries of close collaboration in South Africa, intermarriage, similar cultures and outlooks, and so much more. They will stand or fall together in South Africa. They are both true “white” African nations. They need to support each other fully, and stand up for each other. If one of them suffers, it is but a prelude to the suffering of the other, as surely as night follows day. The only winner, if Afrikaners and English are divided, is the ANC.
The only winner. -April 2009