History/Politics

THE NEW BOER WAR

The South African election of 1994 was supposed to usher in a new era of tolerance, a rainbow nation, free from the Apartheid past.

Instead the end of the 20^th century was like the start of it for the White Tribe of South Africa but instead of the British lauding it over them it was the black nationalists of the ANC.

Just as the concentration camp policy of Lord Kitchener resulted in the deaths of 28,000 Boer women and children, in the third phase of the Anglo Boer War (1899-1902) so too has there been the same callous and criminal disregard by the present South African government. While history never exactly repeats it is again noticeable that the modern day Boers (farmers), or Afrikaners , are bearing the brunt of neglect, and worse.

The ANC has had 22 years in government, complete with a thumping parliamentary majority, to get things right and they have failed abysmally, particularly in race relations and their attitude towards white South Africans.

The critics of the actions of successive white South African governments from 1910-94, and particularly after 1948, have nothing to boast about, unless exacting revenge is now considered a political achievement.

In the ANC period of governance 85,000 whites have been murdered while scores more have been raped, robbed and tortured.

As the international liberal website Genocide Watch notes, ‘on average about 50 people per day are murdered in South Africa of which 20 are white.’

So given that there are more blacks killed why should there be special concern for whites? Because whites constitute only nine per cent of the population (4.5m) and 95 per cent of white victims are murdered by blacks. In addition there have been some 5000 members of farming families murdered on the ANC’s watch, many of them by hideous cruelty.

Just as ‘black lives matter,’ to coin a current phrase in the US, so do white lives in South Africa. There the minority are in a far worse situation than American blacks.

That comment is not politically correct, of course, just correct.

The lame-stream media concentrates on fripperies, such as Whoopi Goldberg’s concerns that black actors are not being nominated for Oscar awards, while the racist murders of white South Africans, by lawless black thugs, is somehow deemed too sensitive a matter to comment on. Since 2007 the RSA government has covered up statistics on ethnic based killings.

When the State President Jacob Zuma sings a song, that includes a line ‘Kill the Boer,’ he should have been buried under an avalanche of international condemnation and odium, particularly as a South African judge had decreed the singing of such a song was a hate crime.

According to Dr Greg Stanton, foundation president of Genocide Watch, Zuma should have been impeached for that and also for corruption.  Likewise, for the Marxist, overweight political ratbag, Julius Malema, who has said whites should be treated as criminals for stealing black land. According to Stanton he should have been put on trial for incitement to commit genocide.

The silence was deafening in both cases except for Malema’s rabid followers on Facebook who demand that all whites must pack up and go. Just where they should go is not stated.

The whites have been in South Africa since Jan van Riebeeck landed at the Cape on 6 April 1652 to provide a refreshment station for Dutch ships en route to the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia today). The English were later arrivals.

When the trekboers, and later and more significantly, the Voortrekkers pressed into the wilderness they had as much right to be there as the Zulu who had invaded the territory earlier and engaged in the Mfecane (crushing) of other black African groups.

At the Ncome River (Blood River), on 16 December 1838, less than 500 Voortrekkers faced a Zulu Army of between 12000-15000 (maybe more) but their well knit laager (circled wagons) and firepower ensured an epic victory. The Afrikaners had only three of their numbered wounded and one of those was their military leader Andries Pretorious (thumb). The Zulus lost 3000 and the survival of the Boers, in the hinterland, was established.

Originally known as Dingaan’s Day the date became established as the Day of the Vow where Afrikaners gave thanks to God for answering their prayers-a South African version of Thanksgiving . The ANC have since changed the name to Reconciliation Day.

Just think, how would Australians like it if our most sacred day –Anzac day- and Australia Day were changed to Reconciliation Day to accommodate Turkish and Aboriginal sensitivities, respectively?

In the Great War 3125 South African troops entered Delville Wood, France. Only 143 exited. Should that great monument in France be pulled down because the Union of South African soldiers were white or because some Afrikaners, of the time, were opposed to fighting for the British? That would be nonsense and so is stripping Afrikaners of their history and culture.

History and monuments are important and should not be changed by the whim and will of some transient political majority or opponents.

To add insult to injury the ANC honours murderers. Two days before Christmas 1985 the bombing of Amanzimtoti shopping mall claimed the lives of Christmas shoppers. It was placed there by a murderous criminal, Andrew Zondo.

In 2010 he was honoured by the ANC by having the main street of the area named after him. The ANC Youth League wanted the whole of Amanzimtoti , south of Durban, renamed in his honour. This is called rubbing peoples noses in it! It is certainly not true reconciliation and Zondo belongs in the Horst Wessel category of ‘national hero’ and his deeds are an African version of Kristallnacht.

Not surprisingly, the SA human rights organisation, Afriforum, put signs up describing it as the ‘Murderers Street.’

Anyone who is responsible for the deaths of innocent women and children does not deserve accolades, only odium. It is why this writer has always described Lord Kitchener as a war criminal because he failed in his duty of care in the South African War.

South Africa must also be the only country in the world that insists on quotas, in favour of the majority, when it comes to the selection of national sporting teams like cricket and rugby.

Race based selection was the reason that the great Springbok cricket sides of 1963-70 period were excluded for a generation, (see my blog, Precious, Boofheads and Some Real Racists). The nonsense of political correctness and arrogance is thus amply illustrated by international anti-white bigots by their deafening silence to this blatant piece of social engineering. The best sporting side should always be selected and the SA Cricket Board should adhere to that basic fact.

There is plenty of fault to be found with Afrikaners, and the South Africa of past years, but It is hard to disagree with Dan Roodt, an Afrikaner intellectual, who asks a simple question of international readers: If you think that our voice and our unique testimony should be heard and that we do not deserve to be eradicated from our own country (then) we ask humbly for your support in our struggle for dignity, equality and fair treatment from the black majority……For us to be able to survive in the long term requires, like all other people, that we achieve autonomy.

Roodt’s plea for autonomy is interesting and has been an integral part of Afrikaner nationalism from the beginning.

In March 1994 I was in the RSA just prior to the election of Mandela as president when the writing was well and truly on the wall for FW de Klerk and the Nationalists who had been in power since 1948.

In most countries of the word liberals argue for the rights of minorities to be different and to where possible have their own governing institutions. Conservatives generally argue that minorities should fit in and be like everyone else.

In South Africa it is different. There, conservative blacks and whites insist on group rights and a federalist system of government.  SA liberals and Marxists see such autonomy as beyond the pale.

In the run-up to the seminal national election the destruction of Lucas Mangope’s homeland government of Bophuthatswana dealt a major blow to the conservative multi-racial Freedom Alliance which was campaigning for a decentralised system of government. Two other black homelands Ciskei and Qwa Qwa saw which way the political breeze was blowing and became latter day hensoppers (hands-uppers), to coin an old Anglo-Boer war term for surrender.

Mangope’s fall ended the hopes of a confederation of Tswanas, Afrikaners, and Zulus across the northern part of South Africa with their own homelands.

Yet, somehow the demands of multiculturalists today, for more autonomy for minorities (think Muslims in the West) never extends to the Afrikaner.

 However, it has to be admitted that Dr H.F. Verwoerd (PM 1958-66) failed  to appropriately fund his separate development scheme when he was at the helm.

The Tomlinson Commission, led by Professor F.R. Tomlinson, submitted a report in October 1954 that said separate development could only be realised if the full scale development of black areas was undertaken. The Tomlinson Report advocated some R 200m be set aside over the ensuing decade. In 1956 the Strijdom Government set aside R7m as an initial amount but then failed to give anything the following year. When Verwoerd became PM he was not prepared to allow private white capital to be used in the homelands because he claimed it would lead to economic imperialism and exploitation.

Tomlinson also advocated that tribal ownership be done away with and freehold tenure replace the collective. That idea too was still born.  

Verwoerd, conscious of a white taxpayer backlash, thus strangled effective ‘separate development.’

The battle for the taal (Afrikaans language) is the other battle that may face Afrikanerdom.

The citadel of the Afrikaans taal has been Stellenbosch University but now the language is under attack, even there.

It surely is somewhat ironic that Edwin Hertzog speaks about the need for language pragmatism, financial constraints and the unaffordable loss of students if Afrikaans remained as the exclusive language of the university.

His famous namesake J.B.M. (Barry) Hertzog (PM 1924-39), early in his political career, forsook a ministerial career to fight for, and ensure, the dual stream language policy of the then Union of South Africa.

Interestingly, the first two black presidents, Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki, both considered there was ‘room at the inn’ for Afrikaans speaking universities. As Mandela said in 1996, in a country with 20 universities at least one should be reserved for that taal.

A report to the Mbeki Government in 2001 suggested at least two universities should see Afrikaans as the primary language of instruction and given that until the mid-1980s there were six such universities, the above comments are hardly outrageous.

Thus the future of Afrikaans, as a national language, remains under threat-and yet more blacks, coloureds and Indians speak it at home the language than do whites.

A 2013 study by the SA Institute of Race Relations determined that of the 6.9 million Afrikaans  home speakers 2.7m were white with the majority coming from the other racial groups.

In summary, while some of these battles for cultural relevance must be decided by South Africans alone the murder of SA farmers deserves to be an international cause célèbre.

Just as the Boers did not deserve to be herded into concentration camps during the Anglo-Boer War, Afrikaners do not deserve to be butchered on their farms today.

This matter cannot be ignored by Western governments.