South Africa: White Supremacist Eugene Terre’Blanche Found Murdered; AP Reports Threatened Workers

The media has reported on the murder of “notorious white supremacist” Eugune Terre’Blanche, who was murdered apparently over a dispute over backwages owed by him to employees.  AP is reporting (according to the mother of one of the suspects) that Terre’Blanche threatened one of his killers.  Eugene Terre’Blanche was a leader of the pro-apartheid Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging party (Afrikaner Resistance Movement, or AWB), whose members had previously been convicted under the South Africa Terrorism Act.  At one point, AWB sought to declare war on South Africa if it ended apartheid. Terre’Blanche also did prison time for “nearly beating a black man to death.”  The AWB reportedly used “neo-Nazi anthems” and was “swastika-like symbols,” and was a major promoting of “hard-line apartheid” ideology.  Terre’Blanche reported praised Adolf Hitler.  The AWB reportedly has vowed “revenge” for the Terre’Blanche killing.  See media reports below.

On March 28, 2010, the London Times reported that 3,000 white farmers in South Africa have been killed over the past 16 years.

Guardian reports: “White supremacist Eugene Terre’Blanche is hacked to death after row with farmworkers”
— “A notorious white supremacist who once threatened to wage war rather than allow black rule in South Africa was hacked to death at his farm yesterday following an argument with two employees. Eugene Terre’Blanche’s mutilated body was found on his bed along with a broad-blade knife and a wooden club, police said.”
— “‘He was hacked to death while he was taking a nap,’ one family friend, who did not wish to be named, told Reuters.”
— “Local media quoted a member of Terre’Blanche’s Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging party (Afrikaner Resistance Movement, or AWB) as saying that the 69-year-old had been beaten with pipes and machetes. Police said two males, thought to be workers on the farm, have been arrested and will appear in court on Tuesday.”
— “Terre’Blanche, with striking blue eyes and white beard, was the voice of hardline opposition to the end of racial apartheid in the early 1990s, and the AWB was infamous for its swastika-like symbols and neo-Nazi anthems. But he had been in relative obscurity since his release in 2004 after a prison sentence for beating a black man nearly to death”.
— “Last year he attempted a comeback, announcing plans to rally far-right groups and to apply to the United Nations for a breakaway Afrikaner republic.”
— “His death comes amid heightened racial tension in South Africa, where Julius Malema, leader of the youth wing of the governing African National Congress, has caused anger by singing a struggle song with the words, ‘Shoot the Boer’. Terre’Blanche called himself a Boer, which means farmer in Afrikaans.”
— “Civil rights groups say that 3,000 white farmers have been killed since the end of apartheid and accuse Malema of inciting further violence against them. Last week a high court banned Malema from repeating the lyric but he did so yesterday during a visit to Zimbabwe.”
— “Police in South Africa’s North West province said last night that Terre’Blanche had been attacked and killed at his farm 10km outside Ventersdorp. Captain Adele Myburgh said Terre’Blanche was attacked by a man and a minor who worked for him after they allegedly had an argument about unpaid wages at around 6pm, the South African Press Association reported.”

AP reports white supremacist threatened worker — AP reports: “When they asked for their money, Terreblanche told them to first make sure that all his cattle had been brought in from pasture and counted. When they did that, Terreblanche still refused to pay them.”
— “‘He (Terreblanche) said ‘I will kill you and throw you to hell,” the mother said, speaking in Tswana, repeating what she was told by her son.”

“White supremacist group vows revenge for Terreblanche killing”

“Angry white supremacists mourn S.Africa leader”
— Reuters: “Terre’blanche’s Afrikaner Resistance Movement, marginalised since his failed struggle to preserve apartheid in the 1990s, has vowed to avenge a death it blames on sentiment whipped up by the leader of the ruling ANC’s youth league.”

The Guardian reports that the AWB organization was reported to be involved in killings of their own, and Terre’Blache and other AWB members have previously been convicted under the South Africa Terrorism Act.

Eugene Terre'Blanche in Ventersdorp, South Africa, in 1995. (Photograph: John Moore/AP)

Eugene Terre'Blanche in Ventersdorp, South Africa, in 1995. (Photograph: John Moore/AP)

Daily Telegraph: “Asked about his attitude to Hitler, Terreblanche praised the dictator as a clever statesman, who led his country out of the depression of the Thirties and transformed the Germans into a fighting people.

 Eugene Terreblanche at an AWB meeting in South Africa in the 1980s.  Photo: Sipa Press / Rex Features

Eugene Terreblanche at an AWB meeting in South Africa in the 1980s. Photo: Sipa Press / Rex Features

VOA – South African Leaders Appeal for Calm After White Supremacist Killed

Guardian: "Eugene Terre’Blanche waves to his supporters after he was released from prison in Potchefstroom in June 2004 after he had served part of a five-year sentence for the attempted murder of a black security guard." (Photograph: Alexander Joe/AFP/Getty Images)

Guardian: "Eugene Terre’Blanche waves to his supporters after he was released from prison in Potchefstroom in June 2004 after he had served part of a five-year sentence for the attempted murder of a black security guard." (Photograph: Alexander Joe/AFP/Getty Images)

See also:

South Africa Report “White Farmers ‘Being Wiped Out'”

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R.E.A.L Comment: It is deeply disturbing to see people who are victimized for generations become victimizers themselves – but we need to remember that is what is happening in South Africa in some cases.  Yes there are atrocities against whites in South Africa and that is deplorable and wrong.  But in this particular report, thus far it appears that White Supremacist Eugene Terre’Blanche was simply the victim of a crime over money.

Let’s also be clear that blacks in South Africa have suffered generations of violent oppression under whites there through apartheid.  We all know that.  We all know what apartheid means and the long history of violent hate that it represented to black South Africans.

We support our unqualified, universal human rights.

We urge people of all race and ethnicity to Choose Love, Not Hate.  Love Wins.