Face-off at Terreblanche hearing
Scuffles have broken out between black and white South Africans outside a court where two alleged killers of a white supremacist leader were charged.
Police stepped in to stop the face-off between people from the local black community and supporters of Eugene Terreblanche, found dead on Saturday.
Officers built a barricade from razor wire to keep the two groups apart in the north-western town of Ventersdorp.
The killing has raised racial tensions in the country.
Hundreds of AWB flags are flying and Afrikaner nationalist songs are playing as hundreds of Afrikaners protest outside the court.
Some 200 police officers have formed a human barricade around the court. There is a smaller group from the local black community.
Tension fills the air as both groups begin to sing songs linked to their race - Afrikaners singing the old national anthem - the black group responded with anti-apartheid songs.
Many Afrikaners say the murder is proof of a "siege" against farmers in South Africa. There are placards in green and red ink, some accusing former President FW de Klerk of "selling out Afrikaners" to the blacks, referring to his partnership with Nelson Mandela to end apartheid.
Police said the pair, aged 28 and 15, had admitted beating him to death in a dispute over unpaid wages.
The court proceedings are not in public because one of the accused is a minor.
Terreblanche's paramilitary group AWB (Afrikaner Resistance Movement) had threatened to take revenge for the killing, but retracted their threat on Monday.
The BBC's Jonah Fisher in Ventersdorp says about 500 people gathered outside court - divided equally between white supremacists, local black residents and the police.
The police stepped in after tensions between the two groups led to pushing, shoving and scuffles.
Pieter Steyn, an AWB leader, said the organisation had called for calm and anyone who disregarded this call would not be acting on behalf of the organisation.
"Everybody has adhered to our request to remain cool," he told AFP news agency.
"As soon as the court proceedings are completed, we will all disperse and go home and gather again on Friday for the funeral."
The group blames ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema for contributing to the killing by recently singing a song from the anti-apartheid struggle called "Shoot the Boer".
Boer is an Afrikaans word for farmer, which has become a derogatory term for all white people.
Mr Malema has denied any responsibility for Terreblanche's death and the ANC argues that the song does not incite people to kill but is part of the country's history and the fight against white minority rule.
It is planning to appeal against a court judgement banning the song as hate speech.
The authorities are keen to stress that the killing was not politically motivated.
President Jacob Zuma has appealed for calm and condemned the killing.
Terreblanche, 69, was fiercely opposed to the end of apartheid in South Africa, which led to the ANC winning the country's first democratic elections in 1994 and Nelson Mandela becoming the country's first black president.
He served three years in jail after being convicted in 2001 of the attempted murder of a farm worker.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/8604375.stm
Published: 2010/04/06 13:10:06 GMT
Workers charged for Terre'Blanche's murder
VENTERSDORP, SOUTH AFRICA Apr 06 2010 15:59
Two farm workers, aged 15 and 28, were officially charged with four crimes including the murder of former Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) leader Eugene Terre'Blanche in the Ventersdorp Magistrate's Court on Tuesday.
National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) advocate George Baloyi said the accused, Chris Mahlangu (28) and a minor, who cannot be named, were formally charged with murder, housebreaking and robbery with aggravating circumstances, crimen injuria and attempted robbery with aggravating circumstances.
The charge of crimen injuria was explained by Baloyi: "[After the murder] ... they pulled down his [Terre'Blanche's] pants to his knees and exposed his private parts."
The case was postponed to April 14. The two had not yet pleaded to the charges.
"We had two sessions today [Tuesday], one was informal and one was formal," Baloyi said.
"In the informal session we outlined the charges we intend to bring against the two accused and the summary of facts we are relying on.
"In session two, we spoke about complying with the provisions of the new Act."
He said the Act provided for the treatment of children who committed an offence and laid down the procedure that needed to be followed, adding that the probation officer had compiled a report as per the Act.
The accused's rights were explained in court and necessary documentation, such as birth certificates, was handed over.
Baloyi said the inquiries were "all but finalised except for one issue".
"That is the criminal capacity of the accused [the minor]."
The NPA had to determine whether the youth had the capacity to commit murder or whether he was acting on someone else's instruction.
"It was postponed for seven days to finalise that issue."
In camera
Baloyi said the entire trial would be held in camera, due to the age of the one accused.
"The law is very clear the trial must take place in camera," he said.
NPA head Menzi Simelane confirmed that there would only be one trial, saying thus far "from the information, they are the only ones involved in the crime".
He said there were sufficient provisions to move the case to the high court but certain matters had to be taken into account, such as the Ventersdorp community wanting justice "from here".
He said people in South Africa generally respected court outcomes and although the case might take place in Ventersdorp, it was still in South Africa with a Constitution generally obeyed by the people.
Simelane said it was difficult to say when the trial would begin.
Asked why he had attended the case, he said: "I am at work like you are. I work from any court ..."
The 15-year-old's attorney, Zola Majavu, relayed a message from the youth to the community: "Please, please don't hurt my family."
The youth had not eaten on Tuesday and his mother was too scared to leave the courtroom, worrying about her safety.
"I am arranging the security for her," Majavu said.
Earlier on Tuesday, police had to separate white AWB supporters and black onlookers in a fracas during the singing of Die Stem and Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika.
'Pent-up rage and frustration'
Meanwhile, the murder of Terre'Blanche had unleashed a "tidal wave of pent-up rage and frustration" in certain sections of South African society, Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille said on Tuesday.
Addressing the media at Parliament, she said it was time for President Jacob Zuma to "act like a president" and rein in his party's youth leader, Julius Malema.
"For over a decade now, farmers and farming communities have been on the receiving end of escalating criminal violence, and 3 368 have been murdered.
"Most recently, the ANC Youth League's sinister leader, Julius Malema, has made popular again an old struggle song, the lyrics of which include the phrase '[shoot] the boer'."
Zille said pointing out, as the ANC had done, that there was no direct evidence linking Malema's reported hate speech to Terre'Blanche's murder was unhelpful, to say the least.
"We must acknowledge the fact that songs inciting people to kill others create a climate in which murder is legitimised and romanticised.
"We must understand why people are angered and alienated by a song that calls for their murder.
"We must understand why this is multiplied many-fold when the country's president fails to take a stand, effectively condoning the flouting of a court ruling that declared these words to be hate speech.
"This song is not experienced as 'an attack on the apartheid system', which its apologists claim it is; it is experienced, [and I believe it is meant by those who sing it], as a contemporary expression of a hateful attitude towards farmers and Afrikaners in particular, and whites in general," she said.
According to the police, Terre'Blanche was murdered, allegedly by two of his farm labourers following a pay dispute, on his farm 10km outside Ventersdorp on Saturday.
Symbolic
Zille said Terre'Blanche's murder was "symbolic", for a number of reasons.
"It shows how close to the precipice we are with people's pent-up rage and anger ... A symbolic murder can often be the match on the dry grass, and this is what Eugene Terre'Blanche's murder threatened to be."
Asked how big a "seminal moment" Terre'Blanche's murder was in South Africa's history, she replied: "It is a big one."
However, she had been very pleased to hear the AWB had withdrawn its call for violence to avenge Terre'Blanche's death.
"We cannot avenge violence with violence," Zille said.
She also called on the ANC leadership to "take a formal decision at the highest level to stop singing the song that includes the words 'shoot the boer'."
Farm safety had reached crisis proportions in South Africa.
"When you compare the number of farmers who have been murdered in South Africa [with] the numbers that have lost their lives in Zimbabwe, you will see the sort of crisis it actually is; farm murders in Zimbabwe don't enter triple figures, and ours are over 3 000."
Earlier on Tuesday, police had to separate white AWB supporters and black onlookers in a fracas during the singing of Die Stem and Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika. -- Sapa
Source: Mail & Guardian Online
Web Address: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-04-06-workers-charged-for-terreblanches-murder
SA warning against race violence
South African leaders have warned against any attempt by white supremacists to avenge the murder of their leader Eugene Terreblanche.
Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa said such talk would not help the current situation in the country, and President Jacob Zuma called for national unity.
On Sunday the remnants of Mr Terreblanche's AWB party vowed revenge.
It blames Julius Malema, head of the ruling ANC's Youth League, for inflammatory actions.
Mr Malema, who last month led college students in a song about killing white farmers, is due to return from Zimbabwe later in the day, and correspondents say his response to calls for calm is keenly awaited.
Mr Terreblanche, 69, was attacked on Saturday evening at home on his farm near the town of Ventersdorp, North West province. He is due to be buried on Friday.
'Sad moments'
Mr Zuma knows that such a prominent killing could rapidly trigger racial violence, if not handled sensitively, says the BBC's Karen Allen in Johannesburg.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TERREBLANCHE: KEY DATES
1941: Born on farm in Transvaal town of Ventersdorp
1973: Co-founds AWB to protect rights of Boers' descendants
1993: AWB vehicle smashes into World Trade Centre in Jo'burg during talks to end apartheid
1994: AWB invades tribal homeland of Bophuthatswana and is defeated; three AWB men die
1998: Accepts moral blame for 1994 bombings that killed 21
2001: Jailed for attempted murder of farm-worker
2004: Released from prison
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
He was quick to condemn the attack amid criticism that he had failed to rein in the ANC Youth League.
The president went on television on Sunday to condemn what he said was a "cowardly" murder.
He said he had spoken to Mr Terreblanche's daughter and hoped to speak to the leader's wife in order to convey his condolences.
"This is one of the sad moments for our country that a leader of his standing should be murdered," said Mr Zuma.
He said that South Africans must not let anyone take advantage of the "terrible deed" by inciting racial hatred.
The AWB (Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging, or Afrikaner Resistance Movement) echoed Mr Zuma's call for calm as relatives and friends of Mr Terreblanche gathered near his home to pay their respects on Sunday.
But the far-right movement's secretary general, Andre Visagie, said Mr Terreblanche's killing had political overtones.
"The next step for the AWB will be to bury their leader in peace, but thereafter we shall avenge the death of our leader," he said.
"Of course we do blame Julius Malema," Mr Visagie told the BBC.
"The death of Mr Terreblanche is a declaration of war by the black community of South Africa to the white community that has been killed for 10 years on end."
He said there was "fierce anger" among AWB members. "They all call for revenge for Eugene Terreblanche's death," he said.
He said some some members advocated violent retribution, but he encouraged them to wait until actions could be co-ordinated "right across the country".
More than 3,000 white farmers are estimated to have been murdered since the end of apartheid in 1994.
A committee of inquiry found in 2003 that only 2% of farm attacks had a political or racial motive, although critics said this figure was far too low.
Others point out that some 50 people, mostly black, are killed every day in South Africa - a country with one of the world's highest rates of violent crime.
Heated exchanges
Last week, South Africa's High Court banned Mr Malema from singing the racially charged apartheid-era song with the words "kill the Boer". It ruled the song was hate speech, although the ANC is appealing.
Boer is Afrikaans for a farmer, but is sometimes used as a disparaging term for any white person in South Africa.
Mr Malema denied responsibility during his official visit to Zimbabwe.
"The ANC will respond to that issue. On a personal capacity, I'm not going to respond to what people are saying. I'm in Zimbabwe now, I'm not linked to this."
South Africa is a nation still nursing racial wounds from the past, our correspondent says, and in some quarters there is nervousness about the future.
Ventersdorp has already seen some heated racial exchanges since the killing.
"A black guy killed a white guy. Obviously it's going to stir a lot of trouble," said Kgomotso Kgamanyane, a cashier at a local petrol station.
"Just earlier a customer came in, a white guy, and he told us to go to hell," he told AFP news agency. "It could get violent, because whites in their minds they think that we did it because of hate."
Police have arrested and charged two male farm workers - aged 21 and 15 - who they say beat Mr Terreblanche to death in a dispute over wages.
Mr Terreblanche had founded the white supremacist AWB in 1973, to oppose what he regarded as the liberal policies of the then-South African government.
His party tried terrorist tactics and threatened civil war in the run-up to South Africa's first democratic elections, before sliding into relative obscurity.
Mr Terreblanche served three years in jail after being convicted in 2001 of the attempted murder of a farm worker.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/8603048.stm
Published: 2010/04/05 11:18:24 GMT
