Eugène Terre'Blanche
Encyclopedia
Eugène Ney Terre'Blanche (31 January 1941 Terre'Blanche's year of birth is alternately given as 1941 or 1944. The majority of sources indicates 1941; sources that claim 1944 as his year of birth include The Star, The Nelson Mandela Foundation and the website of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging – 3 April 2010) was a former member of South Africa's Herstigte Nasionale Party who founded the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging
(AWB) during the apartheid era
. During the 1980s and early 1990s, he became known for threatening civil war to maintain white rule in South Africa. After the country's transition to post-apartheid democracy, he revised his stances and urged his followers to push for independence in an independent Afrikaner homeland, which he frequently referred to as a "Boerevolkstaat"
. Terre'Blanche led the organisation until his death in 2010. He was given several labels during his lifetime, including "white supremacist", "nationalist," and "racist".
Terre'Blanche spent three years in prison for assaulting a black petrol station worker and the attempted murder of a black security guard in 1996. On 3 April 2010, he was hacked and beaten to death on his farm by two labourers, allegedly over a wage dispute. Terre'Blanche's supporters have said that the murder is part of a larger pattern of anti-white "farm murders" in South Africa.
cause in the Second Boer War
, and his father was a lieutenant colonel
in the South African Defence Force
.
The progenitor of the Terre'Blanche name (translatable as either 'white land' or 'white earth' in French) in the region was a French Huguenot
refugee, Estienne Terreblanche from Toulon
(Provence
), who arrived at the Cape in 1704, fleeing anti-Protestant persecution in France. The Terreblanche name has generally retained its original spelling though other spellings include Terre'Blanche, Terre Blanche, Terblanche and Terblans.
Born on a farm in the Transvaal
town of Ventersdorp on 31 January 1941, Terre'Blanche attended Laerskool Ventersdorp and Hoër Volkskool in Potchefstroom, matriculating
in 1962. While in school, he gave early expression to his political leanings by founding the cultural organisation Jong Afrikanerharte (Young Afrikaner Hearts).
He joined the South African Police
, and was initially deployed in South West Africa
(now Namibia
), which had been given to South Africa under a League of Nations
Trust mandate after World War I. Upon returning to South Africa proper, he became a Warrant Officer in the Special Guard Unit, which was assigned to members of the Cabinet.
identity. He frequently referred to the Afrikaner or pioneering Voortrekkers as "Die wit man" ("The white man"). He emphasized the concept of the Afrikaner/Boer volk as an equally autochthonous ethnic grouping alongside South Africa's indigenous tribes. He also promoted the formation of an Afrikaner state which would be self governed and operate alongside tribal homelands.
policies" of B. J. Vorster, then Prime Minister of South Africa. After four years of service in the SAP, he resigned to pursue a career in politics, running unsuccessfully for local office in Heidelberg
as a member of the Herstigte Nasionale Party
.
. Floors van Jaarsfeld, a professor of history who had publicly voiced the opinion that the Day of the Vow
(previously called Dingaan's Day), a public holiday in remembrance of the Battle of Blood River
, was nothing more than a secular event with hardly any real reference point in history. Though Terre’Blanche would later express his regrets regarding the incident when testifying before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, he suggested that his convictions relating to the sanctity of the Day of the Vow might make his actions more understandable. In the years that followed, Terre'Blanche's speeches at public gatherings often evoked the Battle of Blood River, and his oratorical
skills earned him much support among the white right wing in South Africa; the AWB claimed 70,000 members at its height.
Throughout the 1980s, Terre'Blanche continued to present himself and the AWB as an alternative to both the National Party
-led government and the Conservative Party
, and he remained staunchly opposed to the reform policies of PW Botha
to establish additional, albeit still separate, parliamentary chambers for non-whites, and to grant suffrage to Coloureds and South Africans of Indian origin. The organisation's strongest support was found in the rural communities of South Africa's North, with comparably few supporters in urban areas where his following was largely limited to the middle and lower income Afrikaners.
Terre'Blanche viewed the end of apartheid as a surrender to communism
, and threatened full scale civil war
if President FW de Klerk
handed power to Nelson Mandela
and the African National Congress
. When De Klerk addressed a meeting in Terre'Blanche's hometown of Ventersdorp in 1991, Terre'Blanche led a protest, and the Battle of Ventersdorp
ensued between the AWB and the police, with a number of people killed. Terre’Blanche claimed that it was only when he stood between the police and the AWB and demanded a ceasefire that the shooting ended. Terre'Blanche accused President de Klerk of instigating the riot for political gain. (95)
In an attempt to disrupt the negotiation process in 1993, Terre'Blanche accompanied by General Constand Viljoen and Conservative Party parliamentarian Thomas Langley led an armed invasion of the World Trade Centre
in Kempton Park while negotiations were in progress. After a memorandum of grievances were presented to National Party minister Roelf Meyer and Dawie de Villiers and upon concluding and agreement that no arrests would be made, the AWB withdrew from the premises. However that evening several identified AWB leaders were arrested and their wives were incarcerated in Soweto, separately from their husbands. Vlakplaas General Krappies Engelbrecht was appointed to launch an investigation.
Terre'Blanche claimed he and President Lucas Mangope
of the predominantly ethnic Tswana Homeland of Bophuthatswana
came to a “mutual agreement” on 17 February 1992, to aid each other in the “event of a communist threat” On 4 March 1994 Mangope announced that Bophutatswana would not participate in the South African general election in an effort to maintain Bophutatswana's independence from the Republic of South Africa. Bophuthatswana's minister of justice, Godfrey Mothibe tried in vain to convince Mangope to participate in the election, but then accused the ANC of orchestrating the revolt, which was helped by the stance taken by South Africa's then Minister of Foreign Affairs, P.W. "Pik" Botha.
Thousands of ANC supporters were bussed in from areas outside of Bophuthatswana to support the popular uprising. Terre'Blanche claimed a conspiracy by citing a “three-step plan” by the ANC in an effort to destabilize Bophuthatswana, which included ANC infiltration of the Bophuthatswana police and military. However, ANC candidate for the North West Province, Popo Molefe claimed the ANC was merely supporting the people of Bophuthatswana after it became clear that their political freedoms were limited.
Terre'Blanche claimed he had personally communicated with Mangope On 10 March 1994 (107), prior to mobilizing his men to protect the capital Mmabatho against looting and unrest. (110) Officers of the Bophuthatswana Defence Force initially received the AWB militia with “great joy and surprise.” (Vuur en Verraad, Arthur Kemp) The AWB militia assembled in an airport hangar in Mmabatho
, where they were to be provided with rations and firearms. Terre'Blanche ordered his men to remove their AWB badges upon the request of the Bophuthatswana Defence Force. While contained at the hangar, an unidentified and independent faction carrying the AWB emblems started shooting indiscriminately at the public. Terre'Blanche concluded that the South African intelligence services may have set up the shooting in order to discredit the AWB, since the media broadcast footage of the individuals' emblems, but did not publicize their identity. (105) The Bophuthatswana police systematically began to remove the media from strategic locations, and the initial hospitality shown to the AWB militia was replaced by contempt. When Bophuthatswana fell into complete anarchy, the AWB withdrew.
The AWB were subsequently defeated while invading Bophuthatswana to prop up the autocratic leader of the bantustan
in 1994 and, consequently, Terre'Blanche did not follow up on his earlier threats of war.
documentary
The Leader, His Driver and the Driver's Wife
, directed by British filmmaker Nick Broomfield
. A sequel, His Big White Self
, was first broadcast in February 2006. Terre'Blanche was also interviewed by Louis Theroux
in episode 3.3 "Boer Separatists" of the BBC
series Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends
.
In 1988, the AWB was beset by scandal when claims of an affair with journalist Jani Allan
surfaced. In July 1989, Cornelius Lottering, a member of the breakaway Orde van die Dood
group, orchestrated a failed assassination attempt on Allan's life by placing a bomb outside her Sandton apartment.
Broomfield's 1991 documentary claimed Terre'Blanche had an affair with the Sunday Times journalist; a claim she denied as well as her portrayal in the documentary. This led to Allan taking libel proceedings against the documentary broadcaster Channel 4
in 1992 in the London High Court. During the trial, several transcripts of their alleged sexual relationship appeared in the South African and British press. Terre'Blanche submitted a sworn statement to the London court denying he had had an affair with Allan. In a rare interview with the Afrikaans Sunday newspaper Die Rapport, his wife Martie Terre'Blanche denounced the rumors. Although the judge found that Channel 4's allegations had not defamed Allan, he did not rule on whether or not there had been an affair. The South African business newspaper Financial Mail published a lead story on 6 August detailing the theory that F.W. de Klerk had orchestrated the libel case to discredit Terre'Blanche and the far right movement in South Africa.
Terre'Blanche was widely ridiculed after he was filmed falling off his horse during a parade in Pretoria
. After his murder the state-owned SABC said on the evening news that he would be remembered "as a failed horseman". Terre'Blanche claimed the media only showed part of the fall and explained that unedited footage of the incident would show that the horse had slipped. He accused the media of double standards in reporting when praising Mbhazima Shilowa
when he fell from, but immediately remounted his horse.
In 2004, he was controversially voted No. 25 in SABC3's Great South Africans from a list of 100 South African personalities. Controversy over the list led the SABC to cancel the television series.
Amnesty was granted by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
and Pretoria
.
He had been calling for a “free Afrikaner republic”, and had vowed to take his campaign to the United Nations
' International Court of Justice
in The Hague in a bid to secure this. He favored large tracks of land that had been purchased from the ethnic Swazis in the eastern portion of the South African Republic, from the Zulus in northern Natal, and others, as well as largely uninhabited portions of the interior that had been settled by the Voortrekkers. In June 2008, it was announced that the AWB Youth Wing would be launched and Terre'Blanche was to be its founding member.
In a recent video interview, he voiced his objection to a proposal to change the iconic Springbok emblem of the South Africa national rugby union team
(Springboks). He stated that the Springbok emblem could be replaced with an impala or kudu for sports teams representing the new Afrikaner republic.
In September 2009 he addressed a 3-day convention attended by 300 Afrikaners which was intended to develop a strategy for "Boer liberation". Terre'Blanche reinforced earlier claims for land in Northern Natal and the Eastern Transvaal. In October 2009 several right-wing groups led by Terre'Blanche outlined their future plans at a Ventersdorp meeting. In an interview with the Mail and Guardian he said he wanted to unite 23 organisations under one umbrella, in order to take, as he had vowed, the fight of "the free Afrikaner" to the International Court of Justice.
In an interview with the Mail and Guardian, he stated that he would publish his biography, Blouberge van Nimmer (The Blue Mountains of Long Ago), in December 2009. The biography was ready for press at the time of his death and published under then name “My Storie”, as told to Amos van der Merwe. A complaint was lodged in December 2009 with the South African Human Rights Commission
regarding inflammatory comments he was alleged to have made.
, of which he served three years, for assaulting a petrol station worker and the attempted murder
of a security guard in 1996. He denied both accusations and insisted on his innocence.
One of only three whites in the Rooigrond prison near Mafikeng
, during his time in prison he claimed to have become a born-again Christian He claimed to have moderated many of his more racist
views.
Terre'Blanche was released on 11 June 2004 and the AWB website claims these court cases and other scandals involving him were fabricated by the "Black Government and the left wing media".
Paul Motshabi was permanently disabled when he was beaten up by Terre'Blanche in 1996. He was crippled and intellectually impaired by brain damage sustained in the attack, and his wife left him. He was one of 16 victims of violence in the South Africa's North West who received new houses as part of the national government's campaign to mark sixteen days of activism against violence against women and children.
Terre'Blanche continued to maintain his innocence in the Motshabi case, citing that he had discovered Motshabi already beaten when he found him in a park while patrolling Ventersdorp after which he took him to the hospital. Although he was not present when the alleged attack happened, Gabriel Kgosimang, an ex-employee of Terre'Blanche, testified that his former employer had repeatedly beaten Motshabi over the head, upper body, neck and shoulders after he crashed into him with his vehicle. The official medical report only cites a single hit to the head.
Twelve years later a policeman revealed that it had not been Terre'Blanche who had attacked Motshabi, and disclosed the names of the two culprits. Terre'Blanche claimed he feared the same powers that were active at Vlakplaas and chose not to make their names public. However, he stated that the identity of the attackers were contained in a sealed envelope and kept in safekeeping and that instructions were given that this information would be released in case something “unnatural” would happen to him. These names have not yet been released despite the murder of Terre'Blanche. Terre'Blanche claimed innocence in the case of John Ndizima, suggesting a bogus case had been built against him in order to “bury the conservative element of Afrikaner-nationalism in the shallow grave of injustice”.
Terre’Blanche cites that he interviewed Ndizima as the only eye witness of a burglary at a pharmacy in Ventersdorp. Ndizima claimed a white man with a white shirt with fine white lines had broken the window with a rock and had ran off. Terre'Blanche countered that Ndizima could not have seen such details from a 200 meter distance in the middle of the night, and suggested that Ndizima had alerted the thief of his presence. Terre'Blance then claimed that following a heated argument his dog broke loose and chased Ndizima, whereafter Terre'Blanche restrained the dog. Terre'Blanche raised the question of why neither Ndizima nor the state prosecution could explain why there was no blood on his overall that had been submitted as evidence. Terre'Blanche pointed out that his defense attorney suddenly resigned as member of the ultra-conservative white Conservative Party's Volksraad and joined the ANC shortly after the conclusion of the court case.
schools. Upon his release from jail, he quoted Wordsworth's poem I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud. He had previously released a CD of his poetry collection and most recently a DVD. The DVD was named "Inktrane", which is directly translated to English as "ink tears". This DVD was released through 11.3% Motion Pictures (Pty) Ltd.
s (machetes), while napping, by two black males (then aged 28 and 15), allegedly over a wage dispute. His daughter Bea told the media that the two workers had not been paid for March because her father could not get his banking in order before the Easter weekend, and that an arrangement had been made to pay them after the weekend. She stated that he had enjoyed a good relationship with his employees, which had been strengthened by their work with animals on the farm. His body was found on the bed with facial and head injuries. Speculation that Terre'Blanche had sexually assaulted one or both of the accused was raised in certain publications.
Ventersdorp police said two suspects were taken into custody over his killing; they were both charged with murder, and one was released on bail. South African President
Jacob Zuma
, who followed up an overnight statement with a televised address called for calm and for "responsible leadership" following the murder, describing it as a "terrible deed"; and described the murder as "cowardly".
Zuma's words were echoed by the AWB and organisations including AfriForum and Solidarity
. Minister of Police Nathi Mthethwa
Commissioner of police, Bheki Cele
and other high ranking police officials, and politicians visited Terre'Blanche's family in Ventersdorp the morning after the murder to express sympathy with the family.
The murder took place amid a racial controversy in South Africa involving the singing of a song by African National Congress Youth League
leader Julius Malema
which includes the lyrics "Shoot the Boer
" ("Dubul' ibhunu"). The ANC, which had previously defended its right to sing the song, announced that it would consider a moratorium on the singing of the song, following the murder, in the interests of national cohesion. The murder would "inflame tensions" in South Africa, Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille
said. Malema denied the song had anything to do with the murder, and defended his singing of it, saying he was "ready to die", and that he was "not scared of Boers", in reference to threats, later retracted, that Terre'Blanche would be avenged. ANC leaders later announced a temporary ban on the singing of the song.
ANCYL president Malema promoted land reform and more transfers of farmland from whites to black South Africans. Malema visited Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe
to learn more about socialism and land reform. Upon his return to South Africa he reported that Mugabe and his war veterans would assist in the transfer of land. The older of the accused men was a Zimbabwe
an. The accused's announcement to other farm workers that he was "now their boss" fueled suspicions that the murder was politically motivated. Members of the African National Congress (ANC) have supported the accused by turning up to the court in huge numbers, and singing other revolutionary songs. Terre'Blanche supporters also turned at the court, singing the former South African national anthem, “Die Stem van Suid Afrika”.
The two suspects appeared in court in Ventersdorp on 6 April 2010, amid racially charged scenes, and were charged with murder, robbery and crimen injuria
, for injuring the dignity of Terre'Blanche by leaving his pants pulled down after killing him. The AWB retracted earlier calls to avenge the murder, and President Jacob Zuma
appealed for peace.
Thousands attended Terre'Blanche's funeral, held at noon on 9 April 2010 at Ventersdorp's Protestant Church. Later the same day, he was buried on his farm.
Terre'Blanche's murder has been linked to attacks on farmers in South Africa.
Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging
The Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging is a South African far right separatist political and former paramilitary organization, since its creation dedicated to secessionist Afrikaner nationalism and the creation of an independent Boer-Afrikaner republic or "" in part of South Africa...
(AWB) during the apartheid era
History of South Africa in the apartheid era
Apartheid was a system of racial segregation enforced by the National Party governments of South Africa between 1948 and 1994, under which the rights of the majority 'non-white' inhabitants of South Africa were curtailed and white supremacy and Afrikaner minority rule was maintained...
. During the 1980s and early 1990s, he became known for threatening civil war to maintain white rule in South Africa. After the country's transition to post-apartheid democracy, he revised his stances and urged his followers to push for independence in an independent Afrikaner homeland, which he frequently referred to as a "Boerevolkstaat"
Volkstaat
Volkstaat is a proposal for the establishment of self determination for the Boer and Afrikaners minority in South Africa according to federal principles, alluding to full independence in the form of a homeland for Boer and Afrikaners....
. Terre'Blanche led the organisation until his death in 2010. He was given several labels during his lifetime, including "white supremacist", "nationalist," and "racist".
Terre'Blanche spent three years in prison for assaulting a black petrol station worker and the attempted murder of a black security guard in 1996. On 3 April 2010, he was hacked and beaten to death on his farm by two labourers, allegedly over a wage dispute. Terre'Blanche's supporters have said that the murder is part of a larger pattern of anti-white "farm murders" in South Africa.
Background
Terre'Blanche's grandfather fought as a so-called "Cape Rebel" for the BoerBoer
Boer is the Dutch and Afrikaans word for farmer, which came to denote the descendants of the Dutch-speaking settlers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 18th century, as well as those who left the Cape Colony during the 19th century to settle in the Orange Free State,...
cause in the Second Boer War
Second Boer War
The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...
, and his father was a lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel is a rank of commissioned officer in the armies and most marine forces and some air forces of the world, typically ranking above a major and below a colonel. The rank of lieutenant colonel is often shortened to simply "colonel" in conversation and in unofficial correspondence...
in the South African Defence Force
South African Defence Force
The South African Defence Force was the South African armed forces from 1957 until 1994. The former Union Defence Force was renamed to the South African Defence Force in the Defence Act of 1957...
.
The progenitor of the Terre'Blanche name (translatable as either 'white land' or 'white earth' in French) in the region was a French Huguenot
Huguenot
The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...
refugee, Estienne Terreblanche from Toulon
Toulon
Toulon is a town in southern France and a large military harbor on the Mediterranean coast, with a major French naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region, Toulon is the capital of the Var department in the former province of Provence....
(Provence
Provence
Provence ; Provençal: Provença in classical norm or Prouvènço in Mistralian norm) is a region of south eastern France on the Mediterranean adjacent to Italy. It is part of the administrative région of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur...
), who arrived at the Cape in 1704, fleeing anti-Protestant persecution in France. The Terreblanche name has generally retained its original spelling though other spellings include Terre'Blanche, Terre Blanche, Terblanche and Terblans.
Born on a farm in the Transvaal
Transvaal Province
Transvaal Province was a province of the Union of South Africa from 1910 to 1961, and of its successor, the Republic of South Africa, from 1961 until the end of apartheid in 1994 when a new constitution subdivided it.-History:...
town of Ventersdorp on 31 January 1941, Terre'Blanche attended Laerskool Ventersdorp and Hoër Volkskool in Potchefstroom, matriculating
Matriculation in South Africa
In South Africa, matriculation is a term commonly used to refer to the final year of high school and the qualification received on graduating from high school, although strictly speaking, it refers to the minimum university entrance requirements. The first formal examination was conducted in...
in 1962. While in school, he gave early expression to his political leanings by founding the cultural organisation Jong Afrikanerharte (Young Afrikaner Hearts).
He joined the South African Police
South African Police
The South African Police was the country's police force until 1994. The SAP traced its origin to the Dutch Watch, a paramilitary organization formed by settlers in the Cape in 1655, initially to protect civilians against attack and later to maintain law and order...
, and was initially deployed in South West Africa
South West Africa
South-West Africa was the name that was used for the modern day Republic of Namibia during the earlier eras when the territory was controlled by the German Empire and later by South Africa....
(now Namibia
Namibia
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...
), which had been given to South Africa under a League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...
Trust mandate after World War I. Upon returning to South Africa proper, he became a Warrant Officer in the Special Guard Unit, which was assigned to members of the Cabinet.
Political career
Terre'Blanche's politics differed from the white supremacist apartheid government's policies by emphasizing the supremacy of his AfrikanerAfrikaner
Afrikaners are an ethnic group in Southern Africa descended from almost equal numbers of Dutch, French and German settlers whose native tongue is Afrikaans: a Germanic language which derives primarily from 17th century Dutch, and a variety of other languages.-Related ethno-linguistic groups:The...
identity. He frequently referred to the Afrikaner or pioneering Voortrekkers as "Die wit man" ("The white man"). He emphasized the concept of the Afrikaner/Boer volk as an equally autochthonous ethnic grouping alongside South Africa's indigenous tribes. He also promoted the formation of an Afrikaner state which would be self governed and operate alongside tribal homelands.
Herstigte Nasionale Party
During the late 1960s, Terre'Blanche increasingly opposed what he called the "liberalLiberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
policies" of B. J. Vorster, then Prime Minister of South Africa. After four years of service in the SAP, he resigned to pursue a career in politics, running unsuccessfully for local office in Heidelberg
Heidelberg, Gauteng
Heidelberg is a town with 70,707 inhabitants in the Gauteng province of South Africa at the foot of the Suikerbosrand next to the N3 highway, which connects Johannesburg and Durban.- History :...
as a member of the Herstigte Nasionale Party
Herstigte Nasionale Party
The Herstigte Nasionale Party van Suid-Afrika was formed as a right-wing splinter group of the South African National Party.-Formation:...
.
Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging
Disillusioned with the established avenues for political participation, Terre'Blanche founded the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (Afrikaner Resistance Movement, AWB) in Heidelberg in 1973, initially as a secret society. The AWB first appeared on the public scene after its members were charged with and fined for tarring and featheringTarring and feathering
Tarring and feathering is a physical punishment, used to enforce unofficial justice or revenge. It was used in feudal Europe and its colonies in the early modern period, as well as the early American frontier, mostly as a type of mob vengeance .-Description:In a typical tar-and-feathers attack, the...
. Floors van Jaarsfeld, a professor of history who had publicly voiced the opinion that the Day of the Vow
Day of the Vow
The Day of the Vow is the name of a religious public holiday in South Africa until 1994, when it was renamed the Day of Reconciliation. The holiday is December 16...
(previously called Dingaan's Day), a public holiday in remembrance of the Battle of Blood River
Battle of Blood River
The Battle of Blood River, so called due to the colour of water in the Ncome River turning red with blood, was fought between 470 Voortrekkers led by Andries Pretorius, and an estimated 10,000–15,000 Zulu attackers on the bank of the Ncome River on 16 December 1838, in what is today KwaZulu-Natal,...
, was nothing more than a secular event with hardly any real reference point in history. Though Terre’Blanche would later express his regrets regarding the incident when testifying before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, he suggested that his convictions relating to the sanctity of the Day of the Vow might make his actions more understandable. In the years that followed, Terre'Blanche's speeches at public gatherings often evoked the Battle of Blood River, and his oratorical
Oratory
Oratory is a type of public speaking.Oratory may also refer to:* Oratory , a power metal band* Oratory , a place of worship* a religious order such as** Oratory of Saint Philip Neri ** Oratory of Jesus...
skills earned him much support among the white right wing in South Africa; the AWB claimed 70,000 members at its height.
Throughout the 1980s, Terre'Blanche continued to present himself and the AWB as an alternative to both the National Party
National Party (South Africa)
The National Party is a former political party in South Africa. Founded in 1914, it was the governing party of the country from 4 June 1948 until 9 May 1994. Members of the National Party were sometimes known as Nationalists or Nats. Its policies included apartheid, the establishment of a...
-led government and the Conservative Party
Conservative Party (South Africa)
The Conservative Party of South Africa was a conservative party formed in 1982 as a breakaway from the ruling National Party...
, and he remained staunchly opposed to the reform policies of PW Botha
Pieter Willem Botha
Pieter Willem Botha , commonly known as "P. W." and Die Groot Krokodil , was the prime minister of South Africa from 1978 to 1984 and the first executive state president from 1984 to 1989.First elected to Parliament in 1948, Botha was for eleven years head of the Afrikaner National Party and the...
to establish additional, albeit still separate, parliamentary chambers for non-whites, and to grant suffrage to Coloureds and South Africans of Indian origin. The organisation's strongest support was found in the rural communities of South Africa's North, with comparably few supporters in urban areas where his following was largely limited to the middle and lower income Afrikaners.
Terre'Blanche viewed the end of apartheid as a surrender to communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
, and threatened full scale civil war
Civil war
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....
if President FW de Klerk
Frederik Willem de Klerk
Frederik Willem de Klerk , often known as F. W. de Klerk, is the former seventh and last State President of apartheid-era South Africa, serving from September 1989 to May 1994...
handed power to Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing...
and the African National Congress
African National Congress
The African National Congress is South Africa's governing Africanist political party, supported by its tripartite alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party , since the establishment of non-racial democracy in April 1994. It defines itself as a...
. When De Klerk addressed a meeting in Terre'Blanche's hometown of Ventersdorp in 1991, Terre'Blanche led a protest, and the Battle of Ventersdorp
Battle of Ventersdorp
The Battle of Ventersdorp on 9 August 1991 was a violent confrontation in the South African town of Ventersdorp between right wing supporters of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging and the South African Police and security forces...
ensued between the AWB and the police, with a number of people killed. Terre’Blanche claimed that it was only when he stood between the police and the AWB and demanded a ceasefire that the shooting ended. Terre'Blanche accused President de Klerk of instigating the riot for political gain. (95)
In an attempt to disrupt the negotiation process in 1993, Terre'Blanche accompanied by General Constand Viljoen and Conservative Party parliamentarian Thomas Langley led an armed invasion of the World Trade Centre
Storming of Kempton Park World Trade Centre
The storming of the Kempton Park World Trade Centre took place in South Africa on June 25, 1993 when approximately three thousand members of the Afrikaner Volksfront , Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging and other paramilitary right-wing Afrikaner groups stormed the World Trade Centre in Kempton Park,...
in Kempton Park while negotiations were in progress. After a memorandum of grievances were presented to National Party minister Roelf Meyer and Dawie de Villiers and upon concluding and agreement that no arrests would be made, the AWB withdrew from the premises. However that evening several identified AWB leaders were arrested and their wives were incarcerated in Soweto, separately from their husbands. Vlakplaas General Krappies Engelbrecht was appointed to launch an investigation.
Terre'Blanche claimed he and President Lucas Mangope
Lucas Mangope
Kgosi Lucas Manyane Mangope is the former leader of the Bantustan of Bophuthatswana and current leader of the United Christian Democratic Party, a minor political party based in the North West province of South Africa....
of the predominantly ethnic Tswana Homeland of Bophuthatswana
Bophuthatswana
Bophuthatswana , officially the Republic of Bophuthatswana was a Bantustan – an area set aside for members of a specific ethnicity – and nominal parliamentary democracy in the northwestern region of South Africa...
came to a “mutual agreement” on 17 February 1992, to aid each other in the “event of a communist threat” On 4 March 1994 Mangope announced that Bophutatswana would not participate in the South African general election in an effort to maintain Bophutatswana's independence from the Republic of South Africa. Bophuthatswana's minister of justice, Godfrey Mothibe tried in vain to convince Mangope to participate in the election, but then accused the ANC of orchestrating the revolt, which was helped by the stance taken by South Africa's then Minister of Foreign Affairs, P.W. "Pik" Botha.
Thousands of ANC supporters were bussed in from areas outside of Bophuthatswana to support the popular uprising. Terre'Blanche claimed a conspiracy by citing a “three-step plan” by the ANC in an effort to destabilize Bophuthatswana, which included ANC infiltration of the Bophuthatswana police and military. However, ANC candidate for the North West Province, Popo Molefe claimed the ANC was merely supporting the people of Bophuthatswana after it became clear that their political freedoms were limited.
Terre'Blanche claimed he had personally communicated with Mangope On 10 March 1994 (107), prior to mobilizing his men to protect the capital Mmabatho against looting and unrest. (110) Officers of the Bophuthatswana Defence Force initially received the AWB militia with “great joy and surprise.” (Vuur en Verraad, Arthur Kemp) The AWB militia assembled in an airport hangar in Mmabatho
Mmabatho
Mmabatho is the former capital of the North-West Province of South Africa. In the apartheid era, it was the capital of the former "Bantustan" of Bophuthatswana. Following the end of apartheid in 1994, Bophuthatswana was integrated into the newly established North-West Province and Mmabatho was...
, where they were to be provided with rations and firearms. Terre'Blanche ordered his men to remove their AWB badges upon the request of the Bophuthatswana Defence Force. While contained at the hangar, an unidentified and independent faction carrying the AWB emblems started shooting indiscriminately at the public. Terre'Blanche concluded that the South African intelligence services may have set up the shooting in order to discredit the AWB, since the media broadcast footage of the individuals' emblems, but did not publicize their identity. (105) The Bophuthatswana police systematically began to remove the media from strategic locations, and the initial hospitality shown to the AWB militia was replaced by contempt. When Bophuthatswana fell into complete anarchy, the AWB withdrew.
The AWB were subsequently defeated while invading Bophuthatswana to prop up the autocratic leader of the bantustan
Bantustan
A bantustan was a territory set aside for black inhabitants of South Africa and South West Africa , as part of the policy of apartheid...
in 1994 and, consequently, Terre'Blanche did not follow up on his earlier threats of war.
Media image
Terre'Blanche was lampooned in the 19911991 in film
The year 1991 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*April 28 - Bonnie Raitt marries actor Michael O'Keefe in New York* Terminator 2: Judgment Day, became one of the landmarks for science fiction action films with its groundbreaking visual effects from Industrial Light & Magic.*November...
documentary
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
The Leader, His Driver and the Driver's Wife
The Leader, His Driver and the Driver's Wife
The Leader, His Driver and the Driver's Wife is a 1991 British feature-length documentary film set during the final days of the apartheid regime in South Africa, particularly centering on Eugène Terre'Blanche, founder and leader of the far-right, white supremacist political organisation AWB. The...
, directed by British filmmaker Nick Broomfield
Nick Broomfield
Nicholas "Nick" Broomfield is an English documentary film-maker. He is the son of Maurice Broomfield, a photographer.Broomfield works with a minimal crew, recording sound himself and using one or two camera operators...
. A sequel, His Big White Self
His Big White Self
His Big White Self is a 2006 documentary film made by Nick Broomfield. It is a follow up to his 1991 film The Leader, His Driver and the Driver's Wife. It was shown for the first time as part of More4's Nick Broomfield week which started on February 27, 2006.The documentary follows Broomfield as he...
, was first broadcast in February 2006. Terre'Blanche was also interviewed by Louis Theroux
Louis Theroux
Louis Sebastian Theroux is an English broadcaster best known for his Gonzo style journalism on the television series Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends and When Louis Met.... His career started off in journalism and bears influences of notable writers in his family such as his father, Paul Theroux and...
in episode 3.3 "Boer Separatists" of the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
series Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends
Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends
Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends is a television documentary series, in which Louis Theroux gives viewers the chance to get brief glimpses into the worlds of individuals and groups that they would not normally come into contact with or experience up close...
.
In 1988, the AWB was beset by scandal when claims of an affair with journalist Jani Allan
Jani Allan
Jani Allan is a South African columnist and radio commentator. She became a household name as a columnist for the Sunday Times where she worked between 1979-90. She is also known for her alleged affair with an interviewee, the late right-wing political leader Eugène Terre'Blanche...
surfaced. In July 1989, Cornelius Lottering, a member of the breakaway Orde van die Dood
Orde van die Dood
The Orde van die Dood was a militant offshoot of the Afrikaner Resistance Movement which sought to create a white Boer homeland in South Africa, beginning in the 1980s.The movement gained exposure in 1989 when member Cornelius Lottering attempted to assassinate the journalist, Jani...
group, orchestrated a failed assassination attempt on Allan's life by placing a bomb outside her Sandton apartment.
Broomfield's 1991 documentary claimed Terre'Blanche had an affair with the Sunday Times journalist; a claim she denied as well as her portrayal in the documentary. This led to Allan taking libel proceedings against the documentary broadcaster Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
in 1992 in the London High Court. During the trial, several transcripts of their alleged sexual relationship appeared in the South African and British press. Terre'Blanche submitted a sworn statement to the London court denying he had had an affair with Allan. In a rare interview with the Afrikaans Sunday newspaper Die Rapport, his wife Martie Terre'Blanche denounced the rumors. Although the judge found that Channel 4's allegations had not defamed Allan, he did not rule on whether or not there had been an affair. The South African business newspaper Financial Mail published a lead story on 6 August detailing the theory that F.W. de Klerk had orchestrated the libel case to discredit Terre'Blanche and the far right movement in South Africa.
Terre'Blanche was widely ridiculed after he was filmed falling off his horse during a parade in Pretoria
Pretoria
Pretoria is a city located in the northern part of Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is one of the country's three capital cities, serving as the executive and de facto national capital; the others are Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital.Pretoria is...
. After his murder the state-owned SABC said on the evening news that he would be remembered "as a failed horseman". Terre'Blanche claimed the media only showed part of the fall and explained that unedited footage of the incident would show that the horse had slipped. He accused the media of double standards in reporting when praising Mbhazima Shilowa
Mbhazima Shilowa
Mbhazima Samuel Shilowa is a South African politician. A former Premier of Gauteng province while a member of the African National Congress, Shilowa left the party to help form the opposition Congress of the People, with whom he is the Deputy President...
when he fell from, but immediately remounted his horse.
In 2004, he was controversially voted No. 25 in SABC3's Great South Africans from a list of 100 South African personalities. Controversy over the list led the SABC to cancel the television series.
Amnesty
Following the end of apartheid, Terre'Blanche and his supporters sought amnesty for the storming of the World Trade Centre, the 'Battle of Ventersdorp', and other acts.Amnesty was granted by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Later years
In March 2008, the AWB announced the re-activation of the political party, for 'populist' reasons, citing the encouragement of the public. Reasons for the return have been attributed principally to attacks on commercial farmers and ethnic Boers, the electricity crisis, corruption across government departments and rampant crime. Throughout April 2008, Terre'Blanche was to be the speaker at several AWB rallies, encompassing Vryburg, Middelburg, MpumalangaMiddelburg, Mpumalanga
Middelburg is a large farming and industrial town in the South African province of Mpumalanga.Middelburg was established as Nasareth, , in 1864 by the Voortrekkers on the banks of the Klein Olifants River. The name was changed in 1872 to Middelburg to mark its situation midway between the Transvaal...
and Pretoria
Pretoria
Pretoria is a city located in the northern part of Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is one of the country's three capital cities, serving as the executive and de facto national capital; the others are Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital.Pretoria is...
.
He had been calling for a “free Afrikaner republic”, and had vowed to take his campaign to the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
' International Court of Justice
International Court of Justice
The International Court of Justice is the primary judicial organ of the United Nations. It is based in the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands...
in The Hague in a bid to secure this. He favored large tracks of land that had been purchased from the ethnic Swazis in the eastern portion of the South African Republic, from the Zulus in northern Natal, and others, as well as largely uninhabited portions of the interior that had been settled by the Voortrekkers. In June 2008, it was announced that the AWB Youth Wing would be launched and Terre'Blanche was to be its founding member.
In a recent video interview, he voiced his objection to a proposal to change the iconic Springbok emblem of the South Africa national rugby union team
South Africa national rugby union team
The South African national rugby union team are 2009 British and Irish Lions Series winners. They are currently ranked as the fourth best team in the IRB World Rankings and were named 2008 World Team of the Year at the prestigious Laureus World Sports Awards.Although South Africa was instrumental...
(Springboks). He stated that the Springbok emblem could be replaced with an impala or kudu for sports teams representing the new Afrikaner republic.
In September 2009 he addressed a 3-day convention attended by 300 Afrikaners which was intended to develop a strategy for "Boer liberation". Terre'Blanche reinforced earlier claims for land in Northern Natal and the Eastern Transvaal. In October 2009 several right-wing groups led by Terre'Blanche outlined their future plans at a Ventersdorp meeting. In an interview with the Mail and Guardian he said he wanted to unite 23 organisations under one umbrella, in order to take, as he had vowed, the fight of "the free Afrikaner" to the International Court of Justice.
In an interview with the Mail and Guardian, he stated that he would publish his biography, Blouberge van Nimmer (The Blue Mountains of Long Ago), in December 2009. The biography was ready for press at the time of his death and published under then name “My Storie”, as told to Amos van der Merwe. A complaint was lodged in December 2009 with the South African Human Rights Commission
South African Human Rights Commission
The South African Human Rights Commission was inaugurated in October 1995 as an independent national institution. It draws its mandate from the South African Constitution by way of the South African Human Rights Commission Act of 1994....
regarding inflammatory comments he was alleged to have made.
Conviction and prison sentence
On 17 June 2001, Terre'Blanche was sentenced to six years in prisonPrison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
, of which he served three years, for assaulting a petrol station worker and the attempted murder
Attempted murder
Attempted murder is a crime in England and Wales and Northern Ireland.-Today:In English criminal law, attempted murder is the crime of more than merely preparing to commit unlawful killing and at the same time having a specific intention to cause the death of human being under the Queen's Peace...
of a security guard in 1996. He denied both accusations and insisted on his innocence.
One of only three whites in the Rooigrond prison near Mafikeng
Mafikeng
Mahikeng – formerly legally, but still commonly known as Mafikeng – is the capital city of the North-West Province of South Africa. It is best known internationally for the Siege of Mafeking, the most famous engagement of the Second Boer War.Located on South Africa's border with Botswana, it is ...
, during his time in prison he claimed to have become a born-again Christian He claimed to have moderated many of his more racist
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
views.
Terre'Blanche was released on 11 June 2004 and the AWB website claims these court cases and other scandals involving him were fabricated by the "Black Government and the left wing media".
Paul Motshabi was permanently disabled when he was beaten up by Terre'Blanche in 1996. He was crippled and intellectually impaired by brain damage sustained in the attack, and his wife left him. He was one of 16 victims of violence in the South Africa's North West who received new houses as part of the national government's campaign to mark sixteen days of activism against violence against women and children.
Terre'Blanche continued to maintain his innocence in the Motshabi case, citing that he had discovered Motshabi already beaten when he found him in a park while patrolling Ventersdorp after which he took him to the hospital. Although he was not present when the alleged attack happened, Gabriel Kgosimang, an ex-employee of Terre'Blanche, testified that his former employer had repeatedly beaten Motshabi over the head, upper body, neck and shoulders after he crashed into him with his vehicle. The official medical report only cites a single hit to the head.
Twelve years later a policeman revealed that it had not been Terre'Blanche who had attacked Motshabi, and disclosed the names of the two culprits. Terre'Blanche claimed he feared the same powers that were active at Vlakplaas and chose not to make their names public. However, he stated that the identity of the attackers were contained in a sealed envelope and kept in safekeeping and that instructions were given that this information would be released in case something “unnatural” would happen to him. These names have not yet been released despite the murder of Terre'Blanche. Terre'Blanche claimed innocence in the case of John Ndizima, suggesting a bogus case had been built against him in order to “bury the conservative element of Afrikaner-nationalism in the shallow grave of injustice”.
Terre’Blanche cites that he interviewed Ndizima as the only eye witness of a burglary at a pharmacy in Ventersdorp. Ndizima claimed a white man with a white shirt with fine white lines had broken the window with a rock and had ran off. Terre'Blanche countered that Ndizima could not have seen such details from a 200 meter distance in the middle of the night, and suggested that Ndizima had alerted the thief of his presence. Terre'Blance then claimed that following a heated argument his dog broke loose and chased Ndizima, whereafter Terre'Blanche restrained the dog. Terre'Blanche raised the question of why neither Ndizima nor the state prosecution could explain why there was no blood on his overall that had been submitted as evidence. Terre'Blanche pointed out that his defense attorney suddenly resigned as member of the ultra-conservative white Conservative Party's Volksraad and joined the ANC shortly after the conclusion of the court case.
Poet
Prior to the 1994 multi-racial elections, Terre'Blanche's Afrikaans-language works were on the state syllabus of NatalNatal Province
Natal, meaning "Christmas" in Portuguese, was a province of South Africa from 1910 until 1994. Its capital was Pietermaritzburg. The Natal Province included the bantustan of KwaZulu...
schools. Upon his release from jail, he quoted Wordsworth's poem I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud. He had previously released a CD of his poetry collection and most recently a DVD. The DVD was named "Inktrane", which is directly translated to English as "ink tears". This DVD was released through 11.3% Motion Pictures (Pty) Ltd.
Death
Terre'Blanche, who had lived in relative obscurity since the collapse of his organisation, was murdered on his farm Villana, just outside Ventersdorp, on 3 April 2010. He was reportedly beaten to death with pipes and pangaMachete
The machete is a large cleaver-like cutting tool. The blade is typically long and usually under thick. In the English language, an equivalent term is matchet, though it is less commonly known...
s (machetes), while napping, by two black males (then aged 28 and 15), allegedly over a wage dispute. His daughter Bea told the media that the two workers had not been paid for March because her father could not get his banking in order before the Easter weekend, and that an arrangement had been made to pay them after the weekend. She stated that he had enjoyed a good relationship with his employees, which had been strengthened by their work with animals on the farm. His body was found on the bed with facial and head injuries. Speculation that Terre'Blanche had sexually assaulted one or both of the accused was raised in certain publications.
Ventersdorp police said two suspects were taken into custody over his killing; they were both charged with murder, and one was released on bail. South African President
President of South Africa
The President of the Republic of South Africa is the head of state and head of government under South Africa's Constitution. From 1961 to 1994, the head of state was called the State President....
Jacob Zuma
Jacob Zuma
Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma is the President of South Africa, elected by parliament following his party's victory in the 2009 general election....
, who followed up an overnight statement with a televised address called for calm and for "responsible leadership" following the murder, describing it as a "terrible deed"; and described the murder as "cowardly".
Zuma's words were echoed by the AWB and organisations including AfriForum and Solidarity
Solidarity
Solidarity is a Polish trade union federation that emerged on August 31, 1980 at the Gdańsk Shipyard under the leadership of Lech Wałęsa. It was the first non-communist party-controlled trade union in a Warsaw Pact country. Solidarity reached 9.5 million members before its September 1981 congress...
. Minister of Police Nathi Mthethwa
Nathi Mthethwa
Emmanuel Nkosinathi Mthethwa is a South African politician from Kwa Mbonambi, KwaZulu-Natal and a member of the ANC. He was the ANC Chief Whip in the National Assembly. After Thabo Mbeki's resignation, he became Minister of Safety and Security on 25 September 2008 as a member of President...
Commissioner of police, Bheki Cele
Bheki Cele
Bheki Cele was the National Commissioner of the South African Police Service until October 2011, when he was suspended from duty, due to allegations of corruption.. He was appointed to this position in July 2009, replacing Jackie Selebi, who was suspended in January 2008 following charges of...
and other high ranking police officials, and politicians visited Terre'Blanche's family in Ventersdorp the morning after the murder to express sympathy with the family.
The murder took place amid a racial controversy in South Africa involving the singing of a song by African National Congress Youth League
African National Congress Youth League
The African National Congress Youth League is the youth wing of the African National Congress.-Foundation:Its foundation in 1944 by Nick Gombart, Ashley Peter Mda, Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo marked the rise of a new generation of leadership of South Africa's black African...
leader Julius Malema
Julius Malema
Julius Sello Malema is a South African politician, and the former president of the African National Congress Youth League. Malema occupies a notably controversial position in South African public and political life; having risen to prominence with his support for African National Congress...
which includes the lyrics "Shoot the Boer
Boer
Boer is the Dutch and Afrikaans word for farmer, which came to denote the descendants of the Dutch-speaking settlers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 18th century, as well as those who left the Cape Colony during the 19th century to settle in the Orange Free State,...
" ("Dubul' ibhunu"). The ANC, which had previously defended its right to sing the song, announced that it would consider a moratorium on the singing of the song, following the murder, in the interests of national cohesion. The murder would "inflame tensions" in South Africa, Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille
Helen Zille
Helen Zille is the Premier of the Western Cape, a member of the Western Cape Provincial Parliament, leader of South Africa's opposition Democratic Alliance political party, and a former Mayor of Cape Town.Zille is a former journalist and anti-apartheid activist, and famously exposed the truth...
said. Malema denied the song had anything to do with the murder, and defended his singing of it, saying he was "ready to die", and that he was "not scared of Boers", in reference to threats, later retracted, that Terre'Blanche would be avenged. ANC leaders later announced a temporary ban on the singing of the song.
ANCYL president Malema promoted land reform and more transfers of farmland from whites to black South Africans. Malema visited Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe
Robert Mugabe
Robert Gabriel Mugabe is the President of Zimbabwe. As one of the leaders of the liberation movement against white-minority rule, he was elected into power in 1980...
to learn more about socialism and land reform. Upon his return to South Africa he reported that Mugabe and his war veterans would assist in the transfer of land. The older of the accused men was a Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
an. The accused's announcement to other farm workers that he was "now their boss" fueled suspicions that the murder was politically motivated. Members of the African National Congress (ANC) have supported the accused by turning up to the court in huge numbers, and singing other revolutionary songs. Terre'Blanche supporters also turned at the court, singing the former South African national anthem, “Die Stem van Suid Afrika”.
The two suspects appeared in court in Ventersdorp on 6 April 2010, amid racially charged scenes, and were charged with murder, robbery and crimen injuria
Crimen injuria
Crimen injuria is a crime under South African common law, defined to be the act of "unlawfully, intentionally and seriously impairing the dignity of another." Although difficult to precisely define, the crime is used in the prosecution of certain instances of road rage, stalking, racially...
, for injuring the dignity of Terre'Blanche by leaving his pants pulled down after killing him. The AWB retracted earlier calls to avenge the murder, and President Jacob Zuma
Jacob Zuma
Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma is the President of South Africa, elected by parliament following his party's victory in the 2009 general election....
appealed for peace.
Thousands attended Terre'Blanche's funeral, held at noon on 9 April 2010 at Ventersdorp's Protestant Church. Later the same day, he was buried on his farm.
Terre'Blanche's murder has been linked to attacks on farmers in South Africa.
See also
- Afrikaner nationalismAfrikaner nationalismAfrikaner nationalism is a political ideology that was born in the late 19th century around the idea that Afrikaners in South Africa were a "chosen people"; it was also strongly influenced by anti-British sentiments that grew strong among the Afrikaners, especially because of the Boer Wars...
- White nationalismWhite nationalismWhite nationalism is a political ideology which advocates a racial definition of national identity for white people. White separatism and white supremacism are subgroups within white nationalism. The former seek a separate white nation state, while the latter add ideas from social Darwinism and...
- VolkstaatVolkstaatVolkstaat is a proposal for the establishment of self determination for the Boer and Afrikaners minority in South Africa according to federal principles, alluding to full independence in the form of a homeland for Boer and Afrikaners....
- Orania, Northern Cape
- Afrikaner WeerstandsbewegingAfrikaner WeerstandsbewegingThe Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging is a South African far right separatist political and former paramilitary organization, since its creation dedicated to secessionist Afrikaner nationalism and the creation of an independent Boer-Afrikaner republic or "" in part of South Africa...
(AWB)