The two persons suspected of murdering South African white supremacist Eugene Terre'Blanche are scheduled to make a court appearance Tuesday. Police said Terre'Blanche was bludgeoned to death Saturday on his farm by two black workers with whom he had a wage dispute.
Meanwhile, a South African political analyst says President Jacob Zuma moved swiftly to calm tensions following the murder.
Somadoda Fikeni said a section of the Afrikaner community feel the ruling African National Congress (ANC) has failed to persuade the party’s youth leader, Julius Malema to stop singing the banned anti-apartheid song “kill the Boer”.
“The prompt response by the minister of police and the commissioner of police as well as the message by President Zuma did all what it could to calm down the masses or the Afrikaner community ahead of the appearance of the accused,” he said.
A section of the Afrikaner community blames what it describes as hate speech by ANC youth leader Julius Malema for instigating the murder of Eugene Terre'Blanche.
Fikeni said the ruling African National Congress party is blamed for not stopping Malema’s controversial speeches.
“Some sections of the Afrikaner community feel that the ANC has not taken a clear position on trying to persuade the youth leader to stop singing the struggle song which says kill the Boer. Some are even linking the killing as having been encouraged by this kind of song,” Fikeni said.
Before he was bludgeoned to death, Eugene Terre'Blanche was the leader of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging Movement (AWB), a white supremacist group.
He was released from jail in 2004 after being convicted of the attempted murder of a farm worker who was left brain damaged from Terre'Blanche’s beating.
VOA’s South Africa correspondent, Scott Bobb said about 2,000 white farmers have so far been killed after apartheid ended in 1990.
Fikeni said there is need to address the violence.
“We should understand those statistics of white farmers who were killed within the broader context of a violent crime rate, which is higher in some areas of the society. And also understand this in terms of the poor conditions of black workers in the white farms and the kinds of tensions which are there. So it would not be that the white community would be isolated as such …,” Fikeni said.
He said the government and the farming community have recently agreed to a plan aimed at combating the killing of white farmers and improving security on farms.
Fikeni further said the ANC youth leader has so far remained defiant despite the murder of the white supremacist leader.
Meanwhile, a South African court has banned the anti-apartheid song “kill the Boer” which urges the killing of whites after it was sung publicly by ANC youth leader Julius Malema.
“Boer” means farmer in the Afrikaan language but many whites see the term as derogatory.
