In March of 1991 after months of nationalistic propaganda and other divisive rhetoric from Slobodan Milosevic and Franjo Tudjman, a small group of Serbs and Croats clashed in the Plitvice Lakes National Park on the border between these two countries. Serbs had moved into the park and expelled the park management. Zagreb viewed this as a national insult, an invasion of its newly declared territory and sent in police militia to retake the park. This resulted in a gun battle, in which one Serb and one Croat were killed (quite ironically on Easter Sunday), and sparked the Croatian war of independence in the early 90s in which thousands of people were killed.
The Serb civilian militia that took the park were confident of support from Belgrade. Milosevic, the Serb leader had spent the better part of his early career exposing old wounds, carefully manipulating Serbian history and invoking the oppression folklore of Serbs through the ages. When those men took the park, they did so with the full expectation that their government was ideologically aligned with their actions and would support them, which ultimately they did.
When Julius Malema sings “shoot the boer” he sends that same message of support. When he advocates nationalisation of mines and other private business he sends that message. When he talks of land redistribution and flies off to Zimbabwe to learn how they did it, he sends that message. He tacitly assures his followers of government solidarity in any aggression towards white farmers and white business. He polarises our society and he does it for personal gain.
Hitler, before coming to power in Germany in 1933 (incidentally in the middle of a huge global recession), made the following comments in support of certain inflammatory phrases used by his Nazi party:
During his testimony, Hitler insisted that his party was determined to come to power legally, that the phrase “National Revolution” was only to be interpreted “politically”, and that his party was a friend, not an enemy of the Reichswehr. Sound familiar?
Hitler used the conditions in Germany after the Great Depression to fuel his support and rise to power. His thinly veiled policies of nationalistic indoctrination, racial hatred and revolution were written off much as those of Malema are today but came to the fore once his real power was consolidated by the people that bought into his rhetoric. Hitler knew the power of symbolism and the emotional sway it held over people. He wrapped the downtrodden German nation around his evil little finger by playing on past injustice and symbols of all descriptions.
My intention here is not to compare Malema directly with Hitler. I think that is somehow unfair to both of them. I do, however, feel it is necessary to point out the dangers of what Malema is doing and put it into historical context. To understand his actions we need to ask what his motives are. Why does Malema sing that song? Why does he inflame and incite and stoke the fires of racial division when any thinking person knows and can see that South Africa needs exactly the opposite?
In a country that desperately needs reconciliation; he has chosen the opposite path. He has chosen to open old wounds before they have had a chance to heal. He has decided to rise to power as Milosevic and Hitler did before him: on a wave on nationalistic fervour and emotion. He does not care about the average South African. He does not care about this country or the irreparable damage he may do in his quest for personal status and power. If he did, he would understand that above all we need to settle the past and move forward.
To clarify: I do not support the banning of the song by the high court.
It is not the song that is to blame here. It has its place in our history and should it have been sung during a stage production, a TV documentary or feature in a CD compilation of struggle songs for historic record, there would have been absolutely no problem. Powerful symbols, however, can be powerful weapons. A gun may sit idly in a war museum or be loaded and pointed at your head. As with the gun, “kill the boer” wielded at the right moment to an emotionally charged crowd can kill. It only has to legitimise lethal action in the eyes of a tiny minority, perhaps one or two people, and those acts can alter the course of a nation.
When you raise the temperature and people who follow you believe that they have the support of the leadership and act, you reach flash point. The war in Croatia started with the killing of one Croat and one Serb in a minor skirmish. It escalated from there because both nations were drunk on nationalistic propaganda and were cursed with ambitious and irresponsible leadership. We are in much the same position here in South Africa today.
“Shoot the boer” is not just a song. It is a powerful symbol of an uprising. Singing “kill the boer” is not nostalgic for some people in this country just as the singing of Die Stem and the waving of the old flag is not nostalgic for others. They are both symbols of a dark, racially divided time and invoking them brings all of that old resentment to the surface. Hearing Die Stem as you potter down the rows at the Apartheid Museum is hardly a threat to anybody. Hearing it from a 60 000-strong crowd of emotionally charged whites waving the old flag at Ellis Park is something quite different. It is not the song, the symbol itself; it is the manner in which it is wielded and the occasion at which it is used. It is cheap politics to revive, warp and threaten with these symbols and those who do so are playing with fire and our collective futures in this country.
Eugene Terre’Blanche, prior to his death, was a forgotten joke of South African politics. He was a broken man whose dubious life’s work was in ruin, his vision in tatters and most of us were only too happy to keep it that way. His death, in the middle of the debate about singing songs about killing farmers, has made him a victim and a martyr. Good people who were rightly appalled at his politics are now far more appalled at his death. A man that should have died quietly on his farm, largely forgotten, has become the very symbol of the injustice that South African farmers endure on a daily basis. It’s exactly the kind of PR he would have loved but could never generate in life.
The powerful symbolism expressed by the manner of his death is embedded in the deep irony that he formed his organisation and fought to avoid precisely that outcome. Die “swart gevaar murdering us in our beds” was literally the symbol of fear that he used to gather his support. By doing exactly that his killers have turned him from crackpot to prophet, they proved him right and gave legitimacy to a man that could not have earned it by himself.
The ANC has taken great pains to assure everybody that it was simply a wage dispute gone wrong. That has no relevance. What has relevance here is that a white farmer and leader has been hacked and beaten to death by more than one person in a premeditated attack. He is now one of the thousands of farmers murdered in our country since 1994. Wage disputes are settled by negotiations, strikes and go-slows. Hatred, racial or otherwise, is vented with pangas and blunt objects. This was no ordinary wage dispute. It smacks of a hate crime in every respect.
It takes intense hatred to beat and hack a man to death. Even Eugene Terre’Blanche himself, although he tried hard and went to jail for his efforts, could not quite generate that level of premeditated racial hatred. His killers outdid him at his own game. They proved yet again that racism and hatred have no colour. Those who believe that somehow black people are immune might do well to revise their views.
I have to believe that South Africans will have the maturity to remain calm as they did following the Chris Hani assassination. The glaring difference today, however, is that we do not have leaders with the calming and reconciliatory nature and motives of Mandela. We have Zuma and Malema, self-serving power-mongering children both, and one of the root causes that there is no clear message going out there that taking revenge on farmers and white people is wrong. They invoke the struggle, singing songs of war and killing to their supporters and that is precisely what has manifested on the ground.
Zuma has finally had the good grace to come forward and renounce the emotive singing of struggle songs and asked for leaders to watch what they say. The announcement probably has everything to do with allaying international fears two months before the World Cup. Zuma screwed up by not reining in Malema earlier and this is damage control. That’s all. He was quite comfortable singing his own machine gun songs to get a rise out of the crowds.
Malema is still trying to learn all he can from Mugabe. With any luck, Zanu-PF will snap him up and he will stay where the damage has already been done and spare us from the same.
The time is fast approaching where the deep well of white guilt will dry up and the genuine desire of good white people to be part of a solution will dissolve. The hand of reconciliation is outstretched but the arm is getting tired. The chasm between races here is deepening and the outcome is becoming increasingly uncertain.
The responsibility for this dire situation lies squarely with the ANC now. They run the country, they forge the policy and they speak directly to the majority who are endlessly loyal to them. They have maintained a policy of racial polarisation when fair and legitimate alternative options are available. They could have abolished the concept of race here in South Africa but instead they leverage it and profit from it. They have incited when calming reconciliation was required. They have grossly squandered the resources of this country that should be uplifting the poor and are gorging themselves in a frenzy of self-enrichment. They are a vastly corrupt and inefficient government.
This is not the legacy of apartheid. This is ANC policy in 2010 and there is no excuse good enough to condone it any longer. Should South Africa tumble off the precipice, history will now judge the ANC as responsible. There is a point when you need to take responsibility for your own actions and the situation you find yourself it. For the ANC and its supporters, that time is now here.
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78 Responses to “Malema, Milosevic, Hitler and the ticking time bomb”
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Thanks Grant. What a great piece, it’s exactly how I feel. I’ve been waiting for someone to come up with a good written summary on all I have to say about the subject without having to waste more of my time on rhetoric and pointless discussions on forum walls.
You made some great points but one of the most important (and simple) was this:
“The time is fast approaching where the deep well of white guilt will dry up and the genuine desire of good white people to be part of a solution will dissolve. The hand of reconciliation is outstretched but the arm is getting tired. The chasm between races here is deepening and the outcome is becoming increasingly uncertain”.
No need to wonder where those “3000 extra” members the AWB got since the ET killing. Most white Afrikaners I know will never support the AWB. Most just want peace, respectable governance, financial stability and to be left alone to provide for their families, but just watching the news these last few weeks have even awoken a sense in myself that the rational stance I’ve always taken towards race relations and politics is lost as dust in the wind. More and more the cracks forming on the left and right are penetrating our existence and I hope I’ll never be forced to make a polarized choice one day.
Great article. What you’ve picked up on really nicely is the importance of context with songs like that. It is undeniably an important song for historical purposes, but the reasons for singing it are no longer the same. If it is sung now, it is certainly about violence, opening old wounds etc.
If singing is of such importance, work together to create new nation building songs, rather than relying on ones that incite violence. We have enough of that already.
This is completely outrageous. Firstly, those who sing this song and factually lets be correct, YOUR INTERPRETATION IS WRONG, do not physically go out to shoot boers. Also, NO MURDER was ever perpetrated on BOERS whilst singing this song! Now firstly, I doubt that you would be able to contextualise this song, understand its history or for a very simple matter, ever sing this song. By the way, you do not know any revolutionary song that was sung by the oppressed. Your grossly incompetent argument of linking Malema to Hitler or Milosovic is just hilarious and insulting to any sane person’s intelligence. Good Lord, the next thing you’ll be accusing Malema of cruxifying Jesus. Cmon, at least have some integrity and give us some balanced view albeit unsophicaticated. If that is too difficult, how about putting your vocal chords to the test by learning to sing a revolutionary song.
Black Man, your history of oppression and expression of that is history is now formally under attack. Never before has your intelligence been under attack as evidenced above. It suggests that your savagery against boers can be conjured up when singing a song. It suggests that you have no funtionality in making a decisions and that a mere song reduces you to zombie-like emptiness devoid of humanity or emotional intelligence. Now, I doubt that any criminal remembered to sing that song when killing a boer, but to insult blacks and equate them to a hitler is just something else!
Just after Mugabe ordered farm invasions and unleashed violence the way only people of Matebeleland had an idea he could do, the topic turned to what would be South Africa’s response. I surmised that Mugabe would seek legitimacy in the region by the Troskian method of spreading the “revolution”. Indeed there were attempted land grabs albeit on state land in SA. Having seen Mugabe’s capacity to prop up regimes, sponsorship of Kabila against Mobutu etc it was reasonable that Mbeki should be tactful in his approach. The rhetoric in Zimbabwe’s media spoke of South Africans ready to invade farms. Surely Mbeki knew of Mugabe’s capacity to utilise gullible and willing sections of the South African populace to destabilise the country should he be openly rebuked. It is telling that it was not in reviled Mbeki’s tenure that South Africa is closer to a Zimbabwe situation but in the affable Zuma’s tenure.
Whoever okayed Malema’s visit knowing as one Zimbabwean columnist put it, he could be relied upon to say something stupid is in breach of serious derelict of leadership duty. That he had to go and rubbish the judiciary in a foreign country in exactly the same words Mugabe used when the bench refused to legislate from the bench speaks volumes about the leadership SA has. Is the SA non-racial project still in existence or has Mugabe found the Manchurian candidate in Malema? Make no mistakes ZANU PF wants to bring SA down.
G Sykes - I can give you countless, but page 4 of the introduction in Dusko Doder and Louise Branson’s book “Milosevic: Portrait of a tyrant” is the juiciest I could find at short notice. Hope thats good enough.
Kitty Kat - Thanks for the angry analysis of my post. Take a chill pill. Been humming the song all day after watching it on the internet. Loved the tune at the rallies at Wits in the early 90’s and my brother has written a remix of Umshini Wami for the piano so, tickety tick, there is your other struggle song. Does Johnny Clegg’s Asimbonanga count? Can sing that for you too.
While I think the lyrics are now inflammatory under certain circumstances, I stated pretty clearly, on its own line in fact, that I think “Shoot the Boer” should not be banned precisely because the causal link between its singing and actual violence is tenuous at best and because it has a place in our history.
The focus here is not on the song but when and how and by whom it is being used and to what end.
I also stated that singing that song is part of a wider campaign and it only takes one or two people to feel supported and act on it for chaos to ensue. If you think that insults your own intelligence then you have not understood what I am saying.
By the bye “mshini wami” was used as a call to arms by those not only beating and killing foreigners but rebelling against the authority of the State Presidency as then vested in the incumbency of Thabo Mbeki. The so called xenophobic attacks can not be seen in only the light of South Africans against foreigners but also must be seen as led rebellion systematically illegitimsed by the current regime. It is one reason that perhaps led to Mbeki’s vacillation. A lame duck “illegitimate” President ordering soldiers against the “people” would not have done well for peace. Zuma’s dithering I cannot explain.
Go Grant! The nail has been squarely hit on the head.
@Kitty Kat
Do not let your subjective, knee jerk, emotional reaction cloud the fact that people can be swayed to inhuman actions if they are played the same message for long enough. History has many examples of these seemingly harmless messages that alienate and dehumanise a segment of society; with very predictable results.
An incredibly well written piece devoid of unsubstantiated bias and rhetoric. Thank you. I do however have one note; Chris Hani’s assassination was in fact avenged - I speak from experience. The attackers were members of the ANCYL. If the AWB can show calmness keep to their word, then all Mandela fought for has not yet been dissolved by Malema and his tyrannous rampages.
I have just watched a ‘political analyst’ on e-news saying that the murder is not the occasion of rising racial tension: the tension has been there all the time.
Unfortunately, that is the conventional wisdom SA has to hear all the time. I strongly agree with the article that the ANC’s conduct (like the analyst’s ‘analysis’ in his small way) is actually stoking racial tension.
But it is essential to understand that it takes a great deal more than demagoguery and ‘careless talk’ to promote the rise of people like Hitler and Milosevic and revolutions.
Common sense suggests there are many people in the ANC who not only deplore Julius Malema’s behaviour but dislike him and all he stands for.
The difficulty for them in tackling him is not ‘cowardness’ but the enormous risks involved in a split in the party if they mishandle it, plus the danger that they could actually make the situation worse by trying.
The way forward is not easy to see. But it is certain that moralising about the situation will not help. The ANC’s (and therefore SA’s) problems with Malema arise from the politics of monopoly power.
@ Kitty Kat, I find your absurd rantings offensive. Firstly, there is absolutely no doubt that during the struggle, ANC cadres did kill boers - and a lot of other people too - and this song was part of their conditioning.
The song is part of what creates a mindset of race hate - evidenced by the comment on Julius Malema’s Facebook site by a supporter who wanted to rape and kill white women.
Grant quite reasonably points out that Zuma and Malema are capitalising on this history of race hate rather than trying to build a future without it.
As to the allusion to Hitler and Milosovic, maybe that is ranging too far afield. We should look closer to home - how about Rwanda and Zimbabwe for a start?
I normally don’t agree with the articles you write but I share your conerns with this article. Violence is never the answer. Although I sympathize with Malema’s political objectives, I disagree with some of his tatics. Violence is never the anwer to solve a problem. The new South Africa must embrace black empowerment and accept white South Africans as Africans.
Todd Kidd, black American
new orleans
Grant what an amazing article. Well written and hits the nail on the head. Too many people are getting mixed up in the ripples, that the rock that is the ANC, has caused in our pond.
History IS going to hold the ANC accountable for their policies … I just hope they see the error of their ways before its too late :-/
“I can give you countless, but page 4 of the introduction in Dusko Doder and Louise Branson’s book “Milosevic: Portrait of a tyrant” is the juiciest I could find at short notice. Hope thats good enough.”
That is not enough,that is the stretching the true!
Please read the Milosevic speech : http://emperors-clothes.com/milo/milosaid.html
Without media coverage the sung would be sung to an audience of a few hundred, some of whom might mention it to a friend and that would be the end of that.
With media coverage the whole world gets to take a position and offer an opinion in seconds.
I’ve read the page, and there are two quotes, one of never being beaten again, and the other reads, “After six centuries, we are again waging struggle and confronting battles… These are not armed struggles, though that cannot yet be excluded.”
Let us remind ourselves of the context. In 1970, former Nazi collaborator/Young Muslims member/future Bosnian leader Alija Izetbegovic wrote the fanatical and dishonest Islamic Declaration (I’ve linked a 1990 copy), and violence against Serbs had been on the increase, including in Kosovo (Milosevic’s speech was made to Kosovar Serbs), where most of the farmers and farm workers at the time were still Serbs (not anymore, just like in much of Bosnia - in both cases, the Slavic Orthodox - or Serbian - former farmers still have their Ottoman land titles - just like the Palestinians, incidentally).
The actual histories of the Bosnian Islamist and Kosovar Albanian movements are available, as are the results of their struggles - poverty far worse than under Serbian rule, and the current rule can accurately be described as the rule of the ‘Islamist’ heroin lords.
I’ll also argue that at its purest level, the “Kill the Boer, kill the farmer!” chant was directed at a system, an inhuman and unjust mode of production; it wasn’t necessarily personal or person-specific. Unfortunately systems and modes of production are made up of specific people in specific relations. Therefore, when taken literally, real, specific people die. This must not be misconstrued to mean that I justify or condone murder and/ or crime though; and I conclude that the “Kill the Boer, kill the farmer!” chant is outdated and has outlived its meaning in the post-1994 new Rainbow Nation South Africa. The real enemy of South Africa today is multi-dimensional and include, amongst other things, poor service delivery. We should now perhaps say, “Kill a poor service delivery, fire a councillor!”
Kitty Kat, you seem like an intellectual. I’m just sorry to see that you failed to use your intellect when reading the article. While you gave us a huge rant on how the song is being attacked, it seems you ranted on the wrong post. In the whole article above it is but one point. There is so much else being said. Please read it again and understand what is being said.
Another thing - Hitler merely acknowledged the suffering of Germans under the Versailles treaty obligations - it was not through this that his killings worked - Hitler said that one should distinguish the emotional antisemitism of the pogrom from ‘rational’ (my quotes) antisemitism, which is based in science and experience, as shown in much detail in the first two volumes of ‘Destruction of the European Jews’. The German bureaucracy held many conferences to solve all manner of bottlenecks (the Nazi bureaucrats were generally too corrupt for the enterprise, so the destruction process relied mainly on older, more competent German bureaucrats) such as legal definitions, working out rail schedules, including negotiating with the military for space on trains, etc., and on engineering expertise, e.g. for improvements on Walter Rauf’s design - will the gassing operation put too much force on the front axle of the truck? No, as the victims will rush to the back door to escape, so we don’t have to worry about overloading the front axle…)
With Croatia, there are two other factors which enabled the war, namely the fascist leadership of Croatia (they named themselves the Ustasi, and largely participated in later ethnic cleansing operations against Orthodox Slavs), and the question of what would have been legitimate borders (thus e.g. the bloodletting and the ethnic cleansing of more than a million Orthodox Bosnians out of their former homes in the north-west of Bosnia at the hands of Croatian forces).
Extremely well said. I would only say that the link to Hitler and Milosevic is a bit strained. But your explanation of the importance of context and the emotional power of rhetoric is absolutely true. It does not mean that black people are mindless zombies able to be easily manipulated - it’s a statement of human nature that when emotions are already running high (as they are today in SA due to overwhelming poverty, inequality, mistreatment, poor service delivery, etc. - not to mention understandable historical anger) fanning the flames with calculated racially dividing songs cannot possibly help. Whether it is a direct cause of farmers being killed doesn’t matter - there’s no question that it increases anger towards “the other” and further divides the country. That’s obviously what some people want, and so be it; but let’s not kid ourselves that it’s a harmless, well-intentioned trip down memory lane.
Excellent article. Wish there was more of this kind of reasoned analysis around. The level of national discourse at present is a disgrace. Which is why Malema thrives.
You’re way off base buddy! This article is an empty useless drivel since ET’s unfortunate grisly death will be actually be forgotten very quickly!
Propagating your fear based politics by juxtaposing and comparing Hitler with Malema is pretty cowardly and shortsighted.
Cowardly, because fear based politics avoids the real problems that Malema speaks about. Yes, he is young and somewhat naive in expressing himself and sometimes comes across as a motor mouth, but he still remains a voice for the voiceless masses that continue to struggle under grinding poverty almost 2 DECADES after liberation. Remember who controls the economy.
Shortsighted, because you and your ilk are creating Zimbabwe right here in SA by constantly ignoring the pressing issue of land reparations almost 2 DECADES after liberation. Remember who are still the majority landowners.
It is interesting how racist whites still are, and how terrified they are that their crimes will come back to haunt them.
Of course the appeal to Hitler and Mugabe and Milosevic shows how Walliser is incapable of seeing issues from a South African perspective, just as he cannot comprehend that black people might be a little upset that sixteen years after liberation the whites are getting richer and the blacks poorer.
Fundamentally, this is a white racist diatribe against blacks, masquerading, as white racism usually does, as liberalism and a defence of human rights (read: privilege), and as such rather nauseating. Rather like Shapiro’s little cartoon; the point is how to spin matters in the service of the white elite, rather than trying to analyse the actual issue of well-justified black resentment.
An intelligent analysis would be desirable; however, in the contemporary South African media, dominated by the desire to please the least attractive and most corrupt elements of the white community, where is that to come from?
You guys just cant stop yourselves,can you?I mean,Malema this,Malema that.When are you going to give us REAL news?Your obsession with Juju_babe is unhealthy,at best…and indecent.
You gotta accept,though..the boy is LARGER than life.When he sneezes,the whole of SA catches cold…lately,Zimbabwe too.
Wow, that is so well put. I think your views are fair and you present a strong case which is well worded.
Something I considered and would enjoy your view on this: Could the ANC staying it’s hand on Malema not be something strategic, namely, by inciting the old wounds and hatred upon the people, they will be distracted from thinking about failed service delivery and empty promises of the government, and will return to the original reasons that they voted ANC in the first place? This could ensure their staying in power for the forseeable future.The victim here, is our freedom, the freedom of every South African to live as equal, something now that most of us aspire to, regardless of our background, culture or heritage. South Africa must always be bigger that one party’s struggle, bigger than one person’s greed, bigger than one leader’s rhetoric.
The problem is how does one deal with Malema? Any opposition is interpreted as racist counter action… Where is the voice of reason? Where is the Winston Churchill rising up and saying “don’t trust this man”… Someone who the people of South Africa can look up to as an alternative, a modern day Mandela, a voice to quell the tide of anger, hatred and resentment.
Thanks again for a great piece… Now, let’s think of answers..
@Grant, your rhetoric is nothing but ‘fear politics’. The fact that you equate the singing of a song, to mass murderers proves my point. But lets use some emotional intelligence here noting that despite all the back slapping by your colleagues they offer no other view but agreement on a particular narrow agenda. When we as blacks sing songs, recite poems, tell folklores, do drawings or engage around our ANY past experiences, we do not do this to engage in criminal acts. Also, when we attend political meetings and sing struggle songs we do not do this to go out and kill anybody. This is a fact and I beg you to offer me one particular incidence where this has happened. Our memory of our historic past is a particular memory which is DIFFERENT to your memory. Now this history is a history of over 350yrs and it is quite disingenuous to suggest that this memory must be conjured or remembered in certain ‘contexts’ only. That is a mindless argument as it suggests that someone somewhere has elevated themselves to referee our ‘engagement’ around our past. The point is that we want to camouflage our discussions around race. We seem to have this unending ability to want to point fingers and use stupid examples of mass murderers to engage around OUR(SA) attitudes towards the politics of race.
We need to note that the people who are the audience of Malema are also the ones that vote ANC even though the ANC will not deliver on their promises. A promise we make is a promise we break is the ANC credo. Its hopeless to look at all the underlying factors that inteligent people may see or find in these songs. The fact is that they promote revolution when we no longer need a revolution. Malema keeps speaking of anti revolution when in fact we should all be anti revolution and pro nation building. For a party that has nothing to offer the ANC can only offer more revolution as a way to stay in power. What the ANC says and what the Constitution says and what the goals of Mandela were are no part of the 2010 ANC. Racialism is now worse than it ever was and violence has become the order of the day. Sadly South Africa is being destroyed as the revolution continues. The ANC always supports its criminals and says nothoing when bad things are done. Malema is the president of South Africa in many peoples minds. Silence as with Mbeki and his quite dipolmacy is a show of support for the wrongs that are committed. When will they wake up? We cannot even trust the police anymore!!!
Trust Kitty Kat aka Kate Mat to go against the norm. Then again she is a paid memeber of the ANC woman’s league. She has to defend them so really her opinion would never be unbiased and is best ignored.
Very good article with which most South Africans would agree .
As a black South African, this is exactly what I have been saying all along! Make no mistake, people used to think Hitler was a fool that should not be taken seriously, until it was too late. Our collective future is now at great risk beacuse of a fool who hardly has a matric! Sadly, Zuma is too weak to even reprimand him! God help us all. To think that Malema sits in ANC meetings is unbelievable. You need only read what he said in Zim to see how embarrasingly stupid he is. Those who keep his company are surely no better, as can be witnessed by the trajectory his character has taken. What happened to the African practice of guiding and reprimanding the young ones? Madiba’s dream of a prosperous nation, at peace with itself is slowly being turned into a nightmare by fools who masquerade as leaders. Those who voted for them deserve what they chose! Live with the consequences of your choices! The ANC has been so preoccupied with protecting Malema and fighting their own internal battles, you would have to be a stupid fool to think that they are thinking about how to address the plight of the poverty sticken in our country. When once respected elders in the ANC are so scared to reprimand a fool of 29 years of age, you must be very afraid. This is indeed not the ANC of the Mandelas and the Tambos!
Excellent article Grant. Objective and enlightening.
On the subject of Hitler, there is an interesting chapter in his book, “Mein Kampf” called Propaganda. In it he discusses the methods to be applied in ones rise to power. He states that the appeal should be directed to the broad masses. For it is they that will give you the votes and who will not question your policies. Not the inteligensia who will question you statements and ideology.
There are striking similarities in Malema’s approach.
On the serious side, as an Afrikaner, who studied at Potch University, where ET and his idiots roved in the 80’s, I developed and still hold a strong dislike for the AWB and ET, even after his death. Sadly, being a plaas seun (kitty kat will not understand that) who, on one sunny day discovered his neighbours, 76 and 73 beaten to death with a spade by young black men, the revolutionary ranting of one Julius Malema wears very thin. Singing the song, whether it is revolutionary or not, is not part of reconciliation. But then, the minority, as the millions suffering in the Serbian / Croatian war can verify, never taste justice, just sorrow. Malema will become President and drive a bullet proof Range Rover. Kitty will become Minister of Welfare. Sela
Interesting, that after almost two decades, during which the anc has ruled, there are still citizens of this country that continue to blame the whites for all their ills.
Bee and the various empowerment programmes put into place by the anc, has led to whites having to empower themselves, and they did this by starting businesses, creating work, creating wealth for themselves, the statistics bear this out, go look for yourself.
Whites are not being cuddled by the current regime, they are out in the cold. unlike blacks, who are the chosen of the current regime, cosseted, and given the best jobs, at best pay, does anyone wonder why whites are the economic leaders of this country?
now you come along and whine about songs, and nationalistic rhetoric, about this politician and that political party…
but what you fail to see is the deadly threat that such blindness holds, as it only takes one person to kill another, to start a civil war, and then where does your song get you? does your song comfort you when your family is dead? does it fill your hungry stomach when all the farmers are dead and there is no food? does your song give you money when all the companies are closed and there are no jobs? does it give you a house? clothes? what purpose does a song that incites hatred and divisiveness serve except to create pain and suffering?
“…The time is fast approaching where the deep well of white guilt will dry up and the genuine desire of good white people to be part of a solution will dissolve. The hand of reconciliation is outstretched but the arm is getting tired. The chasm between races here is deepening and the outcome is becoming increasingly uncertain.”
…damn ….what arrogance!…However respectfully assuming that you truly believe what you’ve written, allow me to share with you that there is a “deep well” of black anger and disemboweled, almost hollow despair gnawing at the very foundations of Blacks’ magnanimity and innate sense of ubuntu due to the cocky and often times haughty disregard that large sections of the SA white citizens have towards Blacks’ god-given and constitutionally guaranteed claims for human dignity and economic parity.
Juluis may be tapping into this well of discontent, but merely wishing it away and claiming glibly as you do that……ALL WE NEED (IS) TO SETTLE THE PAST AND MOVE FORWARD” is simplistic, mischievous and somewhat dishonest.
Considering that engineers are generally known for convoluted and muddled mambo-jumbo and being an oke from the East Rand, nogal; your article otherwise was articulate and quite thought-provoking especially the notion of having a CD compiled or having some museum for struggle songs. This suggestion may could be a plausible and palatable option to straddle the divide between acknowledging the past and being sensitive to the concerns raised by a white minority interest grouping…
This is probably the best article ever posted on Thoughtleader. Well done Grant.
The responses from Kitty Kat, The Creator and Dave Harris have quite the opposite effect than they intended. Their reasoning and arguments are so facile that they actually add broad contextual credibilty to Grants comments
You see Grant, this fooling of yourselves that you know everything and intellectuals, is exactly what got the likes of ET killed. Stupid superiority complexes that pushes the idea that blacks cannot think propoerly but needs your “intelectual analysis” for them to see between wrong and right. Get down from your high horse and smell the coffee. Most black people see someone that is prepared to stand up for injustices that blacks live with since the so called freedom in Malema, this includes very educated blacks too. No amount of scaring us about him is going to help you and your kind (media) we can see beyond you.
Is it best that whites keep all the wealth whiles we fear of the future Hilter, no. Your fear tactics (swaar gevaar) has shown that it altimately fails, so best you stop it. Before Malema questioned about white wealth (nationalisation) you (the media) was happy with the status quo, it was all nice and fun in the rainbow nation. Deal with the real problems don’t write to keep whites happy that you are scaring us about some past dectators, IT DOES AND WILL NOT WORK.
Thanks Grant - I really enjoyed your article. I felt it was fair and well balanced - your readers obviously agree with you, except those with a specific agenda!!
People with insecurities often play the blame game… taking responsibility is something they rarely do. History will judge the ANC, they have made quite a record for themselves (ask any auditor)…
It’s a pity the SA population have not matured to a democracy where accountability and responsibility are taken seriously.
This article is nothing but rubish as expected from jounalists like yourself. Firstly, it should be noted that it was one journalist that interpreted the song and published it when the President of the ANCYL was just singing yet another revolutionary song of the struggle of ANC, which Julius was not wrong of doing so.
It’s suprising to realise that the same people that are deviding our country (journalists/media) are the same people we tend to only listen to and this is a great danger to our country and will further devide us till it gets to the point where we have a civil war.
Comparing Julius to Hitler and milosevic is like you said dissrespect to both of them especially the President. Grant I think you should relook your facts and come up with a proper discusion that will not be devicive to the nation like all you journalists are currently doing. The ANC government has done wonders to bring the nation where it is and we should not jeoperdise that.
The only link you didn’t make obvious, that I feel is pertinent: in times of deep recession, many are unemployed and are only too happy to join an army of some sort, as happened in Hitler’s Germany, happened in Mugabe’s Zim and could well happen here. There is also no cheaper way of cutting unemployment; those who are killed don’t draw salaries for long…unemployed black South Africans could easily be persuaded at this time!
The arms deal funds could have bought many farms in this country. But your friends found bribes easier than farming the land and waiting for profits. Thus, land shortage a nondebate in south africa.
@ Kitty Kat
Malema is mugabe is stalin is trotsky is marx is hitler is idi is castro is geuvara is pathetic
To all of those above who have focused on the Serbian angle only - My inclusion of Milosevic and Hitler in the above was not to line up a row of tyrants. Each man was both a product of his situation and his character. In both cases, I feel that there was a gross mismatch in what the nation needed and the man they received to lead them.
Hitler arrived when Germany needed a leader to restore pride. They could have landed a Mandela but they landed a Hitler and history tells us the rest.
Serbia too needed a calm head in the 1990’s. Yugoslavia was fracturing and breaking up and instead of managing the process peacefully, Milosevic used it as a springboard for his career. He chose to use nationalism as a rallying point to bring his people together. In so doing he and other Yugoslav leaders that took the same approach forged ethnic and religious lines in the process and the killing began. They too needed reconciliatory leaders with a bigger vision.
Malema is not Hitler nor is he Milosevic BUT he is using the very same methods that those men used to come to power. He is dividing the country along racial lines and raising the temperature. Those on his side love him for it and those on the other side hate him. Love him or hate him, he is undoing the hard work of the last 16 years and we are sliding backwards into unstable uncertainty.
@Kitty Kat. That song is old and boring. Can we (all south africans) please sing: Kill the tenderpreneurs, Kill the corruption. Imagine songs like that on radio and tv, and in service delivery protests. We can create a memorable history far more valuable than what your song is doing right now.
A well-meaning article, Mr Walliser. Unfortunately it flies in the face of history and logic. The sub-Saharan African model adheres to the following steps and South Africa is showing itself to be no exception.
Step 1: alienate and drive the white population from the territory (this is where SA is at and has been beavering away at this for some years now);
Step 2: destroy all infrastructure and, in fact, any reminders of the past even if these are essential to the welfare of the nation (we have already made some considerable headway in this area; Zim and the DRC are the continents’s exponents at this stage, and some of SA’s leaders are showing strong signs of emulating);
Step 3: commence a civil war followed by more civil wars interrupted by occasional and short truces. These conflicts are usually based along tribal lines;
Step 4: when the nation has completely imploded, blame it on the former colonialists but at the same time accept all forms of aid which are then monopolised by the regime in power at the time and used to oppress the remainder of the country. The largest item on the national budget of these states is armament.
Et voila, it’s quite simple really.
And don’t call me a doomsayer. I have personally lived through that and I can tell you that that is the way your dear South Africa will go.
Great article. I, however, have seen very little evidence over the past 15 years that supports your contentions that there is “… genuine desire of … white people to be part of a solution” or that there really is any meaningful “hand of reconciliation … outstretched”
Suberb article and collection of thoughts and ideas, it will go over the head of most of this sites bloggers.
To come down to simple things, following is an easy (very inadequate) analogy which i hope most people will get:
if one is walking through thick bush and is bitten by a deadly poisonous snake you have 3 options:
- chase after it crashing through the bush with righous anger trying to kill it.
- stand there wailing loudly about the unfairness of it all
- get as fast as possible to medical assistance.
Obviously the 3rd option is the wisest.
So having been badly bitten by apartheid SA needs very much to get medical help to SAVE the body and then BUILD it up. We (SA) are ± half way there but our now our helpers are insisting that we rush back to the bush and root our all the snakes and get rid of them.
There are two problems here, one our body (SA) has not recovered enough to go Bundu bashing and two this latter excercise will destroy the bush (SA environment) plus all the snakes who after all do have uses ie keeping the rat population in check and many more that Mother Nature will be better than me at expressing.
So do we focus on getting the victum (SA) better or destroying the environment forever that caused the problem?
“The focus here is not on the song but when and how and by whom it is being used and to what end.” Grant
Did you stop to think, that he uses this song to manipulate the public, in that they get into this frenzy of focusing on race issues. Rather than his continued lavish lifestyle sponsored by government tenders. PEOPLE WAKE UP. He intentionally provokes the races so that their focus is not on what is really important. He is playing a sick game, which is so unfortunate, because this could lead to the demise of our country. Thus potentially making us a statistic of a failed state.
White pple(Farmers) have to make an effort to reconcialion and stop their naked aggression towards farm workers or it will mean the struggle continues and Malema will not stop singing the song.They have to be part of the solution by forming Orania and Kleinfontein is not part of the solution.
There was a long standing desire on the German right for a Hitler, not throughout the whole of Germany, where the communists saw him and the Nazis for what they were, an abomination (without turning out any better themselves). But there was no appetite at all for ‘a Mandela’ and no possibility for such a leader then, an idea that would have struck all sides as absurd. ‘Democracy’ and all it meant was what had ruined Germany - the Weimar Republic.
The ingredients of revolution, as I say, are many and complex and do not boil down to being all taken in by ‘a demagogue’. Is SA really ripe for revolution at this time? Is the ANC a party of revolution or a party of the status quo? Can it settle its own internal divisions when the danger for itself as well as SA is the ANC’s monopoly of power and the lack of agency in the electorate.
I agree the ANC cannot avoid responsibility for what happens, but our problems are not just one of good ‘leadership’.
One day the party will have to decide what it stands for.
Great article Grant. History is so often the best by unused way to learn before a mistake is made. Invoke almost any despot’s name and you’ll see how a policy of ‘divide’ preceded ‘conquer’.
@The Creator: I don’t know so much, hey. You can’t just call someone who disagrees with you a racist. It destroys any semblance of debate in a fiery ball of supercillious intolerance. How many times have I criticised a man shades darker than I, only to be called a racist. What you’re basically saying to us Creator, is that white’s are racists if they are racist. Whites are racist if they are critical of blacks. Whites are racist if they use western history as a reference point. Whites are racist if they are liberal. Whites are racist if they are conservative Afrikaaners. In your flawed, bitter and angry summation of whites… are any of us not racist? That seems a little racist.
all the rhetoric in the world cannot change that our poverty pockets, though not quite Auschwitz, exist and are awful. we see them at every glue-sniffing corner, in every bus-shelter hotel, in every 8km walk to rural school, etc. although we work hard, try our best, and even make small differences regularly and incrementally, not a single one of us knows as yet how to bring about wonderful, swift, radical transformation to national social and economic well-being.
no, not a single one of us knows.
least of all jm.
for though he has agreed to task himself with a glorious vision, he is possibly and probably not the individual who has within him what is needed to bring about that vision. how else does one explain that he creates fictitious platforms to wage imaginary battles, rebels against authority figures, blames those who have found inner value or a space to contribute, surrounds himself with opportunistic people who can bolster him out of his suppressed feelings of inadequacy….
indeed, it is enough that jm must face himself, let him be in peace, we wish him well.
Before we talk of becoming Schindler’s and bringing in Allied forces, let us take responsibility for our decision.
Let us respecify our leadership need for not only political brilliance, but also technical know-how, interpersonal skills, and impeccable integrity.
Perhaps it’s time we stopped our title worshipping habits and started giving space, credit and followership to those who truly lead us.
One of my daughters in law is Croatian and is a wonderful lady. However she was caught up in the thick of that Serb/Croatian war for ±3 years and dislikes Serbs, pity it is the one flaw in an otherwise great person, that is what wars/revolutions cause in the long term.
You might have mentioned that a Serbian nationalist sparked the 1st world war and the world still has not learend that revolutionary killings/hate does not solve problems, it enlarges them
Brent - pity about that, I have spent a lot of time in Croatia and Serbia and they are both great people and, ironically, virtually identical in most respects from looks through to language, character to outlook on life. The history of those two countries is more turbulent than ours. Instead of whining about how unfair it was to be subjugated by the Turks for 500 years, they are busy building developed European countries and in a few short decades will be great places to live again.
If your daughter-in-law needs some balance, however, you can remind her that Croatia fought with the Nazi’s and put Serbs into concentration cams in WW2. There is no ‘good’ country and no good guy in war. It is senseless but often unavoidable due to our tribal nature as a species. The leaders that exploit that and cause war for selfish gain are evil beyond all definition.
Please tell me what percentage of (white commercial) farmers display “naked agression” as you put it, towards their farmworkers?
Is it maybe 5%?
1%?
0.1%?
I’m quite sure its not more than a tiny percentage.
If SA white commercial farmers are such bad guys, why do African countries like Congo, Nigeria etc fall over their feet offering them very favourable terms, including government subsidies, to set up farm in those countries?
The song “Kill the Boer” may be racist, but Umshini Wam is not. I have figured out why Zuma wants his machine gun: It is to shoot leopards for his next wedding!
Oldfox has got it right! Not only that, who’s
forcing farmworkers to work on farms anyway? If they’re so ill-treated and abused, why don’t they go and get themselves some other job? or educate themselves? or become self-reliant?
Got to agree that this is one of the best articles I have ever read on TL.
@The Creator: you chose the wrong name pal, you sound more like The Destroyer.
So Kitty Kat is a member of the ANCWL. Bwaahahahaha! They are even more useless than the ANCYL. Every time I see those big mamas in their Black, Green and Yellow uniforms, I really gotta laugh. Singing and ululating is the extent of their intellectual and political input.
To label Eugene Terre’Blanche as a “forgotten joke of South African politics” is an suspicious attempt to downplay the seriousness of his racist character which was aptly demonstrated in the past and which he continued to exhibit till death. His case is a particular case of a man who never respected the black man up to the point of not only employing a 15 year old but also failing to pay him. To water it down as a general racial feeling against whites is to miss the ball. I’m in no doubt that blacks who worked for him were the fore front receivers of his racial venom. There are many more like him out there. We all witnessed them soon after the death of Eugene. So this a case of a man who invited trouble all his life time…..it’s a pit he was allowed to go thus far! What must be appreciated is that as long as we have those isolated racist attitudes in our midst, those directly affected will take matters in their own hands.
White South Africa thinks very low about their black counterparts. Some comments are abit too derogatory and illustrate continued racial perceptions of intellectual superiority on the parts of us whites. White-on-black hatred is alive and well in post-democratic SA. White South Africans can’t but disagree with the views of black people without painting him in apic terms, wounding his sense of self unjustly. Black man you are on your own (Steve Biko). Good luck.
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The human brain is made of atoms. Atoms consist primarily of empty space. It is fair to say, therefore, that my head is basically empty. That will please those of you who disagree with what I say until it dawns on you that your head is empty too.
So, based on the undeniable fact that our heads are fundamentally comprised of emptiness, is anything we think or say of any real value?
Probably not.
Remember that next time you are fuming at some point of view contrary to your own.
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