When white South African Brandon Huntley was granted asylum in Canada after he claimed he was the victim of racist violence, many of us — Richmark Sentinel included — went pear-shaped and labelled the board who had approved it a bunch of morons who never took the time or trouble to investigate the reality of the situation.
South Africa, after all, does not condone racism in any form and had this panel bothered to check their facts they would have noticed that Huntley was one of five million whites, rather than some sort of isolated survivor from the switch from apartheid to a multiracial democracy.
The Canadian government then slammed the ruling as perverse, irrational and based on a “jaundiced assessment” of South Africa.
This however is all going to come under intense scrutiny following the stabbing of two white expatriates, now living in Canada, who were hiking in Fernkloof Nature Reserve near Hermanus.
Janet and Martin Stern were stabbed in the back, pushed to the ground — where Martin was hit in the face with a rock — robbed and then bound. They managed to break free after their assailants had left and summoned help from the Joubert family from Bloemfontein. They were hospitalised and fortunately have been released.
If you Google this story, with reference to Canada, you will find that all their newspapers have covered it and will no doubt be following it up with the Sterns upon their return home. Questions will probably be asked about the so-called “jaundiced assessment” of South Africa by the board — whether in fact it was not accurate after all.
The fact that nowhere (correct me if I’m wrong) does it appear what race the attackers were, is not going to be noticed in the clamour to regard South Africa as a no-white zone.
The Canadians are going to spin this over and over and form the opinion that South Africa is not the place to go if you are white. Their government might tell them of the reality — the South African tourism board might paint a vastly different picture, but each time we send home body bags and victims of extreme violence — the damage done to South Africa’s reputation is enormous.
Canada is by no means unique, with examples from many countries around the world.
Worse, South Africa is also not a country for black foreigners either, as the horrendous violence of xenophobia demonstrated.
Countries who risked enormous backlash from the apartheid regime in order to liberate black South Africans watched in horror as their citizens were attacked and killed, driven into sanctuaries and were subjected to verbal abuse.
It was an absolute disgrace and a kick in the teeth for South Africa’s African friends.
Recently we were even treated to claims of a new threat in the form of the “yellow peril” which makes one shudder at the thinking that has to be going on behind that one.
The answer to this national disgrace is not to tell the police to shoot anything that moves, as an innocent three-year-old boy found out recently. It lies in a credible criminal justice system underpinned by politicians who walk the talk.
A good example of this is Kader Asmal in his quest to find justice over Judge John Hlophe. Give the man a medal and pin his picture up in Parliament — there is a role model for the government to follow.
South Africans need to think long and hard about this culture of violence and intolerance so that some day they can laugh off the claims of the Brandon Huntley’s of this world. That day is unfortunately still some way off.
Merry Christmas.
Huntley’s claim — and the Canadian board’s acceptance — are perfectly correct and quite legitimate. Even if it hurts South African feelings to be judged so poorly. The time has come to face the facts.
Spot on. The issue is not that the rest of the world is overreacting, but the incredible violence that South Africans are so accustomed to such that they think the rest of the world has gone mad. Their world is no different to anywhere else or tourists are not in any more danger than anyone else. Well that is a comfort.
I have a question. Your publication, you state, also claimed that the Huntley decision was moronic. Do you know feel otherwise (as your conclusion seems to be that South Africa is a culture that is particularly intolerant and violent making a case for Huntley plausible?)
Great, perceptive article, Traps; but I have no doubt that as soon as the holiday scraps have been polished off you will come under the usual jaundiced attacks for daring to ‘criticize the hopeful rainbow state’. I hope people will re-read your article carefully before launching into pitbull attacks as I have seen so often in these pages.
I’m glad this sad piece of news will be spread across the world. It will certainly help to put pressure of this inept, useless government of ours. If you live in lah-lah land, be prepared to die also i lah-lah land. Waky, waky!
Regardless of how many whites still reside in South Africa, Brandon Huntley’s claims are legitimate. South Africa is dangerous for anyone, regardless of skin colour – but one can’t deny that whites are especially targeted. They are “persona non grata” now – even more so than black foreigners. That’s just telling it like it is.
Hang on, this is going to far. For one who care is Canada gets it wrong? I mean once again, an African country has to suffer under the prejudice of a ‘european’ country. Goodness gracious this prejudice and downright marginalisation by the north has been there since time immemorial. Secondly, it is not as if the whole ‘black’ section of the population condones downright criminal behaviour. In fact, how many foreigners are attacked daily on the streets in London,New York etc etc without us pointing a finger at prejudice. What you are trying to do here is selling out this nation on the basis of a criminal act. Then you follow to say that because SA’s as whole condones this it therefore gives credibility to Huntley or the Canadian’s gross misrepresentation! That is how ridiculous your argument is. For a cheek you then throw in some comment from Asmal et al just to make this idiotic claim seem real. Cmon now, isolate your argument on its basis and then make the arguments based on the merits and demerits. Its like apples and oranges to make a pumpkin. What a complete sell-out! I am so sick and tired of “patriotic” SA’ns who are so hell bent on misrepresenting this country!
I doubt that the Canadian government will be making a fuss about this. What political advantage would they get from it?
As to the horrifying fact that tourists as well as other people are victims of violence in South Africa — well, cry me a river. Perhaps we need a special Tourist Police to protect the tourists against us.
But actually, improving “security” in the places where rich, white people go doesn’t actually reduce the crime rate. (The DA’s attempts to do that in Cape Town proved unsuccessful.) Better to deal with crime more effectively across the board, which has been happening over the last decade, but it’s plainly a long haul.
Oh — interesting how a post like this brings the racists out in such force.
Actually South Africans in order not to loose face
have a culture of sweeping dirty laundry under the
carpet or pretend it does not exist.
The people who have been rubbished in south africa
whilst fellow south africans pretended they did
not exist have been the south african born chinese people.
I’ll deny that whites are specifically targeted, for being white. Huntley’s claims were ridiculous then and they’re still so now. Huntley failed to even prove he was ever the victim of a crime. Any scars he may have could have come from anything, including Huntley himself initiating attacks on black people.
I don’t know whether South Africa is more dangerous for tourists than the many other places they visit. We South Africans like to assume so. They’re clearly not being violently attacked in large numbers. I’m glad to say that I have already noted comments from Canadians about the common occurence of violent assaults in parts of Canada. Not to mention their appalling rape statistics; not at South Africa’s level, true, but phenomenally high considering Canada’s supposedly all-civilised nature. Same goes for Australia – lots of burglaries, lots of rape, but they do have few murders.
If I were to view the UK through their negative news I’d think they had a knifing on every street corner; teenagers murdering each other by the dozen daily. And, I’m sure I’ll be told this is just pure luck, some of friends have only ever been subjected to violent robberies on the streets of UK cities; never even been mugged in South Africa.
I’m not surprised by the violence in South Africa. It will take a long time to undo the damage. Pioneers are the ones who will stay to rebuild.
Traps,
It would not be a far-fetched idea (or would it?) to suggest that some pale-skinned South Africans are well behind these attacks on pale-skinned foreign nationals – just to drive the point home that by constantly visiting South Africa [against the backdrop of pervasive white whingeing in this country], these pale-skinned foreign nationals unwittingly serve to debunk the myth and delegitimate the false claim that South Africa is a no-go area for those with pale hues.
This is the angle that the SAPS need to investigate.
I bet there are those pale-skinned “professional whingers” in this country who are already celebrating the attack on the reported Canadian couple (which by no means is the only attack that many South Africans of different hues have endured, much to the convenient ignorance of these professional whingers).
Merry Xmas to you and your fellow pale-skinned whingers, Traps!
Has there been any official reply by the government of SA? Guess what, they don’t care!
we never hear report of attacks on blacks bcos the life of a black person is worthless in the eyesof the SA media. That is why you can feed a black person to the lions and you’ll be back in streets/farm within a year or two. Black are vicrims of crime more than any other group….
Speaking as someone with four stab wounds in my back which were inflicted just over a month ago, I have to say that there seems to be a false distinction being made.
I was stabbed because I am “white”. Of that I have no doubt because, when I told the attackers I had no money, one said “You whites all have money”. So was I stabbed for money or because of racial prejudice?
Mr. Trapido, I have reviewed your blogs and concluded that you are trying to accommodate non-racialism within your support for an inherently racist structure. I don’t see how you do it without a measure of “doublethink”. I do not see the difference between African nationalism and Afrikaner nationalism.
The FACT of the matter is that the attackers were black. We do not know this for a fact because this fact has not been reported, but we know this to be the fact.
I dont think so. I know that it was PRAWNS.
No, no, let’s be all macho and say “South Africa is not for sissies” and “whingers can leave” as we down a beer for each murdered friend and relative.
Mr Trapido: “The Canadians are going to spin this over and over and form the opinion that South Africa is not the place to go if you are white.” I’m not so sure about that. By the post Christmas season it will be Old Hat, unless Mr Stern chooses to make a big deal about it. My sense is that his discretion will win out and he will likely be silent, as he clearly was when he delicately chose not to mention the racial identity of the assailants. The trashy tabloids will be on to something else, and maybe, just maybe, some serious radio show, As It Happens, or The Current on CBC might.
What will be more important is how SA reacts to this.
I sincerely feel that South Africa has become a cesspool of criminal activity. More so, when our almost non-existant borders were thrown open to all kinds of criminals from across the world.
But I have mention no uncertain terms that crime is definantely not only directed at whites. Whites being a small minority in this country, would statisticly have the least chance of being a victim of crime. Keeping in mind that whites generally are better protected in their areas, by the police and private security. They also do not frequent high crime areas.
The question remains whether whites, feel that they should be better protected from crime than the ‘great unwashed’ masses
This makes you wonder whether they still think they are superior than others, and should thus have special priviledges.
Many countries in the world suffer from crime, but it seems over here, even that is turned into a race issue. Farm murders are described as racist killings, yet even non-white farmers in remote areas across the globe, suffer the same fate.
It makes me want to ‘chuck-up’
Many thanks NZS and a Merry Christmas and Healthy, Happy New Year to everyone.
If the Canadians were going to ‘spin’ over this, shouldn’t they be doing so already? A simple google for ‘ “brandon huntley” “martin stern” ‘ throws up 42 results – your own Richmark article there and on thoughtleader, a couple of drivel-blogs, a report from IOL and results from a couple of other SA websites. Hardly image-shattering diplomacy-threatening coverage. A google for ‘ “canadians attacked” “south africa” ‘ produces a much more promising 9920 results – but then that suggests no-one is drawing the Huntley connection (apart from you).
Hush! If you say nothing, perhaps no-one will notice!
Why does NZS get a “thank you” for such a dumb-ass conspirational comment?
“South Africa, after all, does not condone racism in any form”
Kind of like the Vatican does not condone pederasty.
Dear Vince
I think the ‘thank you’ was the right response – when someone makes a statement of the kind ‘the world is flat and the moon is made of green cheese’, there is not much one can do except laugh or say thanks with a smile.
I’ve lived in Canada for several years now and I can assure this blog that Canadians won’t spin over this incessantly. Firstly, they have better things to do with their time that worry about an African country that’s merely experiencing an unravelling its propped-up artificial European standards and correcting back to the typical African model. The world accepts this, incidentally…isn’t it about time SA’s do ? Secondly, Canadians aren’t given to major finger pointing and judgemental positions. That would be more like the US, if anybody.
Vince and Mark Whatever,
It pleases me in more ways than one to note that (despite your jaundiced perspectives) you are well aware that people have right to express their views – even if these are not shared by you.
For that, you both deserve a medal. Perhaps something along the lines of “The Order of Ikhamanga”.
It is pure nonsense to continue to deny that Huntley was actually quite correct – subsequent event after event proves that fact. The notion that such attacks do not have a racial motivational component is quite luicrous and flies in the face of much testimony which tells us clearly that in many attacks by blacks on whites, there is a definite racial element.
Screaming for a proper and effective judicial system will get you nowhere in S.Africa either – it just ain’t gonna happen anytime soon under the ANC.
Better to begin fighting for the removal of the party which has brought such appalling criminal violence to this society and which continues to tacitly condone black-on-white thuggery.
nzs
To you & all my african bros & sisters in this platform–whom for many months, or years, we have talked, discussed, argued, agreed or disagreed on other subjects–I wish you a prosperous and a very successful year.
I would appreciate an answer.
While I did not frame my response as a question, it certainly poses some.
Eeh dude can you try write about one topic at a time and better that. Am confused what you are tring to say. If you must knowpeople get robbed everywhere stop trying to pretend that crime only happens in South Africa.