Hundreds of people blacked out the horizon on the hills over Hermanus, South Africa yesterday. A video from @The_Kaaplander on Twitter shows men charging into the quiet neighborhood, kicking up a cloud of dust like a mushroom cloud. The police quietly lined up to meet the mob at the base of the hill, brandishing rifles as the townsfolk hid inside their homes. attribute info It’s called a land-grab. It’s a scene that’s become so common in South Africa that it’s really a wonder we aren’t talking about it here in America. Aren’t we supposed to be the arbiters of peace? Of liberty and justice for all? Why is one of the worst genocides of the new millennium being swept under the rug? This is the hidden holocaust, the silent slaughter—this is white genocide.
From 2009 to February 2018, President Jacob Zuma ruled South Africa with an iron fist. Since he took office, farm attacks have steadily been on the rise. Henk van de Graaf, a spokesman for AfriForum, said, “The average murder ratio per 100,000 or the population in the world is nine…In South Africa, it is 54. But for the farming community it is 138, which is the highest for any occupation in the world.” The government stifles any crime data that could shed light on the genocide– since 2007, crime statistics from the South African Police Service do not disclose the race of the victims.
The African National Congress has a long history of inciting racial hatred against the white minority in South Africa. AfriForum, an organization that advocates for Afrikaners’ human rights, released a report called Kill the Farmer that keeps a record of all the times a member of South Africa’s government called for violence against white farmers. The first recorded instance was on January 8, 2012, the then president of South Africa Jacob Zuma sang “Shoot the Boer” to celebrate his election. Some of the lyrics are: “We are going to shoot them with the machine gun/They are going to run 2x/ Shoot the boer/ We are going to hit them/ They are going to run 2x.” In the following month, there was a 36 percent increase in farm attacks.
First Zuma stripped white South Africans of their rights. “Sorry, we have more rights here because we are a majority,” Zuma said in September 2012. “You have fewer rights because you are a minority. Absolutely, that’s how democracy works.” He later seized control of the criminal justice system and granted himself criminal immunity, which he certainly needed. Since taking office, Zuma has faced allegations of rape, illegal arms trading, and even allowing the Gupta billionaire family from India to loot massive sums of money from state institutions. Zuma is also accused of nepotism. He had six wives, and appointed several of them to high-ranking positions in government.
The killings aren’t even the worst of it. An article by News Australia last year depicts one of the most gruesome farm attacks where an elderly couple were tortured with a power drill and shot repeatedly in their own home. According to a report by AfriForum, The Reality of Farm Tortures in South Africa, farm attacks often involve brutal acts of torture which “the focus appears to be more on the creation of terror and fear within the population than on obtaining information.”
Late in February 2018, South Africa’s parliament successfully passed a motion to amend the country’s constitution to allow confiscation of farmland without compensation. Julius Malema, the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters party, introduced the motion to parliament by saying, “the time for reconciliation is over. Now is the time for justice. We must ensure that we restore the dignity of our people without compensating the criminals who stole our land.” That means the barbaric farm attacks are now legal land-grabs, sanctioned by the government. We as Americans need to ban together and help the people of South Africa. To do that, you first need to sign up for AfriForum. Then we need to lobby our politicians to give refugees from South Africa fast-track visas into the US. It’s time to put an end to this ruthless genocide.
Ruthless genocide? Get real and stop war mongering. I live in Hermanus . The legal and justifiable protest for more land to relieve the over crowding that has been allowed to develop in the Zwelhile township has been hijacked by and unruly mob that burn, destroy and intimidate the local community for their own political agenda. The local community are being prevented from going to work under threat of violence. The police forces have done a good job with limited resources in containing the unrest. Progress on resolving the land issues has been made through negotiation between local community leaders and the authorities and work is in progress to provide additional sites for informal temporary housing for the worst affected.