POLITICS-SOUTH AFRICA: Dreaming of a White(r) Christmas

By Moyiga Nduru Reprint | | Print |

Moyiga Nduru

JOHANNESBURG, Apr 27 2004 (IPS) - It is 10:00 am, and the organisers are getting impatient. They have sent out invitations to over 200 journalists, most of them foreign correspondents. To their dismay, however, only a handful arrive at the Apr. 26 news briefing organised by the ‘Volksversetaksie’ – a pressure group which claims to articulate the grievances of Afrikaans-speaking whites, or Afrikaners.

“It’s disappointing that foreign journalists have not turned up for this important briefing,” observes Dan Roodt, the leader of Volksversetaksie (or ‘National Protest Action’).

Afrikaners account for most of the 4.3 million whites in the country, which has a population of over 44 million according to government figures. Descended from the Dutch settlers who made South Africa their home in 1652, Afrikaners upheld the country’s system of racial segregation, apartheid, for 40 years until the advent of democracy a decade ago.

Now, they see themselves as an endangered species.

As the clock ticked past the starting time of the press conference (9:30 am), it seemed that they might well perish from neglect if nothing else. Most reporters were clearly stuck at the airport or hovering in hotel lobbies, trying to corner a few of the 100 plus dignitaries who had been invited to the presidential inauguration of Apr. 27.

The swearing in of head of state Thabo Mbeki coincided with the tenth anniversary of South Africa’s first all-race election in 1994, which put an end to over three centuries of colonial and apartheid rule.

The two men who guided the country out of apartheid, FW de Klerk – South Africa’s last white president – and anti-apartheid standard bearer Nelson Mandela, its first black leader, attended the celebrations.

Not to be outdone, members of the Volksversetaksie organised an alternative event Tuesday under the slogan ‘Ten Years – Ten Grievances’.

Their complaints focus on South Africa’s land reform programme, crime and violence, alleged racism – and what the group describes as an attack on Afrikaans culture.

“The levels of frustration and anger in the Afrikaner community are not only leading to emigration and a brain drain from South Africa, but also to social ills such as alcohol and drug abuse, family violence, the breakdown of our social fabric and ultimately to desperate acts of sedition such as those allegedly planned or perpetrated by the Boeremag,” Roodt told journalists at the Apr. 26 briefing, held in Johannesburg.

Several members of the Boeremag (or Boer Force, a conservative Afrikaner group) were arrested in 2002 after allegedly trying to topple the government.

This followed a series of bomb attacks in various parts of the country, and the seizure of illegal weapons, ammunition and explosives during raids on dozens of farms. The word ‘boer’, meaning farmer, is often used to refer to Afrikaners, who have traditionally worked the land – and who continue to play a significant role in large-scale agriculture.

During the press conference, Roodt criticised the government’s policy of affirmative action, also called ‘black empowerment’, which is intended to undo some of the economic devastation caused by apartheid. He described it as racism in reverse.

“Our youth has become unemployable in the country of their birth and hundreds of thousands must now do menial labour in Britain, despite their excellent education and skills. The blight of poverty and unemployment now affects 15 percent of Afrikaners, a direct result of government race policies,” Roodt claimed.

Between 30 and 40 percent of South Africans, most of them black, are currently unemployed according to various estimates. Many are unable to find jobs because of the poor education that was provided for blacks under apartheid.

Leendert van Oostrum, also a member of Volksversetaksie, told IPS that many Afrikaners had emigrated to Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

Said Theuns de Wet, another member of the group, “That shouldn’t happen. We want our children to stay in South Africa.”

The Volksversetaksie claims that the number of Afrikaans schools has shrunk substantially since 1994. And, “No Afrikaans single-medium university operates in South Africa today,” notes van Oostrum.

The group is also concerned about the land reform programme which is underway in South Africa to address racial imbalances in land ownership created by years of white rule.

Although the government has taken a cautious approach to land redistribution, the Volksversetaksie fears a repeat of events in Zimbabwe where state-sanctioned farm seizures have thrown the agriculture sector into disarray.

Philip du Toit, author of ‘The Great South African Land Scandal’, told IPS, “I have no problem with land reform. It’s the right thing to do. The problem is that land is being dished out to people who do not know anything about farming.”

Earlier this year, studies by the British Department of International Development and the Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies (at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa) highlighted the need for more support services to be provided to the beneficiaries of land reform in South Africa.

But, what worries the Afrikaner community most is the murder of white farmers in South Africa. “Being a farmer in South Africa is now the most dangerous job, (other) than being a soldier in Iraq,” said Roodt.

In a 2001 report, the New York-based Human Rights Watch noted, “Since the early 1990s, there has been a marked increase in assaults and murders of the owners and managers of commercial farms and their families.” However, the group also pointed out that black farm residents were most affected by violent crime in rural areas.

The pattern of killing with farm owners has always been the same, according to de Wet.

“The farmers are murdered after returning from the church,” he says. “These are politically-motivated killings.”

But the government says the murders have nothing to do with politics, describing them as the actions of criminals.

The frustrations of Afrikaners were perhaps best expressed during South Africa’s third democratic election earlier this month, in which they abandoned their traditional party – the New National Party – in droves.

“In 1994 the party had 80 members of parliament voted by Afrikaners. Now they have only eight in parliament,” van Oostrum says. “Afrikaners have lost hope in politicians and in political parties.” Of the six Volksversetaksie members at the news briefing only two voted in the Apr. 14 poll.

During his inauguration speech on Tuesday, Mbeki said his government would “transform South Africa into a democratic, peaceful, non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous country”.

But, it was a vision that remains foreign to the Volksversetaksie – which plans to present its grievances to Mbeki.