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The Death of a Hero: Terreblanche’s Killing and Western Media Twisting Discussion on South Africa
By Primus Tazanu*
An apparently pay dispute ends up with the murder of a debtor farmer who doubles as a right wing politician. Whether this is just one of the many random crimes committed in South Africa or it is politically motivated is still unclear, but the discussion surrounding such murder takes deep racial undertones. The Western media twist the motive for the murder by forcefully concluding that it is politically and racially motivated. Labourers who use brutal means to ‘punish’ their debtor become surrogate ANC elements. Whatever the case, the western media use the opportunity of such murder to remind the world once again that contemporary South Africa is insecure because it is misgoverned by blacks. First of all, the whites have become poor. Secondly, violence has become an order of the day (unlike the apartheid era). This is a vivid picture that the western media depict of South Africa after the killing of Eugene Terreblanche in early April 2010. He was a right wing hero in the dying days of apartheid. The following paragraphs are of the opinion that many killings in South Africa are as much an expression of class conflict, although political activists use such unfortunate events for political ends. Far from sympathising with South Africans, the Western media wish for violence and revenge by reiterating that life increasingly gets dangerous for the white minority (as opposed to non-whites) since the end of apartheid. White South Africans are seen as powerless victims under non-white rule. These accounts are inherently biased and take discussion towards inciting violence as they fail to portray the reality that both the whites and non-whites are victimised as seen in the killings of (black) foreigners in townships and other settlements around Johannesburg exactly two years ago. According to the indigenous population, the brutalised foreigners were making life uncomfortable for them by taking up jobs that were naturally destined for the natives. What the world gets from western media reports is that race and politics underlie the killing of a white person in South Africa as opposed to a non-white whose killing is most likely to be socially or economically motivated. Far from claiming that crime in contemporary South Africa is epoch-making in the form of radical breakthrough from the ‘calm’ apartheid era, the observation is that the wish for income redistribution motivates many of the crimes. One can never be sure whether the two killers of Terreblanche had in mind that they were killing a politician. They were driven by the desire of seeking ‘justice’ in the form of doing away with their debtor.
A worrying depiction of South Africa from western media is the surprising discovery that poverty does not discriminate skin colour as it has spread to engulf even the white population. This line of report sees poverty as non-white disease and to be quite fair, this should be associated with blacks. Such representations reinforce the perception that black is bleak and white is prosperous. Behind these portrayals are the painful realities (from Western media) that the end of apartheid eroded systems of privileges and the blessing for the right wing ruling class. One questions whether the whites in South Africa are not supposed to undergo the same fate as other South Africans (especially after the end of apartheid). It may well be that discomfort is reserved for the non-whites and that non-white leadership is bad luck to the whites. The whites are naturally programmed to rule and even dominate blacks, the accounts seem to suggest. This could perhaps explain the reason why not much attention was paid on Terreblanche’s history of treatment of fellow South Africans as sub-humans (because it is natural). He left a long-lasting xenophobic history behind him. In fact he lived and died by the sword, unfortunately. His assault of a petrol station attendant (with his dog) and the beating of another South African to the point of brain damage remind people of who he really was. Any assertion that violence in South Africa is on the rise because of black leadership is vague. It is a simple correlation. A claim that there is increased crime in South Africa because of decreased economic opportunities for the hopeful makes an enlightened point. In a society where extreme poverty exists amidst plenty, the underprivileged could seek justice through violent means. This seems to be the unfortunate situation in South Africa, with an added observation that there has been some frustration especially among the lowly skilled that had associated the end of apartheid with lightning transformations of their lives. Violence was but inevitable when an earlier system that simultaneously promoted privileges and deprivation suddenly came to an end. Broadly speaking, the non-white leadership had to rule systems of administration that had been apart. There was/is the need to satisfy the privileged white population and the underdogs who emerged from the segregated system. This is a point that Western media accounts consciously ignore as they go along their ambiguous reports. On the one hand, nobody wants to talk good or glorify apartheid. On the other hand, this very system is missed (the whites getting poor and feeling less secure because non-whites rules), a point that the late Terreblanche stressed time and again. One can never tell if this is a subtle wish for the return of apartheid.
It is unknown why there is this unwillingness on the part of the Western media to admit that the killing of Mr Terreblanche is based on employees seeking brutal justice in order to claim their remuneration. Western media increasingly seek the chance to lambaste non-white leadership in South Africa. It is even a recurrent menu to predict doom for world cup fans. Failure to mention this point means these media are not up to date with the unbearable realities of South Africa. Generally, it is a little hard to predict the future of redistributive social violence in South Africa and also a period when the vestiges of apartheid would disappear forever.
*Tazanu is of the Institute Of Cultural and Social Anthropology, Freiburg University, Germany
