Eugene Terreblanche - Murdered

[Rev.Shaun]

White supremacist leader killed in South Africa






VENTERSDORP, South Africa — A South African white supremacist leader was bludgeoned to death by two of his farm workers in an apparent wage dispute, police said, and his followers on Sunday blamed a fiery youth leader for spreading hate speech that led to his killing.

Eugene Terreblanche's violent death on Saturday came amid growing racial tensions in the once white-led country and underscores an ongoing controversy over African National Congress Youth Leader Julius Malema's performance last month of an apartheid-era song that advocates the killing of white farmers.

Terreblanche, 69, was leader of the white supremacist Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging movement, better known as the AWB, that wanted to create three all-white republics within South Africa in which blacks would be allowed only as guest workers.

Andre Nienaber, a member of the group and a relative of Terreblanche, said he believed his death was "as a result of Julius Malema's hate speech and direct orders in the media to 'shoot the Boers dead."'

Boer means white farmers in Afrikaans, the language of descendants of early Dutch settlers, or Afrikaners.

Nienaber also called for calm.

Malema is often in the news for his fiery rhetoric. Last month, he led college students in belting out a song that includes the lyrics "shoot the Boer." Malema did not mention Terreblanche or any other person in his performance.

The song has sparked a legal battle in which the ruling ANC party has challenged a high court that ruled the lyrics as unconstitutional. The ANC insists the song is a valuable part of its cultural heritage and that the lyrics — which also refer to the farmers as thieves and rapists — are not intended literally and are therefore not hate speech.

Malema arrived in neighboring Zimbabwe on Saturday and could not be reached immediately for comment on Sunday. But on Saturday, at a youth rally in the capital of Harare, he defended his decision to sing the song.

"We are not being allowed to sing liberation songs in South Africa, but we are not going to stop," he said. "We are prepared to go jail and get arrested again. This is the court ruling of the white men in South Africa, but we are not going to obey it."

Relatives and friends of Terreblanche gathered near his homestead Sunday morning to pay their respects. They gathered in front of a house with an oxwagon parked on the front lawn, a symbol of South Africa's white settlers. Terreblanche's family and the AWB invited the press into one of their homes to hear a brief statement. But later, as journalists outside the house tried to interview people who came to commiserate with the family, several AWB members carrying pistols in hip holsters, threatened the press and ordered them to leave immediately.

The opposition Democratic Alliance party blamed increasing racial tensions for the killing.

"This happened in a province where racial tension in the rural farming community is increasingly being fueled by irresponsible racist utterances" by two members of the governing African National Congress, said the Democratic Alliance legislator for that constituency, Juanita Terblanche.

Terblanche, no relative of the far-right leader, said her party did not share his political convictions but warned that the attack on him could be seen as an attack on the diverse components of South Africa's democracy.

President Jacob Zuma appealed for calm following "this terrible deed." In a statement, he asked "South Africans not to allow agent provocateurs to take advantage of this situation by inciting or fueling racial hatred."

The killing comes 10 weeks before South Africa prepares to host the first World Cup soccer tournament on African soil, with massive expenditures on infrastructure being questioned as hundreds of thousands of tickets and hotel rooms remain unsold.

The South African Press Association quoted police spokeswoman Adele Myburgh as saying that Terreblanche was attacked by a 21-year-old man and a 15-year-old boy who worked for him on his farm outside Ventersdorp, about 110 kilometers (68 miles) northwest of Johannesburg.

Myburgh said the alleged attackers have been arrested and charged with murder. She said the two, whom she did not identify by name, told the police that there had been a dispute because they were not paid for work they had done on the farm.

"Mr. Terreblanche's body was found on the bed with facial and head injuries." She said a machete was found on his body and a knobkerrie — a wooden staff with a rounded head — next to his bed.

Terreblanche's brother Andries Terreblanche urged reporters on Sunday to appear at the suspect's first court appearance, scheduled for Tuesday.

"Everyone must come to court to hear what is the truth," he said. "It isn't about wages."

Terreblanche and other AWB members later clashed with police as they tried to enter a press conference at the mayor's office. Police refused to let several men enter with their pistols and stopped a woman who attempted to enter the building with a switchblade.

Terreblanche had threatened war on South Africa's white minority government in the 1980s when it began to make what he considered dangerous concessions to blacks that endangered the survival of South Africa's white race.

A symbol of white resistance to democratic black majority rule, he had lived in relative obscurity in recent years but had not changed his views.

He revived the AWB in 2008 and had rallies that drew growing crowds whom he wooed with his declaration that white South Africans are entitled to create their own country, a fight he declared he would take to the International Court at The Hague.

An AWB member who said his name was Commandant Pieter Steyn noted the coincidence of Terreblanche's name, which in French translates to "white land." Steyn said the name is a common name among South African descendants of Dutch Huguenot settlers, and that Terreblanche was born with the name.

Steyn wore a khaki uniform which on one side said "100 (percent) Boer." The uniform also had a patch of South Africa's apartheid-era flag.

Terreblanche's killing comes amid growing disenchantment among blacks for whom the right to vote has not translated into jobs and better housing and education.

Some consider themselves betrayed by leaders governing the richest country on the continent and pursuing a policy of black empowerment that has made millionaires of a tiny black elite while millions remain trapped in poverty, even as whites continue to enjoy a privileged lifestyle.

Terreblanche recently has made statements highlighting the corruption that has ballooned under the black government.

"Our country is being run by criminals who murder and rob ... We are being oppressed again. We will rise again," he said, referring to concentration-camp conditions that killed thousands during the Boer War fought by British colonizers.

Terreblanche launched his political career in 1973 amid growing opposition to the white minority government and its racist policies, forming the AWB with six other "patriots" of the Afrikaans-speaking whites descended from Dutch immigrants.

The AWB was a semisecret organization for years. When it "came out" in 1979, the movement displayed its Nazi-like insignia and declared opposition to any parliamentary democracy.

Terreblanche would arrive at meetings on horseback flanked by masked bodyguards dressed in khaki or black and became a charismatic leader for a small minority that could not envision a South Africa under the democratic rule of a black majority.

At one rally his guards who terrorized blacks and were dubbed "storm troopers" after the Nazis, brandished guns, police batons and knives, prompting the government to announce it was "looking into" the actions and attitudes of the movement.

In 1983, Terreblanche was sentenced to a two-year suspended jail sentence for illegal arms possession, though he said the arms were planted by black opponents. The same year, two AWB militants were jailed for 15 years for conspiring to overthrow the government and assassinate black leaders.

Terreblanche finally was jailed in 1997, sentenced to six years for the attempted murder of a black security guard and assaulting a black gas station worker.

He became a born-again Christian in prison, and declared on his release in 2004 that his experience had convinced him that "the real hour to revive the resistance had arrived."

Terreblanche had threatened to take the country by force if the white government capitulated to the ANC. After the white government conceded, the ANC overwhelmingly won 1994 elections and has won every election since with more than 60 percent of votes.

———

Associated Press Writer Angus Shaw in Harare, Zimbabwe contributed to this report.

[Rev.WillWilliams]

I remember well when Terreblanche headed the AWB in the early 1990s. They, being Afrikaners, followed the Dutch Reform Church, which declared racism a sin -- nice, huh? The White SAs with British ancestry had their Anglican Church with their Bishop Tutu (with his 3' O.C. nostrils) -- nicer.

Eugene Terreblanch authored a book that stated that anyone belonging to the Kirk van de Skepper (Afrikaner Church of the Creator) could not be a member of the AWB. This fellow is no hero to Creators. This article claims Terreblanche found Jesus while in prison, AFTER he wrote that book denouncing our Skeppers. I recall that Eugene Terreblanche had a drinking problem. Maybe he found AA in prison, too.
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http://cbs3.com/topstories/Eugene.Terreblanche.killed.2.1610508.html

White Supremacist's Killing 'Declaration Of War'
Group's Leader Eugene Terreblanche Reportedly Hacked To Death In Bed By Workers Over Wage Dispute
Member Vows Revenge, Gives Vague Warning; South African President Calls For Calm

ENTERSDORP, South Africa (AP) ― A top member of a South African white supremacist group said Sunday that the slaying of their leader was "a declaration of war" by blacks against whites, as the president appealed for calm amid growing racial tensions in the once white-led country.

Andre Visagie of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging movement, better known as the AWB, said the group would also urge soccer teams to avoid the upcoming World Cup tournament in South Africa out of safety concerns. He said the group would avenge the Saturday death of leader Eugene Terreblanche, but did not give details.

"The death of Mr. Terreblanche is a declaration of war by the black community of South Africa to the white community that has been killed for ten years on end," Visagie said. He echoed other members of the group in blaming a fiery youth leader for spreading hate speech that he believes led to his killing.

The ruling African National Congress disputed Visagie's statement.

"The black community has never declared war on any other nationality in South Africa," ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu told The Associated Press. "It is in fact incorrect and these are sentiments that fuel polarization of the South African populace."

President Jacob Zuma appealed for calm following "this terrible deed." In a statement, he asked "South Africans not to allow agent provocateurs to take advantage of this situation by inciting or fueling racial hatred."

Terreblanche's violent death — police said he was bludgeoned to death by two of his farm workers in an apparent wage dispute — also heightened the din around an ongoing controversy over ANC Youth Leader Julius Malema's performance last month of an apartheid-era song that advocates killing white farmers.

Malema on Sunday denied responsibility, during an official visit to neighboring Zimbabwe.

"ANC will respond to that issue," he said "On a personal capacity, I'm not going to respond to what people are saying. I'm in Zimbabwe now, I'm not linked to this."

Terreblanche's killing also comes amid growing disenchantment among blacks for whom the right to vote has not translated into jobs and better housing and education.

Some consider themselves betrayed by leaders governing the richest country on the continent and pursuing a policy of black empowerment that has made millionaires of a tiny black elite while millions remain trapped in poverty, even as whites continue to enjoy a privileged lifestyle.

But an unknown number of white farmers have been killed since the end of apartheid in 1994, many of them in land disputes. Some critics blame the government's badly organized land reform program and allege that corruption is a problem. Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa appealed for calm and asked the public to not make assumptions about the crime.

"We call on all South Africans, across whatever divide ... to desist from making any inflammatory statements which are not going to help in any way on the case we are dealing with," said Mthethwa, who visited the crime scene. "Nobody should obstruct us by what he or she says pertaining to this case. We want to get to the bottom of this case and we want nobody to obstruct the police in getting justice."

Relatives and friends of Terreblanche gathered near his homestead Sunday morning to pay their respects.

The opposition Democratic Alliance party blamed increasing racial tensions for the killing.

"This happened in a province where racial tension in the rural farming community is increasingly being fueled by irresponsible racist utterances" by two members of the governing African National Congress, said the Democratic Alliance legislator for that constituency, Juanita Terblanche.

Terblanche, no relative of the far-right leader, said her party did not share his political convictions but warned that the attack on him could be seen as an attack on the diverse components of South Africa's democracy.

The killing comes 10 weeks before South Africa prepares to host the first World Cup soccer tournament on African soil, with massive expenditures on infrastructure being questioned as hundreds of thousands of tickets and hotel rooms remain unsold.

The South African Press Association quoted police spokeswoman Adele Myburgh as saying that Terreblanche was attacked by a 21-year-old man and a 15-year-old boy who worked for him on his farm outside Ventersdorp, about 110 kilometers (68 miles) northwest of Johannesburg.

Myburgh said the alleged attackers have been arrested and charged with murder. She said the two, whom she did not identify by name, told the police they were not paid for work they had done on the farm.

"Mr. Terreblanche's body was found on the bed with facial and head injuries." She said a machete was found on his body and a knobkerrie — a wooden staff with a rounded head — next to his bed.

Terreblanche had threatened war on South Africa's white minority government in the 1980s when it began to make what he considered dangerous concessions to blacks that endangered the survival of South Africa's white race.

A symbol of white resistance to democratic black majority rule, he had lived in relative obscurity in recent years but had not changed his views.

He revived the AWB in 2008 and had rallies that drew growing crowds whom he wooed with his declaration that white South Africans are entitled to create their own country, a fight he declared he would take to the International Court at The Hague.

An AWB member who said his name was Commandant Pieter Steyn noted the aptness of Terreblanche's name, which in French translates to "white land." Steyn said the name is a common name among South African descendants of Dutch Huguenot settlers, and that Terreblanche was born with the name.

Steyn wore a khaki uniform which read "100 (percent) Boer." The uniform also had a patch of South Africa's apartheid-era flag.

Terreblanche launched his political career in 1973 amid growing opposition to the white minority government and its racist policies, forming the AWB with six other "patriots" of the Afrikaans-speaking whites descended from Dutch immigrants. The group wanted to create three all-white republics within South Africa in which blacks would be allowed only as guest workers.

The AWB was a semisecret organization for years. When it "came out" in 1979, the movement displayed Nazi-like insignia and declared opposition to any parliamentary democracy.

Terreblanche would arrive at meetings on horseback flanked by masked bodyguards dressed in khaki or black and became a charismatic leader for a small minority that could not envision a South Africa under the democratic rule of a black majority.

In 1983, Terreblanche was sentenced to a two-year suspended jail sentence for illegal arms possession, though he said the arms were planted by black opponents. The same year, two AWB militants were jailed for 15 years for conspiring to overthrow the government and assassinate black leaders.

Terreblanche finally was jailed in 1997, sentenced to six years for the attempted murder of a black security guard and assaulting a black gas station worker.

He became a born-again Christian in prison, and declared on his release in 2004 that his experience had convinced him that "the real hour to revive the resistance had arrived."

Terreblanche threatened to take the country by force if the white government capitulated to the ANC. After the white government conceded, the ANC overwhelmingly won 1994 elections and has won every election since with more than 60 percent of votes.

[Rev.Cambeul]

Eugene Terreblanch authored a book that stated that anyone belonging to the Kirk van de Skepper (Afrikaner Church of the Creator) could not be a member of the AWB. This fellow is no hero to Creators. This article claims Terreblanche found Jesus while in prison, AFTER he wrote that book denouncing our Skeppers.

As always, Christinsanity is our biggest foe. Even if we all decided to accept Christinsanity in an effort to get along, it still wouldn't work because every individual Cult of the Jew on a Stick is at one another's throats with half of them claiming to be Jews rather than Whites and the Odinists marking time in the shadow of the White/European Christian Heritage freaks.

Spookism! It only takes a little faith to sustain a fraud.

@Cailen.

[MarkCook]

I agree,  Christianity is a big divider of  Whites.   I used to believe the Greek Orthodox  church was the  "true"

Church, but they are hopelessly divided beyond  reach.  Creativity  truly makes more sense, but reaching  the masses

will be a trick.  They seem  to depend on  some  kind of belief in the afterlife  .

[SethCochran]

This is from the comments page:

Mr Terreblanche, who campaigned for a separate white homeland, came to prominence in the early 1980s. Race relations in South Africa are at an all time low. This sad event is just the icing in the cake to get things moving. There have been calls for open dialogue about race relations in this country, this is the time for South Africa to talk. This country has so many problems that are not being addressed properly because everybody uses the race card instead.
Siyabonga Ndlovu, Soweto

Although I personally did not support Eugene Terreblanche's view - I am concerned about the senseless killing of farmers, as well as the public hate-speech against white South Afrikaner which the ANC allows by supporting Julius Malema. White South Africans are not allowed to use their words for the native South Africans, but the derogatory term for the white South Africans is publicly allowed and accepted. What is President Zuma going to do about this? It seems as if the ANC government is now failing all South Africans, as the political instability seems to be on the increase.
Willie van der Merwe, Johannesburg

As a white single mum of one daughter I already had sleepless nights regarding my daughter's safety. Now after the murder of Mr Terreblanche I fear even more. Racial tension has been driven to the point of no return now. I can smell the fear.
Riesa, Cape Town

Eugene was an enemy but I also don't condone his death. One will argue this is just a conspiracy to discredit Julius Malema's racist song "Kill the boer, kill the farmer". But still I would like the leaderless ANC to refrain from this racist songs.
Itami Manganyi, Durban

The struggle songs that the ANC insist should be sung contain lyrics like "Kill the farmer, Kill the boer". They insist that the songs are just commemorative, but it's disturbing that the songs are sung with such gusto; especially in recent months where half a dozen farmers have been killed. The murder of a political figure may finally cause the government to realise that singing racist songs isn't conducive to South Africa's reconciliation.
Kerry, Johannesburg

This a horrible death, a gruesome manslaughter, a never to be repeated act of hatred amongst each other. I found it very difficult to understand this irresponsible conduct, we hope this will not result into another civil war and bloodbath between the whites and blacks of this country. Where is our humanity, good morals, brotherly love, regardless our race and colour?
Vincent, Germiston

I am a proud black South African. I am appalled at this type of violence! Under no circumstances is one justified to take a life!
Lerato, Johannesburg

Farmers are being killed weekly in this country, nobody wants or needs this but the government does nothing about Malema singing "kill the boer".
Vincent Barkas, Hoedspruit

The murder of Terreblanche comes at a particularly volatile time in South Africa. Terreblanche was mostly seen as an embarrassment by white Afrikaners, yet I expect great concern about the lawlessness which led to his death. South Africa is a country suffering from a lack of moral leadership and the perception is growing that crime pays, corruption is ignored. On grassroots level the relationships between black and white are respectful, yet the political leaders reflect mistrust and antagonism.
Annelize Slabbert, Randburg

His death won't affect the country at all. The circumstances surrounding his death have nothing to do with the recent utterances made by the ANC youth league, irresponsible as they may be. He had become a nonentity on the political front. The danger is 'analysts' who want to use the killing as a barometer of black and white relations and sentiments, and their influence on a sceptical white population and those who can't see the bigger picture.
Tawanda Musarurwa, Johannesburg

Any murder is a tragedy. The irony is that a primary crazy fueller of racial hatred, a monster with no morals, could by his murder do even more harm and create hate as he did in his tragic and wasted lifetime.
David, Sedgefield

This news comes at an extremely fragile time in South Africa. Whilst our high profile political figures continue to sing songs about 'shoot the boers' it will undoubtedly lead to increased anger in relation to Terreblanche's death. He spoke for a few, and although many white individuals recognise him as an extremist and racist, that will do little to speak for the tide of events that will rock and will continue to rock the front pages of newspapers in the coming weeks. South Africa is urgently in need of the spirit of reconciliation we enjoyed so much following the 1994 elections... We seem to have run out!
Ryan, Grahamstown

I can't believe the level of hatred in our beautiful country. Why can't we just live our lives in peace for heaven's sake? Just grow up!
Joan Pearce, Cape Town

I believe Jacob Zuma and ANC have not been responsible enough in reprimanding the Youth League president for all his provocative utterances and actions that is bringing about racial tension.
Raymond, Johannesburg

The situation is similar to the slaying of black communist leader, Chris Hani, in 1993. South Africa managed to come through that (with the help of Mandela). It remains to be seen how South Africans will react now, 20 years later, only 60 days before the World Cup.
Jonathan Winter, Durban

I don't think the passing away of Mr Terreblanche will make any difference. South Africa never healed as far as racism is concerned, you may notice this in business and job opportunities. Terreblanche had also become less popular.
Thanda, Krugersdorp

[PatTracy]

I do hope that Whites in South Africa avenge Mr. Terreblanche. I had the pleasure of meeting a couple of South Africans on holiday. After what they revealed to me,  I realized that White South Africans need a revolution. Without a strong White leader, SA will be swallowed up by the AIDS ridden black filth!