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I would have loved to have let the murder of Eugene Terre’Blanche pass quietly, allowing his family to mourn his violent death in as much peace as can be found under such traumatic circumstances. I would have loved it if the AWB could have gone back to the fringes of obscurity where they belong without ever having to have written about them. But this whole sorry mess has just highlighted what a bunch of hypocrites we all are, and I haven’t seen anyone point that out yet.
So here goes: As someone who works in online media I am inundated every day by user comments and posts on Facebook, Twitter, MyNews and various leading blogs and sites from 24.com to IOL to Mail and Guardian Online in which people have sometimes seriously, and sometimes jokingly, asked or even offered to have Julius Malema killed. Much as, I’m sure, a lot of moderate South Africans used to joke about putting ET out of his misery.
But in real life, murder is never funny. Or cool. Or justified. It doesn’t matter how big of a doos you are, you don’t deserve to die for it.
So being outraged about murder is fair.
But innocent people, of all walks of life and of all races are killed every day. And I can’t help feeling that there is still this Scale of Importance in white people’s minds. Like it is somehow more important when a white farmer gets killed on his farm than when a black mother of 3 children gets killed in the township. Why is it genocide when whites are killed but it is crime when blacks, or Asians or any of the other groups are killed?
It’s the same polarized nonsense we’ve been spoonfed by separatists and prophets of doom for years. Seriously guys, can you not see the shining bright irony? It’s not “us” against “them”. In fact, we are so similar that in the space of 24 hours Andre “Please Mr. Visagie” and Malema both threw their toys at journalists and embarrassed themselves on national TV. While angry black youths sing “Kill the Boer” angry white youths sing songs about Mandela being a “kaffer”. People are indignant because others feel ET might have had it coming, but they’re the very same people who’ve called on everyone from citizens to assassins to God to have Malema executed.
So will everyone just calm the fuck down please?
ET was killed over the same sad, sordid reason most people get killed. Money. And although I’m sure he wasn’t much loved by the labourers on his farm (this is after all the same man went to jail for beating a worker so badly that he is still physically and mentally disabled) it’s still absurd to say they hated him because Malema incited them to race hatred. The AWB can’t go around pointing fingers when it comes to hate speech. Can anyone say pot, kettle and black?
So please, can we get off our high horses? Eugene Terreblanche’s horrible murder couldn’t have been better timed to cause strife if the man had planned it himself. So don’t give the warmongerers the satisfaction.
