Shoot the Boer

[ChrisNG53]

I listened to Derek Hanekom, giving evidence in the Malema hate speech trial, and cringed ... cringed quite frequently. It really does demean us as human beings when a man of obvious stature and intellect chooses "convenient" intellectualism to defend that which is clearly indefensible. It is tragic that, having succeeded in defeating one evil, he chooses to promote another - that of division and race based antipathy, even hatred. Hanekon should be providing leadership on building a nation, not in perpetuating a very, very bad past.

I also sorely missed my days as an advocate. I would have shot this man down, dug his grave and buried him in no time at all.
Just for starters, in terms of his own stance, he would have to admit that the central phrase "shoot the Boer" was a statement of hate - against the evil apartheid system. So the fact that it is a statement of hate is a given, whichever side you are on.

The other dreadful/fatal flaw in his case is that he is forced to make his interpretation dependent on being "in context", so as to avoid the ordinary meaning of the words. That context was the apartheid era - which no longer exists. You cannot allow a person to unilaterally and inwardly apply a meaning to words, that are not apparent to an ordinary reasonable human being, by dragging up the past in his mind.

One analogy is that of custom. In Ndebele custom, a baby, whose top teeth appeared first, was put to death as the spawn of a wizard. One of twins was also put to death. In customary law these killings were not murder. That was the historical context. That context can never excuse such killings today, simply because the perpetrator inwardly genuinely believes in the righteousness of his/her actions.

What Hanekon simply fails to realize is that everything changed with independence and the adoption of our Constitution. Human beings were rendered as all equal. In such a context there is simply no room for applying what happened in the past, in order to justify a person calling for the death of others.

What is tragic is that it is obvious that people like Hanekom and Winnie, as leaders, have a genuine belief in this obscene stance. It shows the extent to which apartheid damaged emotional intelligence. It also proves William Falkners immortal statement -

the past is not the past, in fact it is the present.

For God's sake, we really do need to start moving forward ... really ... or we are doomed ... for having little hope of building nationhood!

[murdock]

watching malema parade thru the court is a clear indication of the present and what to expect in the future ...who was he protecting himself from the police?

the very ones who are killing inocent people in public...in the past people blamed appartheid...what are they calling it now?

if only the constitution was for real....all equal...the day we all tender at the same level...jobs were given to a person for their skills and not the colour of their skin then i would say maybe we are heading in the right direction...personally i believe the chinese will take over before this happens in africa

[Justloadit]

Quite frankly, I believe this is a pissing contest, so who has the biggest dick?

What I find extremely frustrating, is that after 16 years, as a white, I am looked upon as the thief of my success. That I stole what I have today from the local folk, which is quite to the contrary. Not being a South African, although living here for almost all my life, I used my skills to get what I have.

Contrary to what the locals saying that I was lucky as a white to get my education, however in my younger years I worked for a very liberal company, which manufactured technical training equipment for schools and colledges, and had a substantial library of learning material and equipment which was available to all staff members that worked for the company, but was never taken advantage of or even used by the staff to improve themselves. I even tried to implement a training program during lunch time, to teach the staff, which they blatantly refused because it was during their lunch hour. This never stopped me from learning on a regular basis.

At one stage, it was commented that I was a lucky white person to get education, which to one extent was correct, as a white male I had the opportunity to go to a Technikon to study, but I still had to do my individual part to make it, when I started there were 60 odd candidates, and I was one of the three that completed the course after 2 years. However there was the means available to the staff to self educate, with one on one guidance if required, and was rejected, which was better than being at the Technikon. It is always easier to blame someone else for your misfortune, rather than your laziness to make yourself succesful.

Right now, the government is still using this as a means to get their votes.

I am hoping that our local folk see what is actually happening and vote for a change, they have the power to do this, but, as before, it will be wasted on rhetorical political statements and on past nonsensical ideology, and self enrichment of the members of the party.

[tec0]

It doesn’t matter... In the end anything and everything is just dust in the wind. At this point in time we as humans have used Fossil fuel for everything, from cars to computers to anything and every single advancement we have to date.

How and why is this important? Truth is there is no next step; there is no solution or long term sustainability in any technology that we have to date. Thus when the petrol runs out when coal can no longer be mined because we can no longer drive the systems to mine it. You will see a catastrophic event of note! In a word epic the end of everything we value and know.

From the videos I have downloaded and watched, “they” say 15 or so years maybe less. That is not a long time, so while we play the blame game we are losing our ability to survive. And I wish our power happy mongers would realise this. If the one fail the other will follow.

Equality is a start and agriculture is the key to our future. But if people want to still play this game then be prepared for failure massif unforgiving failure.

The bigger picture is a scary one; we don’t need this... so I will have no part in it.

[AndyD]

From the videos I have downloaded and watched, “they” say 15 or so years maybe less.

I have no doubt it will eventually run out but they were saying 15 years back in the seventies. Not sure how this relates to 'kill the boer' though?

[Justloadit]

What is tragic is that it is obvious that people like Hanekom and Winnie, as leaders, have a genuine belief in this obscene stance. It shows the extent to which apartheid damaged emotional intelligence. It also proves William Falkners immortal statement -

the past is not the past, in fact it is the present.

Hi Chris,

Something in your statement has been bothering me, and the only conclusion I can come to is the basic lack of respect for your fellow human being. The day that we can achieve this is the day that South Africa will begin to grow.

When you respect another person, you try extremely hard not to offend them, however in the case we are referring to here, it is blatant, that JM and Winnie, in no way respect their white neighbors, knowing that singing this respective song may hurt their neighbor's feelings, they continue none the less, however if the neighbor starts doing anything they dislike, they are immediately called racists.

I see this disrespect on a daily basis, on our roads, in shops, in government departments. The reason we build such anger at taxi driver's is purely because they do not give a damn that you been waiting half an hour to cross the road, he just simply cuts in front of you because he is in a hurry and he is more important than you, anyway who the hell are you?

We must start respecting our neighbors and fellow citizens, treat them as people,and maybe then we can look to the changing future.

[ChrisNG53]

@Justloadit - your concern -

Something in your statement has been bothering me, and the only conclusion I can come to is the basic lack of respect for your fellow human being. The day that we can achieve this is the day that South Africa will begin to grow.

is misplaced. In simple terms I am saying that it is tragic that leaders can believe such nonsense, i.e that to sing "shoot the Boer" is not hate speech.

And. Yes, yes, yes - it starts with having respect - respect for the Constitution, for human rights and for other human beings.

[tec0]

I have no doubt it will eventually run out but they were saying 15 years back in the seventies. Not sure how this relates to 'kill the boer' though?

The urgency of the situation and the lack of our ability to survive, at this point in time it is safe to say that nuclear power will never be utilized to the point where Fossil fuel can be discarded. Secondly we import our food products thus we lack the capability to feed the country.

So the relation between the subject at hand and my own comes down to simple survivability. By promoting violence and race-hate our survivability goes down the drain. We end up with antisocial structure that promotes the murdering of minorities, and in return you will have an economical suicide because people will not invest. If South Africa faces a boycott “for any reason” you will see a serious problem unfolding. Add all of this to an energy crisis and the result will be dire...

[Dave A]

I haven't been paying much attention to the hearing, but I've heard the odd snippet of news from time to time.

Has Julius been in the witness box yet?

[murdock]

it is suppose to be his turn today

[Dave A]

The news tonight could be interesting, then.

Reading the M&G article here, I can't help think the ANC is missing the point in this.

Mantashe said Malema, in his controversial statements, was merely trying to get the ANC back into power in the Western Cape.

That doesn't make racial incitement and hate speech OK, Gwede!

[sterne.law@gmail.com]

The only winners in this matter are the attorneys and advocates. 14 in total for about 15 days, you do the maths. And then all over again when it is taken to the Constitutional Court!!

[Dave A]

With copy like this, it seems almost worth it.

African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) president Julius Malema told the Equality Court in Johannesburg on Wednesday that Afrikaans interest group AfriForum brought a hate speech case against him only because it wanted the "limelight".

Under cross-examination by counsel for AfriForum Martin Brassey, Malema said the trial was just "cheap politicking" and that AfriForum "came here to boast".

"You [AfriForum] came here for cameras," he told Brassey.
full story from M&G here

[wynn]

I watched 'Kiddie Amin' on E yesterday, he is a credible revolutionary, he said that when they referred to 'Boers' they meant anybody that supported Apartheid including the homelands that had black people as 'Boers'

Interesting!

[Dave A]

Apparently "kill" as in "kill for Zuma" doesn't mean kill either - it means "win."



Maybe he's a martian?