SOUTH AFRICA: Police appeal to South Africans not to politicise Terreblache's murder

Record ID: 455825

  • Title: SOUTH AFRICA: Police appeal to South Africans not to politicise Terreblache's murder
  • Date: 5th April 2010
  • Summary: VENTERSDORP, SOUTH AFRICA (APRIL 4, 2010) (REUTERS) CONVOY OF POLICE MINISTER NATHI MTHETHWA AND POLICE COMMISSIONER BHEKI CELE DRIVING INTO TERREBLANCHE'S FARM POLICE MONITORING AND GUARDING THE ENTRANCE TO THE FARM TERREBLANCHE SUPPORTERS COMING TO PUT FLOWERS AT THE ENTRANCE OF THE FARM FLOWERS AT THE GATE EXTERIOR OF THE MAYORS CHAMBERS IN VENTERSDORP MEDIA AND POLICE OUTSIDE THE BUILDING POLICE MINISTER NATHI MTHETHWA AND POLICE COMMISSIONER BHEKI CELE ADDRESSING A NEWS CONFERENCE MEDIA AND FRIENDS OF TERREBLANCHE WITH POLICE SEATED (SOUNDBITE) (English) POLICE MINISTER NATHI MTHETHWA, SAYING: "We want to get to the bottom of the story, one murder in South Africa is one too many, so we didn't want to make any shoddy work in so far as that is concerned. We are just appealing to South Africans that again, the temptation is high to politicise matters of this nature, we ask everybody not to politicise this matter, let the police do their job, it's not a political matter." RIGHT-WING SUPPORTERS LISTENING DURING THE NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) POLICE MINISTER NATHI MTHETHWA, SAYING: "We have had an opportunity this morning to meet with the family, we expressed our condolences and the commitment of the police to investigate the matter, to get to the bottom of the matter, and ensure that whoever committed this crime is brought to book and is dealt with the law to its fullest might." POLICE COMMISSIONER BHEKI CELE SEATED LISTENING DURING THE NEWS CONFERENCE MEDIA SEATED (SOUNDBITE) (English) POLICE MINISTER NATHI MTHETHWA, SAYING: "We are South Africans and we must be building a South Africa which is free from any racial polarisation, which is free from any criminal activity, so anything which would suggest correctly or incorrectly that people are doing things to further divide the society or further say things which would divide the society, we we will always be concerned." RIGHT-WING SUPPORTERS LISTENING DURING THE NEWS CONFERENCE YOUNG RIGHT-WING SUPPORTER MINISTER ADDRESSING THE NEWS CONFERENCE
  • Embargoed: 20th April 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: South Africa
  • Country: South Africa
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA5QFHEMXW4QIVLA08YLW5Y73LW
  • Story Text: Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa and Commissioner of police Bheki Cele on Sunday (April 4) visited the family of Eugene Terre'Blanche's following the far-right leader's murder on Saturday (April 3).
    After meeting the family, a news conference was held where Mthethwa appealed for calm while police continue with their investigations.
    South African President Jacob Zuma also called for calm after the killing which is being blamed on a suspected pay dispute between Terre'Blanche and two black workers, and has fanned fears of racial strains.
    Police detained two farm workers and said they were investigating the quarrel they had with Terre'blanche, but his Afrikaner Resistance Movement (AWB) says he was battered and hacked to death in an attack with political overtones.
    Zuma, who has made it a priority to court white Afrikaners, called it a "terrible deed" and urged South Africans "not to allow agent provocateurs to take advantage of this situation by inciting or fuelling racial hatred".
    Terre'blanche, 69, was the voice of hardline opposition to the end of apartheid in the early 1990s although his party has played a marginal role since then and does not have a big following among the 10 percent of white South Africans.
    The AWB urged restraint while the funeral is prepared and before the party decides next steps. In Ventersdorp, in rolling farmland over 100 km (60 miles) west of Johannesburg, party followers in paramilitary khaki laid flowers at the farm gate.
    Concerns over increasing racial polarisation have been thrown into the open by a row over the singing of an apartheid-era song with the lyrics "Kill the Boer" by the youth leader of the ruling African National Congress.
    "We want to get to the bottom of the story, one murder in South Africa is one too many." said Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa addressing the media following his visit to the Terre'Blanche family, "We are just appealing to South Africans that again, the temptation is high to politicise matters of this nature, we ask everybody not to politicise this matter, let the police do their job, it's not a political matter."
    "We have had an opportunity this morning to meet with the family, we expressed our condolences and the commitment of the police to investigate the matter" he added.
    "We are South Africans and we must be building a South Africa which is free from any racial polarisation, which is free from any criminal activity, so anything which would suggest correctly or incorrectly that people are doing things to further divide the society or further say things which would divide the society, we we will always be concerned."
    The ANC has defended the song as no more than a way to remember a history of oppression, but it has worried minority groups and particularly white farmers, some 3,000 of whom have been killed since the end of apartheid.
    The party -- whose flag resembles a Nazi swastika -- was revived two years ago and he had begun efforts to try to build a united front among white far-right parties to fight for a white homeland, but had gained little traction.
    Terre'blanche was a powerful orator in his Afrikaans language and was a distinctive figure, heavily built, with a thick grey beard and dressed in khaki. He often attended rallies on horseback during his fight to stop majority rule.
    Police said the suspected killers were aged 16 and 21. Both had worked for Terre'blanche.
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