A short note on the death of Eugene Terre’Blanche

Eugene Terre'Blanche & Connie Mulder at AWB cultural day, Krugersdorp, 1986 (Picture: Gisele Wulfsohn)







It is an important sign of the increasing political maturity of South Africa that political leaders have generally called for calm after the murder yesterday of Eugene Terre’Blanche.

And President Zuma this morning is reported as saying that political leaders should think before they speak. Mmm – cryptic. I wondered at first who he was referring to – my first thought was Helen Zille, who yesterday morning warned on eTV of increased polarisation in society as a result of the killing, but by yesterday afternoon (after reading the mood?) was (also on eTV) calling for calm like everyone else. Then I wondered if this was perhaps a shot across the bows of Julius Malema. My next thought was that he was articulating some of his own learnings…

No matter, the point is that the senseless killing of Terre’Blanche is probably unlikely to result in much in the way of civil unrest or increased polarisation, beyond perhaps a few stones thrown in Ventersdorp.

The AWB actually met its end in what was then Boputhutswana in 1994, with the killing of Nico Fourie, Fanie Uys and Alwyn Wolfaardt – three of the AWB members who went into Bop in a futile attempt to bolster the so-called government of Bop and prevent its reincorporation into South Africa before the first democratic elections in 1994.

Of course, racism in South Africa does not begin or end with the AWB, although in substance and form the AWB was clearly a white-supremicist organisation. Perhaps one thing can become clear from the death of Terre’Blanche: South Africa really does have to belong to all the people who live in it, not parts of it for some people and parts for others. This is a good starting point for realising that we all then have to live together – and not just because we have to, but also because it can be more fun and we will be happier as a people!