AWB Loses Its Figurehead

In South Africa, the right wing Afrikaner Resistance leader Eugene Terreblanche, was hacked to death with pangas (machetes) by two black employees, ostensibly in a row over wages. But in the 'non rainbow nation', the murder took on a deeply political and racial overtones.

His supporters claimed that the murder was fuelled by ANC leaders such as the militant ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema, still singing songs that urged their supporters to 'shoot the Boer' .... this practise was stopped by a court decision, but this only provoked further ANC militant anger and they are promising to fight for the right to carry on calling for acts of racial murder.

But white leaders such as AfriForum youth leader Ernst Roets, say Mr Malema's actions were responsible for the recent murders of several white farmers in Gauteng province. "What we have here is an extreme form of hate speech - it should be prohibited according to South African law. It is simply immoral to try to justify a song like this, to say that is must be seen in context."

There is still much racial division in South Africa, and with the World Cup only a few months away, there could yet be race and violence problems to spoil the party.