Farm Murders. Old Flag. Old Values.

White farmers in South Africa have decided to black roads in protest of what they say is the rising in the "coordinated" killings of white South African farmers while also leaving their old apartheid flags at home. The way that Steve Hofmeyer and his contemporaries have constructed this narrative is to insinuate that there is a campaign by God knows who to kill off white farmers. These statements are not only blatantly false as AfricaCheck has researched but it turns out Steve and his friends actually lied about white farmers being "killed like flies" and the numbers they attached to their rhetoric. If South Africa is to have an honest conversation about crime rates as it stands amongst the highest in the world, the conversation cannot be premised on fake statistics that only serve to suggest that Black South Africa is endorsing violence against white people. 

The #BlackMonday protest is problematic on many levels. 

1. Firstly because it was illegal and in the midst of its illegality there were no reports about rubber bullets being used by the police to disperse crowds the same way they did with #Feesmustfall protest but that's a conversation for another day. I'm not saying that anyone should get shot with rubber bullets. Merely pointing out the disparities in the treatment of black and white protestors. 

2. If we want to talk about crime let's talk about it where it is most prevalent, and as black people and as mostly as a black woman writing this article, we can confidently say that white people are the least most impacted by crime in SA.  We will not even begin to start talking about how bad gender based violence is, the raping and kidnaping of innocent young women that get violated on a daily basis. Any authentic South African will understand that this a real concern for the whole country and not try and divert attention out of fear and frustration of the current political rhetoric. 

3. Afriforum and its followers have heavily politicized the farm murders so much that some white South Africans actually believe that the government is behind it. This is yet another opportunity to inform white South Africa that what happened during apartheid will not happen to them.  "Roets said one could not generalise about farm attacks. Interviews with prisoners who had been found guilty of farm attacks indicated that, in 90% of the cases, access to money, firearms and household goods was the motive rather than ethnic hatred." 

4. Plunging black people into poverty is a crime that white people have mastered since 1652 and have learnt to ignore up into the 21st century. It also seems somewhat convenient that when the EFF has shifted the political rhetoric even among the ruling party to include conversations around white monopoly capital, radical economic transformation and the general question of land, the world must pay attention to the killings of farmers. It's really a fishy one this issue. 

What the world needs to know is that South Africans are not set on going back on the call to amend the state in which apartheid has left the black community, the poverty, the crime, the discrimination and really the corruption and looting of state resources. Asijiki is not just a term, #countryduty is not just a hashtag, these are commitments to remedy the pain that has been imposed on the black South African and the one that the youth feels the most. If white South Africa fundamentally has a  hard time understanding this,  then South Africa is heading in a very strange direction.