The recent shooting of three black people by Johan Nel (18) in the Skielik settlement in Swartruggens has illustrated the fragile nature of South African race relations. Within hours after the shooting, emotions on both sides of the racial divide were running high with opposition parties objecting to the political exploitation of the case while in front of the court building the anti-white slogan, “Kill the Boer, kill the farmer”, was resounding.To date, Johan Nel has made no such appeals to racial solidarity to justify his horrific acts. Yet the incident has been seized upon by the ruling ANC’s Patrick Chauke as racially motivated and he has even objected to the case being heard in Afrikaans. Clearly, the Nel murders have become a rallying point for ethnic mobilisation, as can be found all over the world in multiethnic societies from Belgium to Rwanda. In the U.S. last year, an innocuous high-school prank involving nooses tied to a tree became a national political issue when high-profile black politicians descended upon Jena, Louisiana (population: 3000), like scavengers scenting symbolic carrion from the bygone days of Southern segregation.
However, South Africa’s racial problems are running far deeper than mere point-scoring by ethnically driven politicians. Race is a powerful source of identity, especially in the absence of other common binding elements such as culture, language or a shared sense of history. Even the liberal DA makes subtle appeals to white (and coloured) racial solidarity in attempting to unite the opposition. Jeremy Cronin of the SACP cautioned some time ago against a “smug rainbowism” that substitutes “true reconciliation” for “a simplified and somewhat candy-coated myth of peace that has served to reconcile those on the inside whilst pitting them against those on the outside”.
Paradoxically, the end of apartheid has not meant the end of racial identity in this country. In many ways, government policies like transformation, the African Renaissance and silent diplomacy towards Zimbabwe have created a much stronger racial consciousness among black South Africans than carrying a pass book or standing in segregated lines at the post office ever did.
Official non-racialism or “smug rainbowism” as Cronin calls it, does not foster a new, sanitized South African identity without hard edges. In fact, the denial of race in South Africa might be one of the leading causes of racial murder and even potential genocide as has happened in many African countries since the end of the Cold War.
Rightly or wrongly, a large proportion of whites and Afrikaners believe that the spate of vicious farm murders almost routinely involving torture are racially motivated. The sms rumours spread in March last year concerning Mandela’s death and an “uhuru” or “night of the long knives” that would inexorably follow, demonstrate nothing if not the existence of real fears of violent retribution among whites.
Whatever motivated Johan Nel to murder three people and wound nine others will come out in his trial. Let us not speculate on that. However, given the effects of transformation that increasingly excludes young whites from the labour market and from educational opportunities, it is surely inevitable that resentment and alienation among them will grow. Add to that the perception that government is soft on crime, especially black-on-white crime, and one has all the elements for self-styled vigilantes to start attacking the nearest township or informal settlement in symbolic racial revenge. Counter-attacks might follow and within days or even hours, South Africa could polarise along racial lines and be plunged into a Rwandan-style nightmare that will change this country forever.
If we are to avoid such a fate, we should seriously question whether we can continue with policies, legislation and a philosophy of racial exclusivism such as Africanism which characterises whites as “outsiders” and therefore potential scapegoats for the many ills and failures of our society. Another fear that is often voiced among Afrikaners and whites generally, is that the current division and power struggle within the ANC will lead to a renewed quest for unity among blacks that could only be provided by race. This is more or less what occurred in Zimbabwe where tribal and political divisions among the two black parties led to the expropriation and expulsion of the white minority. The same thing happened in the Ivory Coast where the French government had to airlift whites out of the country during fighting between rival black factions.
Exploiting cases such as Johan Nel’s for ethnic mobilisation should not be pursued by Patrick Chauke or anyone else. The law must be strictly applied to all crimes, regardless of the race of the victim or the perpetrator. The vast mobilisation of police resources and the quick apprehension of Johan Nel stands in stark contrast to the lack of any real progress made by the police in the case of Frans Pieterse who was tortured and murdered by black assailants in the same area in July 2007.
While acknowledging race as a constituent of our various identities, the ANC should scrap all the legislation and policies that favour blacks over whites and so put an end to the source of resentment and frustration among young whites.