This week the press widely reported the sordid case of Mark Scott-Crossley, a white farmer who participated in the murder of a black farm worker Nelson Chisale (he was killed by other farm workers) and disposed of his body by feeding it to lions.
The BBC has a typical report: Life for S African lion murderer
Every report I read made sure you knew Scott-Crossley was white and that his victim was black - suggesting a racial motive (which the judge denied) and evidence that South African whites are rotten racists at heart.
The BBC went so far as to say “The case has highlighted race tensions that still exist in the South African countryside 11 years after apartheid.”
The trial was also deeply flawed, but that may be the subject of another post.
What angers me is that once again the press is focusing an exceptional incident and trumpeting it whilst completely ignoring the the real story - which is that white farmers and their workers are being slaughtered in droves by an organised campiagn to drive them off their farms - delivering a massively biased view of the situation in rural South Africa
Ask a well informed Westerners about farm violence in South Africa and they will tell you it is about white racist farmers killing black workers. It is not. It is about the literally thousands of whites farmers who have not only been raped and murdered, but tortured to death in the most horrific circumstances.
Just look at the white farmers killed in January 2004 , the same month Mark Scott-Crossley killed his worker:
Murdered white farmers January 2004
Total: 11
Elmarie Wolfaardt, 57, killed, farm Dorsfontein, Murraysburg EC
Unnamed farm wife, 72, battered to death, Lephalale, Limpopo
4 Afrikaner farmers massacred Witkoppies Meyerton (two couples)
PW Coetzee, 47, found shot dead tied to tree rural East Cape
Willie Henderson, 61, Hartdoringboom smallholding Pretoria, killed
Elsie Botha, 52, smallholder Hendrina, raped, found murdered in veld
Two sons of KZN farmer killed by 20 men, over land dispute
Now compare that with the number of black workers killed by farmers:
Murdered black workers
Total: 1
One worker killed by fellow workers and with complicity of by white farmer (Mark Scott-Crossley).
The racism of the press is exposed by these telling figures. Ten times more whites were murdered on South African farms by blacks killers than the reverse.
In case you have problems imagining the victims, I dare you you have a look at the photos of white victims in these photos:
http://www.africancrisis.org/photos16.asp
In further evidence of how unfairly racialised the trial was, and how it has been used to distract attention away from the genocides against rural whites, just look at the comments in this story:
Headline: Life sentence awaits white farmer who threw black worker to lions…The case was seen as an ugly throwback to the worst sins from the apartheid past, and illustrative of South Africa’s struggle for racial redemption.
A journalist and author, Riaan Malan, says Mr Chisale’s murder re-told the old South African story of white vice and black virtue.
“For hundreds of years, whites could act towards blacks with virtual impunity. It was common for white farmers to beat ‘their blacks’ to death. They’d be tried and walk away with a suspended sentence,” Mr Malan said.
[I find it particularly upsetting that Malan - an Afrikaner - does not take the opportunity to point out that whilst murder of blacks was the norm in the past, now it is white farmers being murdered.]
Of the four accused, Scott-Crossley was the target for the public outpouring of venom.
[Of course, he is white!]
Protesters associated with the ruling African National Congress’s Youth League chanted outside the court “moer the boer” and its English equivalent, “bash the farmer”.
…Mrs Jafta insists her uncle’s murder was not race related. “No, it can’t be racist because this thing was started by this black man [Mathebula]. Mark wasn’t there,” Mrs Jafta said. “They [the black workers] could have been man enough to say, ‘Please, just run away, because when the boss comes he says we must do this to you’.”
Nelson Chisale’s murder was horrific and I am glad that the perpetrators have been caught and are being punished. I just wish that the press stop reinforcing old racial the damaging and racist cliche of nasty whites oppressing and hurting good blacks. Dozens of if not hundreds or whites farmers will be killed this year. Their killers normally get away. Their murders do not spark international outrage. Their genocide is not even mentioned in the international press. No political will is being brought to bear on their plight and they continue to be demonised and hated because of the exceptional an unrepresentative actions of people like Mark Scott-Crossley.
Please do your bit to right the balance. In this case, fairness and balance will save lives.
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