Mine shootings threaten South Africa’s president & ANC

JOHANNESBURG — South Africa’s powerful trade unions are in turmoil following violence that killed 44 people at a platinum mine strike that has wide-ranging political implications.

Labor leaders charge that rivalry between new and old unions is an orchestrated plot to destroy South Africa’s labor movement. Others hint darkly at political manipulation. Some talk of collusion by mining companies.

What’s clear is that the fall-out from new union rivalry and the government’s violent reaction could affect the future of President Jacob Zuma and his African National Congress.

Thirty-four strikers were shot dead by police in a three-minute barrage of automatic gunfire last week that also injured 78 others. The incident traumatized a nation that thought it had seen the last of state violence with the end of apartheid in 1994.

Ten other people were killed the week before, including two police officers hacked to death with machetes by strikers who also burned alive two mine security guards.

“The events may well prove to be a watershed in the decline of the African National Congress’ national legitimacy and hold onto political power,” said Nicolas van de Walle, professor of government at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, and author of “African Economies and the Politics of Permanent Crisis.”

The brutal violence occurred at the strike at the Lonmin platinum mine in Marikana by the new Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union, which has won over tens of thousands of members in a matter of months in its bid to unseat the long-established and politically connected National Union of Mineworkers. The new union charges that the national union is no longer aggressively pressing for higher wages and better working conditions because its leadership is too entrenched with the government and is cozying up to the management of big mining firms.

The older unions, which played a vital role in the struggle against apartheid, are trying to reassert themselves. The secretary general of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, Zwelinzima Vavi, spoke Friday of the need to defeat “bogus breakaway `unions’ and their political and financial backers.'”

He charged Friday that the upstart union’s wildcat strike demanding higher salaries at London-registered Lonmin PLC was part of “a co-ordinated political strategy” using intimidation and violence “to divide and weaken the trade union movement.”

The new Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union says its very attraction is that it is not linked to any political party.

And it says the National Union of Mineworkers’ close affiliation with Zuma’s ANC is bringing about its downfall.

Over the years, the NUM enjoyed almost a monopoly in the mines around Rustenberg including the Lonmin mine where the shootings occurred. But now it has become over-politicized, too close to the government and the ANC to properly represent the interests of the poorest miners, according to Joseph Mathunjwa, the new union’s president.

The complaint is a microcosm of broader charges that the leadership of the ANC – the party that brought down a racist regime under anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela – has become bloated with corrupt fat cats who no longer care about its core constituents, the poorest of the poor.

Since the first democratic elections in 1994, South Africa has become the richest country on the continent, but that wealth has benefited only whites who continue to control the economy and a small new black elite while the majority of its 48 million citizens continue to battle unemployment, housing shortages and poor service delivery.

It is no coincidence that three former leaders of the National Union of Mineworkers went on to become leaders of the ANC , including Vice President Kgalema Motlanthe, said Jan de Lange, a veteran mining writer for Sake24.com business news Web site.

“The NUM is probably the most disciplined and significant supporter of Jacob Zuma in his quest for a second (presidential) term and this may dent Zuma’s chances,” he said.

Van de Walle, the Cornell professor, sees far-reaching fall-out: “Even as (the ANC) has increasingly been undermined by the stench of corruption and power abuses, its inability to undo the sharp socio-economic inequalities of the apartheid era combined with a record of mediocre economic growth may finally be corroding the enormous capital of good will it gained by leading the struggle against white minority rule.”

Media coverage of miners living in ghettos of corrugated iron shacks without running water or electricity provided a striking example of the failure of Zuma’s government to deal with the country’s major issues: increasing poverty, housing shortages and a yawning gap between rich and poor that makes South Africa one of the most unequal societies on Earth. The congress of trade unions complained this week that the poorest 10 percent of South Africans share R1.1 billion ($137.5 million) while the country’s richest 10 percent has 381 billion (nearly $48 billion).

Poor education and health services are another issue. While even poor African countries are bringing down the numbers of women dying in pregnancy and childbirth, South Africa’s maternal mortality rate has spiralled, according to government statistics, from 81 to 600 per 100,000 between 1997 and 2005.

Zuma’s supporters argue that his government has made significant progress in improving the country’s treatment of patients infected with AIDS and its HIV virus, running the world’s largest program, although tens of thousands still go untreated.

Van de Walle said the “sheer symbolism” of policemen shooting at protesters would have suggested to many South Africans that “little has changed and that the state still serves a small rich minority rather than the impoverished majority.”

That thought was put more crudely by Julius Malema, the firebrand politician expelled for “sowing disunity” in the ANC, who accused Zuma’s government of complicity in the killings. He told striking miners that the government was unable to stand up to the mines because top leaders have shares in those mines that conflict with supporting workers’ interests.

Malema has been the architect of a movement calling for the nationalization of the country’s mines, an issue that remains on the ANC agenda, though Zuma and other leaders keep assuring mining companies and investors that it will never happen.

Fitch Ratings, one of the leaders in its field, said Friday the protests and talk of nationalization were symptomatic of issues that have discouraged investment in South Africa in recent years and helped form the basis of its decision to put South Africa’s BBB+ rating on “negative outlook” earlier this year.

“High unemployment is already associated with widespread crime, which is regularly cited as one factor deterring foreign investment,” it said. “Over time it could also threaten social and political stability, damaging the investment climate further.”

South Africa produces 75 percent of the world’s platinum and 60 percent of its ferrochrome. It’s also one of the top 10 gold producers.

Some South Africans see the police shootings as the government using officers to put down challenges to its authority. Zuma, whose re-election bid is spearheaded by leaders of the challenged National Union of Mineworkers, can expect to confront many more such challenges, with every day bringing more of the sometimes violent service protests by poor South Africans discouraged by their lack of progress, while they see an ostentatious display of wealth exhibited by the black elite.

The shootings have this traumatized nation soul-searching, asking why violence has become an everyday matter in their society, which suffers some of the highest murder and rape rates in the world. Among recent horrors, three orphan children were stoned to death, with a 12-year-old girl among them raped. And a pastor is on trial, accused of molesting a dozen children in his wife’s nursery school.

Many say such brutal acts are a legacy of apartheid. But the argument is wearing as thin as the ANC’s promises to redress inequalities, nearly 20 years down the line.

By Michelle Faul – August 25, 2012

Source – Huffington Post – Mine shootings threaten SAfrica’s president, party

 

 

 

What’s behind the Marikana massacre?

More than 30 miners in the Lonmin mine in Marikana, South Africa, died after police opened fire on a gathering of thousands of machete-armed workers striking for higher wages. Earlier two police officers had been hacked to death. The violence exploded when police shot at striking rock drillers in the “Easterns” area of the Marikana mine. Tensions have been high in part because of the presence of competing trade unions, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).

South African policemen keep watch over striking miners after they were shot.

The mine, about two hours northwest of Johannesburg, is operated by Lonmin, which is listed on both the London Stock Exchange and Johannesburg Stock Exchange, and is the world’s third largest platinum producer. The bulk of its 28,000 employees work at the mine, and around 23% belong to the AMCU.

The violence has prompted some people to draw parallels with the country’s days of apartheid rule, which ended in 1994.

South African’s president, Jacob Zuma, has said he will open up an inquiry into the incident.

What is behind the conflict?

Rivalry between the AMCU and the NUM is widely blamed for feeding the violence. The AMCU, which has expanded rapidly this year at the expense of NUM, is seen as the more militant union and has been linked to aggressive tactics to win wage increases.

It has gained ground in an environment where workers have been dissatisfied with improvements in quality of life since the end of apartheid, particularly for those in the lower wage brackets.

At Marikana, 3,000 rock drill operators at the mine stopped work last Friday as they tried to force an increase in their wages, from ZAR5,400 ($648) a month to ZAR12,500 ($1,500) a month.

Tensions increased over the following days, with AMCU president Joseph Mathunjwa declaring the members were prepared to “die here” if necessary.

The stand-off later escalated into violence, leaving 34 dead, 78 injured and 259 arrested on various charges, according to South Africa National Police Commissioner Riah Phiyega, who spoke at a press conference Friday.

The violence follows other fatal incidents including a six-week strike at Impala Platinum (Implats) in February, which left three dead, and an attack on Aquarius Platinum in August which also left three people dead.
The push for higher wages comes after the AMCU was “clearly emboldened” by a strike at Implats’ Rustenberg mine in February which resulted in a 125% increase in wages, analysts at Eurasia Group noted.
The outcome set a “problematic precedent for platinum companies in South Africa,” Africa analyst Mark Rosenberg said.

Alison Turner, analyst at Panmure Gordon & Co, said the emergence of the AMCU “represents the single biggest risk to the platinum sector, particularly as many of the incidents in which the AMCU has been implicated have involved violence.”

According to Rosenberg, however, violence at Marikana could prove to be detrimental to the union’s aggressive recruitment strategy.

Who is to blame for the Marikana shootings?

While union rivalry is being blamed for the friction, it is unclear who triggered the first shots at Marikana, which is one of the country’s bloodiest incidents since the end of apartheid in 1994. Police have said they were bringing in barbed wire to fence the miners, and used tear gas and stun grenades to disperse them. According to Phiyega, a militant group of strikers then fired on police who said they were forced to use “maximum force” to defend themselves.

Video from the incident shows police shooting for some minutes at protesters, kicking up dust. When the dust clears, several bodies are shown lying on the ground. The video appeared to show the police response was “very forceful,” Turner said.

The South African Institute for Race Relations said that policemen randomly shot into the crowd with rifles and handguns. “There is also evidence of their continuing to shoot after a number of bodies can be seen dropping and others turning to run. This is reminiscent of the Sharpeville massacre in 1960,” the institute said.

In her press conference Phiyega said it was not a time for placing blame, but “a time for us to mourn.”

What do the unions say?

The two implicated unions, accused of trying to outdo each other in negotiating wages, denied instigating the clashes. AMCU general secretary Jeff Mphahlele told CNN the union could not be blamed. “We are a peaceful organization and we do not condone violence,” he said. Mphahlele said police initially shot at the protesters from behind, although when asked if they shot first he said “I was not there,” adding: “The killing of those people was not necessary.” He said Mathunjwa’s reference to being prepared to die was in response to fears the police would attack.

Frans Baleni, head of the NUM, said Monday that its members were under siege. “Our members have been attacked, and that cannot be said to be clashes or rivalry, it is pure criminality,” he said.
Is the government tarnished?

The NUM is a close ally of the country’s ruling African National Congress and its inability to stop the violence and weakened role is expected to drag on Zuma, according to Rosenberg. The immediate impact is likely to be Zuma’s pitch for re-election to head the party in December, he added.

Re-election is “significantly less likely” Rosenberg said. While there is no formal challenger to the role yet, this could spur the emergence of one, he added.

People are no longer willing to sit and wait around for the ANC to deliver, Rosenberg said. “They are becoming more and more impatient and they’re becoming more and more violent as a result.”

Meanwhile, Zuma cut short a trip to Mozambique to visit the scene of the shootings Friday afternoon. “We are shocked and dismayed at this senseless violence,” he said. “We believe there is enough space in our democratic order for any dispute to be resolved through dialogue without any breaches of the law or violence.”

What is the impact on Lonmin?

Lonmin stopped production from the mine last Friday and it is unclear when it will resume. It has said it is unlikely to meet its full year guidance of 750,000 ounces of platinum. It has also said it will need to closely monitor its bank debt levels given the disruption to production.

The company’s financial officer, Simon Scott, expressed condolences to the family and friends of the workers and police officers who died this week. He said the company would assist with funerals and grief counseling.

Scott said Lonmin has worked for years to achieve good labor relations and said the “illegal strike we’ve seen is so disappointing and damaging.”

Separately, on Thursday the company also announced its chief executive Ian Farmer had been diagnosed with a serious illness and is in hospital. A spokesperson said the illness is unrelated to the mine incident. The company is being temporarily led by its chairman Roger Phillimore.

By By Irene Chapple, CNN – August 18, 2012

Source – CNN – What’s behind the Marikana massacre?

South African police kills 34 strikers – Lonmin

The boom in catalytic converter use as governments battled to cut exhaust emissions saw the streamlined platinum company flourish. But as demand now slumps, miners strike and debts rise, even Rowland might now feel it has too many enemies.

(Reuters) – “You can never have enough enemies,” Tiny Rowland once boasted, but even the buccaneering tycoon who built what is now Lonmin plc might blench before the “perfect storm” it faces after South African police killed 34 strikers at its Marikana platinum mine.

Never a stranger to controversy – in its days as Lonrho, a British conservative prime minister of the 1970s famously called its then head the “unacceptable face of capitalism” – Lonmin can add human misery and a public relations nightmare to the labour struggles and falling demand afflicting all platinum producers.

The company already has one of the most pressured balance sheets in the sector and if production remains stalled after the bloodshed its hopes of limiting a shortfall in its 2012 output target and meeting debt-to-earnings commitments may dim further.

“Do yesterday’s events change the picture for Lonmin? I do think yes, they do. What we would like to see is obviously the speedy resolution of this conflict and the striking rock drill operators return to work as quickly as possible,” said Panmure analyst Alison Turner as investors stayed bearish on the stock.

“I think the kind of violence that you saw yesterday makes that increasingly difficult.”

Adding to Lonmin’s woes, it announced on Thursday that well regarded chief executive Ian Farmer, a veteran of the group since well before the board ousted the late and controversial Rowland in 1994, was seriously ill in hospital.

“I just couldn’t think of any more bad things that could happen to them,” said a second industry analyst who spoke on condition of anonymity. “It’s the perfect storm.”

Lonmin shares dropped over eight percent to their lowest in London since 2008 on Friday, before recovering to close down 1.3 percent at 619.4 pence near the close.

DEMAND DOWN, COSTS UP

Like its peers, the world’s third biggest platinum miner has struggled with soaring wages and languishing prices, which have been hit by weak demand among car and truck makers, who use the metal in catalytic converters, and for jewellery. Struggles with unions in South Africa, saw Lonmin sack, and then mostly re-hire, 9,000 workers last year after an unsanctioned walk-off.

But violence this week, fuelled by inter-union rivalries, is unprecedented and threatens the miner’s already troubled efforts to secure a profitable future by ramping up key shafts and bringing down costs. Even before this week, Lonmin had said it was slashing spending plans to preserve cash.

It has said it is keeping basic services ticking over at Marikana to speed up a return to work, as and when the mine can put behind it Thursday’s bloodbath, which plunged South Africa into agonised examination of its post-apartheid economy. But it has also already warned it will miss its full-year output target of 750,000 ounces of platinum and investors are fretting.

The clashes have put what was already one of the most pressured balance sheets in the sector under greater strain, prompting analysts to speculate on an overhaul of its finances, either via debt restructuring or a discounted cash call.

Lonmin has agreements with lenders that require it to keep the ratio of net debt to core profit at no more than four times. That will be tested next month, but is already seen strained.

“Lonmin just doesn’t have the balance sheet resilience to sort of cope with a prolonged strike,” said another London industry analyst who declined to be named. “We always thought it was going to become strained come the first half of 2013.

“But now there’s concern beginning to grow that actually the year ending in September could see a covenant breach.”

RIGHTS ISSUE?

Lonmin has an unenviable combination of expensive operations, hefty capital commitments and net debt estimated by analysts at Nomura to hit $400 million at the full year. But raising capital from shareholders may also pose problems.

“Pricing a rights issue on the basis of the long-term attractions of unique assets is extremely tricky, so we have neither added to nor reduced holdings,” an executive at one of the company’s 15 largest shareholders said. “Xstrata, with their 25 percent stake, must be watching with furrowed brows.”

It is unclear that miner Xstrata, which took a $514 million hit over its Lonmin stake at the half-year and is in the throes of a takeover, would back a share sale, analysts said.

The final number of ounces lost and the ultimate impact on Lonmin’s balance sheet are still unclear, but analysts say that unlike larger rival Impala – scene of clashes in South Africa earlier this year that forced the closure of the world’s largest platinum mine – Lonmin would struggle with a long halt.

Analysts at Credit Suisse estimated a disruption of similar length to Impala’s would cost Lonmin more than 100,000 ounces.

That would spell trouble for the company, which traces its roots back a century to the London and Rhodesian Mining Company. It owes much of its present asset base to Roland “Tiny” Rowland, the entrepreneur raised in Germany who courted African leaders and feuded with the British establishment for three decades as he built Lonrho into a diversified conglomerate from the 1960s.

Though a bitter takeover feud in the 1980s with Egyptian-born Mohamed al-Fayed for London’s luxury department story Harrods left Lonrho, for once, empty-handed, it still had a global portfolio ranging from hotels and trading to newspapers.

But after Rowland was ousted in a boardroom coup in 1994 it sold off most of its other interests and, a year after Rowland’s death, the remaining, mining business was renamed Lonmin.

The boom in catalytic converter use as governments battled to cut exhaust emissions saw the streamlined platinum company flourish. But as demand now slumps, miners strike and debts rise, even Rowland might now feel it has too many enemies.

Source – Reuters – Historic Lonmin faces “perfect storm” after killings

Demografie: Genadelose werklikheid

Demografie is die studie van bevolkings en al hulle kenmerke. Die ou uitdrukking, “Demografie is Lotsbestemming”, is deur die hoogaangeskrewe demograaf, prof. Flip Smit, gewysig tot “Demografie is die geskiedenis wat nog moet gebeur.” Dit is die werklikheid wat dr Verwoerd in 1963 soos volg saamgevat het: “Op die ou end is dit getalle wat heers.”

Taal Demografie in Suid-Afrika

Die geskiedenis is vol voorbeelde van etniese groepe wat hulle nie hieraan wou steur nie. Die Romeinse Ryk het al die vermoeiende take, selfs oorlog, aan sogenaamde barbare gedelegeer. Mettertyd het die Romeinse karakter van die Ryk meegegee. Rome is deur ‘n Germaans gebore generaal van die Ryk, Alarik, tot ‘n val gebring.

Die Britse eilande was onder Romeinse beheer en oorwegend deur Kelte bevolk, toe die Germaanse Angele en Saksers die eilande binnegeval het. Keltiese identiteit het slegs voortbestaan waar hulle in onherbergsame gedeeltes gekonsentreer het. In opvolgende eeue het Engeland genadelose militêre en kulturele veldtogte teen Wallis, Skotland en Ierland gevoer, maar weens demografie bestaan die Keltiese identiteite steeds.

Die Vikings van Willem die Veroweraar het groot dele van Engeland en Gallië verower. Grootskaalse hervestiging van “Normandiërs” het plaasgevind, maar vandag is slegs reste daarvan te bespeur. Die gevreesde Vikings is bloot in Engelse en Franse bevolkings opgelos.

Rusland is in die Middeleeue as ‘n Viking-staat gevestig. Skandinawiese handelaars het ‘n hoogs winsgewende roete tussen die Baltiese See en die Swartsee, met Konstantinopel as wêreldsentrum, ontwikkel. Hulle het die Slawiese stamme onderwerp en ‘n ryk met Kiev as hoofstad gevestig. ‘n Eeu of wat later was dit ‘n volledig Slawiese staat, soos dit vandag nog is.

Tegelyk moet ‘n mens erken dat die Romeinse kultuur merkwaardig veerkragtig vertoon het in Gallië, Hispania en Italia, dele van die antieke Ryk wat vandag nog Romaanse tale praat. Die krag van ‘n wêreldkultuur wat internasionale kommunikasie en ‘n regverdige regstelsel kon bemiddel, het die mag van demografie tot ‘n mate weerstaan.

Afrikaners verkeer in ‘n knyptang. Oorweldigende swart getalle en die Anglo-Amerikaanse wêreldkultuur bedreig hierdie klein inheemse kultuurgroep se selfstandige voortbestaan. Wat getalle betref, kom die eeue oue gebruik om goedkoop swart arbeid tot eie gerief en wins aan te wend, tot sy finale slotsom. Nie net is politieke mag verlore nie, maar simboliese transformasie in die vorm van naamsveranderings sal voordwoed.

Ekonomiese transformasie, of dit ‘n tweede oorgang of ‘n tweede fase genoem word, sal die proses binne afsienbare tyd voltrek. Plaasmoorde kan bes moontlik ook hiermee verbind word. Kultureel swig die een Afrikaansmedium skool na die ander, terwyl Afrikaans as tersiêre onderrig en openbare taal uitgeskakel word. Honderdduisende Afrikaners pleeg kulturele selfmoord deur hulle elders in die Anglo-Amerikaanse wêreld te vestig.

Afrikaners sal getalle moet konsentreer om ‘n gunstige demografiese werklikheid te skep. Versuim om nou emosioneel afskeid van groot dele van die land te neem, sal tot vernietiging deur verswelging, emigrasie of uitwissing lei.

Deur Wynand Boshoff

Bron – Rozmeyer – Demografie: Genadelose werklikheid

 

 

 

South Africa facing genocide: Total communist takeover

While most of the world refuses to acknowledge what is happening in largely communist-controlled South Africa, the non-profit group Genocide Watch declared last month that preparations for genocidal atrocities against white South African farmers were underway and that the early phases of genocide had possibly already begun. In the long run, Genocide Watch chief Dr. Gregory Stanton explained, powerful communist forces also hope to abolish private-property ownership and crush all potential resistance.

According to experts and official figures, at least 3,000 white farmers in South Africa, known as Boers, have been brutally massacred over the last decade. Many more, including children and even infants, have also been raped or tortured so savagely that mere words could not possibly convey the horror. And the problem is growing worse, international human rights monitors and South African exiles say.

The South African government, dominated by the communist-backed African National Congress (ANC), has responded to the surging wave of racist murders by denying the phenomenon, implausibly claiming that many of the attacks are simply regular crimes. Despite fierce criticism, authorities also stopped tracking statistics that would provide a more accurate picture of what is truly going on in the so-called “Rainbow Nation.”

In many cases, the murders are simply classified as “burglaries” and ignored, so the true murder figures are certainly much higher than officials admit. The police, meanwhile, are often involved in the murders or at least the cover-ups, multiple sources report. A white South African exile living in the United States told The New American that when victims are able to defend themselves or apprehend the would-be perpetrators, many of the perpetrators are found to be affiliated with the ruling ANC or its youth wing.

Experts are not buying the government’s cover-up. “The farm murders, we have become convinced, are not accidental,” said Dr. Stanton of Genocide Watch during a fact-finding mission to South Africa last month. It was very clear that the massacres were not common crimes, he added — especially because of the absolute barbarity used against the victims. “We don’t know exactly who is planning them yet, but what we are calling for is an international investigation that will try and determine who is planning these murders.”

Indeed, most honest analysts concede that the thousands of brutal killings and tens of thousands of attacks are part of a broader pattern. And according to Dr. Stanton, who was also involved in the anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa and has decades of experience examining genocide and communist terror, the trend points toward a troubled future for the nation.

“Things of this sort are what I have seen before in other genocides,” he said of the murdered white farmers, pointing to several examples including a victim’s body that was left with an open Bible on top and other murder victims who were tortured, disemboweled, raped, or worse. “This is what has happened in Burundi, it’s what happened in Rwanda. It has happened in many other places in the world.”

Speaking in Pretoria at an event organized by the anti-communist Transvaal Agricultural Union, Dr. Stanton also slammed the effort to dehumanize whites in South Africa by portraying them as “settlers.” The label is meant to paint Afrikaner white farmers — descendants of Northern Europeans who arrived centuries ago — as people who do not belong there.

It is the same process that happened prior to the infamous genocide against Christian Armenians in Turkey, Stanton explained. The dehumanization phenomenon also occurred against the Jewish people in Germany under the National Socialist (Nazi) regime of mass-murderer Adolf Hitler, well before the Nazi tyrant began implementing his monstrous “final solution.”

Unfortunately, South Africa might be next in line, experts believe. “Whenever you have that kind of dehumanization … you have the beginning of that downward spiral into genocide,” Stanton noted, adding that the situation in South Africa had already moved beyond that stage. The next phase before extermination, which began years ago in South Africa, is organizing to actually carry it out.

“We are worried that there are organized groups that are in fact doing that planning,” Stanton continued during his speech. “It became clear to us that the [ANC] Youth League was this kind of organization — it was planning this kind of genocidal massacre and also the forced displacement of whites from South Africa.”

Genocide Watch raised its alert level for South Africa from stage five to stage six — the eighth and final stage is denial after the fact — when then-ANC Youth League boss Julius Malema began openly singing a racist song aimed at inciting murder against white South African farmers: “Shoot the Boer” and “Kill the Boer.” Described by the anti-genocide group as a “racist Marxist-Leninist,” Malema has also been quoted as saying that “all whites are criminals” and threatening to steal white farmers’ land by force.

After the calls to genocide made international headlines, the South African Supreme Court ruled that the song advocating murder of whites was unlawful hate speech. Incredibly, the President of South Africa, ANC’s Jacob Zuma, then began singing it early this year too. Since then, the number of murdered white South African farmers has been growing each month, according to reports. Other senior government officials, meanwhile, have openly called for “war.”

“This is the kind of talk that of course is not only pre-genocidal, it also comes before crimes against humanity,” Dr. Stanton said, urging everyone to remember that they are all members of the human race. “Those who would be deniers, and who would try to ignore the warning signs in this country, I think are ignoring the facts.”

There is also increasing “polarization,” where the target population — white farmers in this case — and even moderates are portrayed as an “enemy,” Stanton explained about the march to genocide. And that phenomenon is ever-more apparent in South Africa, leading Genocide Watch to classify South Africa as being close to the final stages of genocide in July of this year.

The issue of land distribution, which has become one of the key drivers of the downward spiral, is also among the greatest concerns. The white minority in South Africa still owns much of the land despite ANC promises to redistribute it to blacks. But the re-distribution that has occurred — like in neighboring Zimbabwe — has largely resulted in failure.

Despite the atrocious track record so far, extremists including elements of the ANC-dominated government are now hoping to expropriate land from white farmers quicker, with some factions even arguing that it should be done with no compensation at all. And the communist agenda, like virtually everywhere else where forcible land redistribution has been adopted, has even broader goals.

“Whatever system of land tenure is adopted in South Africa, the communists — in the long run — have in mind to take away all private property. That should never be forgotten,” Stanton warned, noting that he had lived in communist-run countries before. “Every place you go where communists have taken over, they take away private ownership because private ownership gives people the power — the economic power — to oppose their government. Once you have taken that away, there is no basis on which you can have the economic power to oppose the government.”

Meanwhile, the South African government is stepping up efforts to disarm the struggling white farms, too — stripping them of their final line of defense. As has consistently been the case throughout history, of course, disarmament is always a necessary precursor to totalitarianism and the eventual mass slaughter of target groups. In fact, arms in the hands of citizens are often the final barrier to complete enslavement and even extermination.

“The government has disbanded the commando units of white farmers that once protected their farms, and has passed laws to confiscate the farmers’ weapons,” Genocide Watch noted on its website in an update about South Africa posted last month. “Disarmament of a targeted group is one of the surest early warning signs of future genocidal killings.”

The exile who spoke with TNA said that many of the guns confiscated from whites by officials have later been found at the gruesome murder scenes of white farmers. Even mere possession of an “unregistered” or “unlicensed” weapon — licenses have become extraordinarily difficult to obtain, if not impossible — can result in jail time. And in South Africa, especially for white farmers, that is a virtual death sentence, with widespread rape and HIV infections being the norm.

Dr. Stanton promised the Afrikaners that he would be visiting the U.S. Embassy and bringing the issue to the attention of world leaders. However, he also urged them not to give up their guns and to continue resisting against the communist “ideology” espoused by so many of the political and party leaders that now dominate the nation’s coercive government apparatus.

The United Nations defines genocide as “the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group.” The term also includes actions other than simply wholesale slaughter, though. According to the UN, among the crimes that can constitute genocide are causing serious harm to members of a specific minority group, deliberately inflicting conditions on the minority aimed at bringing about its destruction in whole or in part, seeking to prevent births among the targeted population, and forcibly transferring minority children to others.

Activists and exiles argue that many of those conditions have already been met — and any single one can technically constitute genocide if it is part of a systematic attempt to destroy a particular group. Meanwhile, experts say that the government is encouraging the problem, actively discriminating against whites, and in many cases even facilitating the on-going atrocities.

Of course, this would not be the first time a similar tragedy has happened in Southern Africa. When Marxist dictator Robert Mugabe seized power in Zimbabwe (formerly known as Rhodesia, once one of the richest countries on the continent), he began a ruthless war against the white population and his political opponents.

The country promptly spiraled into chaos and mass starvation under the Mugabe regime when the tyrant “redistributed” the farms and wealth to his cronies, who of course knew nothing about farming. The regime murdered tens of thousands of victims, and estimates suggest that millions have died as a direct result of Mugabe’s Marxist policies.

Whites who refused to leave their property during the “redistribution” were often tortured and killed by the regime or its death squads. With Mugabe still in charge, the tragic plight of Zimbabwe continues to worsen today. But the mass-murdering despot is still held in high regard by many senior officials in the ANC.

Not all South Africans — especially city dwellers — are convinced that there is an on-going genocide in their country, or even that one may be coming. Indeed, the vast majority of blacks and whites would simply like to live in peace with each other, and there are plenty of other problems facing South Africa at the same time. However, virtually everyone agrees that without solutions, the precarious situation in the “Rainbow Nation” will continue to deteriorate, going from bad to worse.

Many activists seeking to draw attention to the issue are calling on European governments and the United States to immediately begin accepting especially vulnerable white refugees from South Africa as a high priority. There are less than five million whites in the country, about 10 percent of the population, down from almost a quarter decades ago. Analysts say that giving them asylum, however, may prove tough politically — partly because it could expose the precious establishment myths of Nelson Mandela and his ANC as being “heroic” so-called “freedom fighters.”

Unsurprisingly, the establishment press has barely reported a word about the looming potential calamity. And by the time the world media finally catches on, many analysts worry that it might be too late.

By Alex Newman

Source – South Africa Facing White Genocide, Total Communist Takeover