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Tuesday 6 April 2010

Is South Africa heading towards further violence?

Anyone outside the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) can have little sympathy following the death of it's controversial leader Eugene Terre'Blanche, who's name seems to have been concocted to mirror his style of politics. At one time he wielded a great deal of power and influence in South Africa, especially at his home base in Ventersdorp situated 100 miles west of Johannesburg. He founded the AWB  in Heidelberg back in 1973 after he became disillusioned with other political parties. At the height of his popularity he claimed the AWB had a membership in excess of 70,000. He was known as the Leader to his followers and surrounded himself with the black clad bodyguards known as the Iron Guard. He was known for his oratory, which was likened to that of Hitler. Terre'Blanche's thunderous voice and magnificent style of delivery - alternating between roar and husky whisper, with gestures to match - helped to disguise the complete meaninglessness of what he was saying. His oratory would sweep from the plight of white farmers, to ancient Greek philosophy, to the state of the Soviet Union, without any apparent logic. He seemed to walk a tightrope between racist menace and national joke. He strongly opposed and never really accepted the end of Apartheid, which put him at loggerheads with the more progressive conservative politicians. His death, allegedly at the hands of two of his farm workers, have opened up all the divisions that have been just below the surface. With the football World Cup due to open in the next couple of months fears are growing that the violence could cause serious trouble. Let's hope things don't get out of hand and things start to calm down in what is a very volatile part of the world.

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