Who was Eugene Terre’blance?

April 17th, 2010 · No Comments · politics

Rabid white supremacist? Closet homosexual? Violent and tempestuous demagogue? Drunkerd? Nazi? Freedom fighter? Poet? Born again Christian?

A combination of these things? Who exactly was Eugene Terre’blance? He clearly was a complex character.

Some have argued that his views had softened after the AWB’s humiliation in Bophuthatswana, or after he went to prison and found Christ. Gone were the demands for white rule. Now he had become a campaigner for a separate white homeland.

Incredibly it seems Terre’blance had sympathizers and even friends in the black community. (See video below) . The Daily Sun, a South African paper had taken pictures of him praying with black women only a few months ago.

And The Sowetan’s Charles Mogale who met him in his hey day reckons he was a pretend racist:

I did not think ET was a genuine racist.

He preached it alright, he modelled himself on a Nazi and chanted slogans his followers wanted to hear.

But on a personal level, I thought he was a meek mouse who was cast in a role he wanted to do well in. That role was a fearless fighter and champion of the “volk”.

Now it seems he was not only a closet k***boetie, he also bonked ’em.

Racist … I doubt. Great pretender … yes.

Yet City Press reported that during one of his last press conferences he had chased away a black reporter covering it. There was only two journalists there to start off with!

And Rapport have reported on both black and white workers that have recently abused by the man.

And rumours of sexual impropriety with both women and men have lingered. Just today in the Daily Mail Jani Allen broke her silence. Back in the day she had written:

‘Eugene Terreblanche doesn’t walk into a room, he takes occupation of it – to be honest he’s a hunk, far more attractive than his telegenic image,’

His manners were ‘impeccable’ she said and belied his boorish reputation. ‘Where is the crazed political threshing machine?

Could it be that people have the wrong image of him? Right now I’ve got to remind myself to breathe. I’m impaled on the blue flames of his blow-torch eyes, you see.’

She no longer holds him in high regard:

‘How would you like it if your wife or mother was forever known as the tart who slept with a far-Right racist buffoon who fell off his horse?’

But she says she thinks his death is more sinister than a mere ordinary crime or labour dispute:

She has no doubt his murder was politically orchestrated – ‘why else would the attackers wait around to be caught?’ – and links it with what she believes to be a Mugabe-style systematic slaughter of South Africa’s white farmers

With a candour some will find distasteful, however, she admits that she regards Terreblanche’s grim passing as a golden opportunity to revive her career and restore her reputation.

She still denies sleeping with him.

Both Max du Preez editor of the now defunct Vrye Weekblad and a journalist of City Press, Mariechen Waldner (who covered the Jani Allen story in the 80’s), have made claims of homosexual sexual abuse or inclinations in the last two weeks.

Here is the last interview he did (part 1 – the part 2 and 3 on Youtube.).