In the last two days we’ve been treated to such ill informed, bad and reductionist journalism about the Dutch and their relationship to Afrikaners and culpability for colonialism and apartheid, that I just had to quickly write this blog post. So what exactly is the relationship?

Fact 1

The Dutch state, the Netherlands, never decided to colonise the Cape, South Africa’s Southern most province.

Fact 2

A Dutch company based in Amsterdam, the Dutch East India Company (bigger and more powerful than Wallmart today – it even had its own warships) decided to build a “halfweg stasie” – a refueling station for its ships – where modern day Cape Town is.

Fact 3.

The majority of the employees, were not Dutch, but German. There were also, Swedish Danish, employees and a few Portuguese.

Fact 4

There was an industrial dispute, the employees of the company claimed this Wallmart paid them too little, went freelance – and started the colonisation process. Each time the company increased the size of the area under their control to bring the errant workers under their control, the workers scampered over the border.

The British tried the same later and also failed, and them let them be. Until gold was discovered.

Fact 5

The company brought slaves from the East, Malaysia and Sri-Lanka today, and the Governor of the company that created Stellenbosch, Simon van der Stel was Javanese himself. Most coloureds – the majority of inhabitants of the Cape – are their descendants and they speak Afrikaans.

Fact 6

More than 10% of Afrikaners were in fact French Huguenots who arrived around 1700.

Fact 7

The first guy to call himself an Afrikaner was Hendrik Biebouw. His father was German and his sister a coloured. He was pulled off his horse by a Dutch magistrate after speeding through Stellenbocsh drunk.

The Dutch magistrate hit him with a cane. Biebouw who – unlike the Magistrate – was born in South Africa protested, “you can’t hit me, I’m an Afrikaner”. As was customary at the time for disciplinary matters Biebouw was deported to Australia.

Fact 8

The Dutch King asked the British to protect the company in 1796 from the French during the Napoleonic wars. When the British arrived they were not received with open arms, but were shot at by the settlers (not the last time), who disliked the Dutch King who had never held any sway, and never showed much interest. They supported Napoleon and spurned on by the Americans, were Republicans to boot.

Fact 9

The Dutch had very little contact and cultural exchange with Afrikaners from 1806 – when the British took over completely – until today. Boer War leader and later prime minister Jan Smuts was educated in the Netherlands, and so was some Afrikaans writers in the 1950’s and 1960’s during an era of burgeoning cultural contact, but apartheid, which the Dutch vehemently opposed – put paid to any further contact.

Fact 10

Very few towns founded by Afrikaners, especially significant ones, had any link with Dutch ones, quite unlike towns in Spanish, British and Portuguese colonies. They had by and large home grown names and indicative of the cultural disconnect.

Fact 11

The Dutch, like the Germans and the French did not support the Boer republics during the Anglo Boer War (even after being begged to), being scared of the mighty British empire. The Germans did supply weapons, and the Dutch sent a ship to pick up Paul Kruger, Transvaal president and ship him to exile. Kruger however preferred to spend exile in Switzerland.

Fact 12

The Dutch supported the ANC and liberation movements like SWAPO during the apartheid years. The Afrikaner Nationalists despised the Dutch for this.

Fact 13

Afrikaans – contains many Dutch and Dutch based words. But its negation is based on French, the so-called dubbel nie. Afrikaans verbs don’t conjugate like Dutch ones and is much simplified. Afrikaans also contains much by way of Malaysian words like baie and quite a bit of Zulu.

Fact 14

The Dutch the mangle their words with a nasal twang which makes even understandable words incomprehensible to Afrikaans speakers.

Fact 15

The first written Afrikaans is a translation of the Koran.

Fact 16

The Ducth were, for a long time, rather embarrassed about Afrikaans & Afrikaners. Recently there has been a subtle mood change with increasing interest in Afrikaans music & culture.

No related posts.

Kameraad Mhambi has a lot of time for Gwede Mantashe the secreatary general of the ANC. But his assertion that the song Dubul’ ibhunu has an anti-apartheid legacy within the ANC seems to be wrong.

This excellent article sets out where it comes from, the PAC, who renounced it, only for it to be taken up by Peter Mokaba after apartheid had ended.

The truth seems to be that words to the same effect first were chanted in Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) circles in the early 1990s along with their infamous slogan of “one settler, one bullet”. Shortly thereafter, the late ANC youth leader Peter Mokaba borrowed the slogan and began chanting his “kill the Boer, kill the farmer” version in 1993 after the murder of ANC and Communist Party leader, Chris Hani.

Ayesab’ amagwala (Cowards are scared)
Dubula! dubula! dubula nge s’bhamu (Shoot, shoot, shoot them wit a gun)
Dubul’ ibhunu (Shoot the boer)
Dubula! dubula! dubula nge s’bhamu (Shoot, shoot, shoot them wit a gun)
Mama, ndiyeke ndidubul’ ibhunu (Ma, let me shoot the Boer)
Dubula! dubula! dubula nge s’bhamu (Shoot, shoot, shoot them wit a gun)
Ziyareypa lezinja (These dogs rape)
Dubula! dubula! dubula nge s’bhamu (Shoot, shoot, shoot them wit a gun)

Related deployments:

1. Clive Derby-Lewis on the wrong side of history

Following on from Breyten Breytenbach’s remarkable piece in Rapport, where he lambasted the current South African regime and called for another, ex-foreign minister Pik Botha has responded to Breytenbach.

Here is an extract of what Pik Botha’s said:

“Die wit mense en in besonder die Afrikaners staan voor strawwe uitdagings.

Eerstens moet die onderskeid tussen “wit” en “bruin” Afrikaners
verdwyn. Gelukkig is dit besig om te gebeur.

Tweedens moet die verbitterdes in ons geledere oorreed word om saam te
trek in die nuwe groot trek wat op ons wag, naamlik om die land se
swart regering te oortuig dat ons mekaar nodig het om ons land te laat
slaag.

Dit klink vir my dít is ’n kampanje wat Breyten Breytenbach in gedagte
het. As dit so is, het hy my volle ondersteuning.

En moontlik is dit ’n debat waaraan wyle Chris Louw ook sou wou
deelgeneem het. ”

Trans: “Whites but in particular Afrikaners are facing huge challenges.

But first the differentiation between white and brown Afrikaners should
disappear. Luckily this is starting to happen.

Secondly, the bitter amongst us should be convinced to join in the
second great trek that is awaiting us, that is to convince the black
government that we need each other to make this country work.

It sounds to me that this is the campaign that Breyten Breytenbach has
in mind. If true, it has my full support.

Possibly this is a debate that Chris Louw would also have wanted to
take part in.”

Earlier in the piece Pik hints at and basically accuses FW de Klerk of not following his suggestions during the negotiations. Botha claims he wanted guarantees for Afrikaners but De Klerk fobbed this off by suggesting that the Bill or rights in the Constitution can deal with his concerns.

Botha also claims that in 2007 he, De Klerk and a few ex ministers had tried to contact the ANC.

After speaking at the trade Union Solidarity in 2007 and saying that there would not have been a new constitution if the ANC had been open about how they would apply affirmative action, Rapport published a front page “The ANC lied to us“.

Two days later Thabo Mbeki delivered via courier a 7 page letter, who according to Botha contained strong and crass language. Mbeki disagreed vehemently.

On the 19th of July Botha sent Mbeki a six page fax, where he claims he said:

“You know that we could not have agreed to a process based solely on racial demographic representivity … You also know that internationally, affirmative action is based on a time frame.”

Botha claims he asked in the fax whether he and De Klerk could meet Mbeki. They never received an answer.

Not long after Mbeki was unseated at Polokwane.

In August 2008 Botha claims he called De Klerk and told him he is very concerned about the ANC’s pronouncements on land reform, affirmative action, the judicial system and other issues that Botha felt went against the Constitution. This besides crime problem and the lack of service delivery.

Botha suggested that a number of politicians that were involved in the negotiations from 1990 to 1994 should meet the new leadership of the ANC, to tell them of of their concerns, and to tell them what contributions they could make to help solve these issues.

FW agreed. Their team would consist of Dawie de Villiers, Roelf Meyer, Leon Wessels, Chris Fismer and Botha.

They met twice in Cape Town where they discussed their agenda.

On the 3rd of September 2008 FW sent a letter to ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe, where a meeting was sought with the ANC’s leadership.

This was followed up with enquiries on the 24th of October 2008 and the 11th of November 2008. Also messages were left with Mantashe’s secretary as to when they can expect an answer.

By January 2009 no answer had been received, and it was decided that in the light of the coming elections not to send any further requests.

Until this day there has been no reaction to FW’s letter says Pik.

What do I make of all this?

1) It’s weird that none of the South African English language press have reported on Breyten’s article, and none yet on Pik’s. The suicide of Chris Louw did get some attention from publications like Politicsweb. So why the lack of coverage on the much bigger stories of Pik’s letters and Breyten’s clarion call?

Any regrouping of Afrikaners would potentially threaten the Democratic Alliance and the English language press is scared any coverage would only encourage it further. It is a World Cup Year after all and any major social unrest could upset a massive apple cart.

It’s either that, or the Afrikaans press is really not considered of import at all.

2) Is this a storm in a tea cup? I don’t think so.

Related deployments:

1. Chris Louws death and what it may mean
2. Thabo Mbeki – bookending failure with two great speeches

Today I read about a Canadian couple that was attacked near Hermanus. This attack could be significant. Canada will soon pronounce on an landmark asylum case of a white South African that claimed asylum on the basis that whites are not safe in South Africa.

The truth is of course that all South Africans are not very safe. Especially those perceived as having things of value and easy pickings. Like African migrants and now priests. (A recent study found that black South Africans, are actually three times more likely to be the victim of homicide than whites.)

I surfed the web to find out more about the Hermanus case and discovered that four catholic priests had been murdered this year in South Africa. The 70-year-old Father Louis Blondel of France was shot. Before him Fr Lionel Sham, 66, was abducted from his home and found a couple of days later, murdered.

The first priest to be killed this year was Fr Daniel Matsela Mahula, in the Diocese of Klerksdorp, killed on 27 February while driving his car, by four highwaymen near Bloemhof. He was stabbed, bundled in the boot of his car and then buried in a shallow grave.

And in May Ernst Plochl, 78, was bound and strangled to death.

But then I found a fifth. Clive Newman wasn’t a catholic priest like all the others. He was Anglican. And he had cheated death when he survived a brutal and bizarre attack in 1991, only to be murdered now.

The Eastern province Herald put up this link to clippings of the original attack. Poor man.

South Africa is so depressing sometimes that I sometimes seriously consider giving up on blogging about it.

UPDATE:
Weddings and other religious ceremonies have also been targeted.

Related deployments:

1. Being a farmer in SA your 125 times more likely to be murdered than a Brit

The BBC recently featured Bishop Tutu in a Tutu-for-Dummies style documentary. I got wind of it because Tom, a friend  saw me in it. Gerrie, another friend captured the bit about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in which I feature (see if can spot me around 20 seconds), and here it is below.

One thing struck me most when seeing it was the posh words of TRC Commissioner and the ex Head of Black Sash, Mary Burton.

“Everybody that worked for the Truth Commission was changed by it, to some extent.”

Posh yes. True – oh yes. Particularly in my case.

Alot of things have been said about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, most of them positive.

To me the TRC was a bitter disappointment and the moment I first thought, against hope, that the new SA won’t work. It was the impetus behind my leaving South Africa at the end of 1998.

But I almost never joined its hallowed ranks.

When I finished my LLB at Tukkies I had my sights on touring Europe. I had, like many of my friends, never been outside of Africa. (I had toured Africa after 1994 extensively, but never left the continent.)

I would not be denied the world any longer.

I was due to fly to London on a working holiday visa in less than a week’s time when I got an unexpected phone call. It was from the TRC. They wanted me to come for a job interview! I was gob-smacked.

My lecturer at University – Prof Christoff Heyns – with whom I had done my final year thesis on the TRC Act had sent it to them. They liked it.

The position was for a statement taker. That is to say noting down people’s stories. It was the kind of opportunity one could not say no to.

I supported the idea and the embodiment of the TRC in its legislation whole heartedly. As a student I had vigorously campaigned for the end of white rule. I was a member of Students for Human Rights and had helped organize the first Pan African Human Rights Competition.  This was a dream job.

In a way I was an affirmative action choice. The only white statement taker in our region (that covered the whole of the old Transvaal and parts of the Northern Cape and Free Sate). Some regions didn’t even have a whitey.

Working at the TRC first felt unreal. Surrounded by powerful and well known people like Bishop Tutu, Dumisa Ntsebenza, Alex Boraine, Wynand Malan one felt very important.

We had policemen at our bid and call, and we were backed up with some of the most powerful legislation ever given to a South African investigating body. Before the TRC we could even revoke a person’s right to remain silent. Before us truth will out, or so we thought.

Part of the TRC mission was to record gross human rights violations – defined as murder, torture, or serious assault – that were committed with political animus. As a statement takers my colleagues and I were required to take three to five statements, by hand, per day.

It was fascinating, exhausting and harrowing. We were listening to violent tale and then a tragic one, and then both in one story. It was infuriating, and quite often it made me feel deeply ashamed of being an Afrikaner.

I met prime evil Eugene de Kock. A man that looked unremarkable, like an accountant, albeit a big one. Soft spoken, bespectacled, unassuming except for his size. He was bright you realised when he spoke, he chose every word very carefully. I met a dozen or so other killers.

I took some auspicious statements. Like that of the mother of Ahmed Timol. Ahmed was the first political detainee to die at the infamous John Vorster Square police station (There was 9 that died there), when he “jumped” from the 10th floor. Despite signs of torture an inquest by magistrate de Villiers agreed that Timol had committed suicide, rather then divulge information. He was after-all a communist, trained at the Lenin School in Moscow. Police referred to the 10th floor at John Voster Square as Timol heights.

I also saw a report by physiotherapist of another victim of John Vorster square – Stanza Bopape. The security police had taken Bopape to one while he was held in detention. When I saw the physiotherapists name I saw he was a good friend of my father. Why did the police take him to the friendly oom? Bopape was torture to death, and then dumped into a river. Me and my kin were on trail, and we were getting away with murder.

Sometimes of our own. Jurgen Grobbelaar was a brilliant student in Krugersdorp. The best in his class. My father’s wife – a teacher – knew him well. But in his first year at Tukkies, where I met him, he got involved with the far right. They stole automattic rifles from a military base and in an attempt to get more weapons killed a woman. He died in the desert in a police chase close to the Namibian border.

His mother came to see me a few years later at the TRC. I saw the police docket. I saw what they did with him. They claimed he had shot himself. Impossible. Both his arms were utterly broken. The police did not bother to get out of their armoured vehicle me thinks. Using a technique from the Borderwar they simply drove over him. And then they shot him at point blank range in the face to make it look like suicide. At least that’s my theory.

And then the obfuscation and obstruction that was often the case when the police were suspected of fowl play, followed. His body had been sent from pillar to post and the post mortems delayed.

I often left the TRC office in a daze.

As I drove home I saw South Africans go about their everyday tasks, and I thought to myself, how is this ‘normal’ South Africa possible? Why are black South Africans so forgiving? Why is there no civil war? (Since then I feel I have answers to some of these questions, but that is not the subject matter of this post.)

I also got really frustrated.

Luckily I had befriended Thulani Granville-Grey, our friendly dreadlocked in-house psychologist. With him I shared lunches and got issues of my chest at the Sanlam Center at the same time.

Rather that – informal therapy – than attend statement taker group therapy. On the one hand I had grown up in a Apostolic Faith Mission and Charismatic Christian tradition, I was no stranger of public displays of emotion and admitting weakness. On the other I was a South African male, a boertjie. I disliked spilling my guts in front of others intensely.

Thulani reckoned that my distress was because all I’m doing is documenting losses. I’m not in the research or investigation, reparation or amnesty teams, who at least in some ways try to ameliorate cases. I’m not feeling I’m making a positive difference.

There was a solution. Make a difference!

Incredibly a number of posts were still open after 3 months in the Johannesburg Investigative Unit. I was the only statement taker with an LLB so I thought I’d chance it to become a TRC investigator. I had been editor of the student newspaper of Tukkies. I knew I had a nose for leads. It took me about a month to convince them, and then I was appointed investigator.

My frustration did not lift. It turned into desperation.

The Johannesburg Investigative Unit was run by an oddball called adv Andre Steenkamp. Andre jumped – like his prickly mustache – from issue to issue and argument to argument. Energetic, fidgety, aggressive.

He – along with some really talented policemen – had left the Transvaal Attorney General Jan D’Oliviera’s very successful Unit (They had investigated and prosecuted Eugene de Kock amongst others) to join the TRC. It was clear that he was ambitious and out to prove he was better than Jan.

Either that or he was an National Intelligence spy and an extremely good actor out to sabotage the process . I however doubt it.

But he was also very disorganised.

In the context of the TRC he was not out of the ordinary. The whole organisation was disorganised and racked with spams of infighting, particularly in middle management upwards.

One month after joining the investigating unit, I had still not been given anything to investigate.

Our unit had some pillars I could depend on. One of them was Piers Pigou. An Englishman who had worked with NGO’s like the Human Rights Commission during the 90’s township war. I decided to ask Piers where I should start investigating.

Piers had little hesitation and pointed me at the troubles in the Vaal triangle area. He sent me documents and put me in touch with people. And off I went into our heart of darkness.

Almost half the casualties of political violence from 1948 to 1994 happened in the last three years of white rule. A big chunk of these in the Vaal.

The Vaal is home to some of the most vicious battles, massacres and murders during apartheid SA’s death throws. I’m talking the Sebokeng massacre, the night vigil massacre, the Vaal monster, and the Boipatong massacre.

The latter changed the course of South African history.

At the time – June 1992 – the Nationalists were still riding their new found wave of goodwill. A wave generated by ubanning the ANC, releasing Mandela and negotiating. Their wave had just got new oomf with the succesful white referendum of 1992.

Importantly they were holding out at Codessa for a number of constitutional guarantees for the white minority.

Rian Malan argues that the ANC cynically used the Boipatong massacre and the condemnation that followed to scupper the talks, not return to them and pile pressure on the Nats.

Eventually, in September 1992 they did give in. South Africa’s constitution was to be modeled on that of a run of the mill western liberal democracy.

Here I was, a 24 year old with virtually no experience, the self appointed and only investigator on a crucial part of South African history, with only Piers to ask for political advice, and the practical helping hand of police investigators Fanie and Johannes.

So why was I unhappy?

The TRC eventually included findings on these crucial incidents in their report, but none of which is based on the reports I gave them. I am not sure where they got there information from, but it would seem that the Commission leaned heavily on material published by NGO’s like the Human Rights Commision (HRC) before the TRC came to existence. It’s important to note that the HRC never investigated these incidents either, but merely repeated allegations made at the time.

The findings over Boipatong in particular caused quite a stir, with Rian Malan accusing the TRC of bias. There was no proof that the police directly assisted in the attack on Boipatong like the TRC report stated insisted Malan.

He was right. There was no proof that the police or whites were at the scene at the time as the TRC report claimed, and as the ANC and some members of the local community had claimed after the massacre.

But Malan was also wrong.

It’s highly unlikely that they were present, but there was ample proof that the police, or at least elements in the police, had close links with the attackers, had supplied the weapons and had interfered with investigations. If one looked at the bigger Vaal picture it was clear that it was a vipers nest of very nasty characters, some of them in or protected by the police.

In fact I had handed a box full of evidence to the TRC when I Ieft. In it is enough concrete leads to start further investigation and prosecution of a number of senior (and not so senior ex policemen), for Boipatong, Sebokeng, and other incidents.

Nothing has ever happened. I’m not sure if that box still exists.

There were other incidents that made me disalusioned with the TRC. Like when some staff turned up late for work. Or did no work. Or the racism displayed by some of its members. There was the day during the 1998 World Cup of which I shall blog sometime.

There was the breaking of law in the name of a cause like the case of police killer Brian Mitchel. He should not have been given amnesty in terms of the Act. He had attacked civilians. But he was given amnesty in the hope that others would be encouraged to apply. And their was the ignoring of the law in the case of Clive Derby Lewis and Janus Walluz, they were the text book case for amnesty because their target was not only not indiscriminate but highly political. But they never got it, because they had killed the crown prince of the ANC.

There was the death threats to investigators, including to Liela Groenewald, who investigated Winnie Mandela. There was the day when Albertina Sisulu and the might of the ANC refused to confront Winnie Mandela over the murder of two boys.

But the biggest incident that pricked the little bubble that was my middleclass and cosseted upbringing was this.

Once a week I took a pile of files to Joyce Seroke, a TRC Human Rights Committee member. One of the senior TRC members I found most friendly and approachable. Warm even.

I would go through the cases with her, and she would make findings on whether those persons in the files qualify as victims of gross human rights abuse in terms of the Act.

What happened that day shocked me to the core. But today most South Africans would probably commend her.

As was my habit I came back from lunch with a copy of The Star underneath my arm. The story on the front page caught Joyce’s eye, it was about the horrific car hijacking in which a father lost his daughter. But it said, the police had caught the culprits.

Good said Joyce, now they should torture these bastards to find out whose behind these hijackings.

I saw lights, blood hummed in my ears, my mouth was dry. My mind was spinning.

It was a profoundly confusing experience.

No related posts.

After Gavin Evan’s close escape he gets call ups. His low profile ended. Their ANC unit was broken up, and he worked individually from Harare, where he visited Brett Myrdal, and smuggled stuff back to SA. Gavin deals with the question of whether the ECC was an ANC organisation.

This was also the time of spies like Mark Behr (author of Die reuk van Appels) and Joy Harnden, who caused the death of an ANC member, even after Gavin had reported her to the ANC.

Related deployments:

1. A beer with Gavin Evans
2. A beer with Gavin Evans (Part 7 – The ECC, Brett Myrdal)

Gavin Evans tells more about the launch of the ECC and it’s predecessor COSG. He talks about the tension between the Christian pacifist objectors and the young student radicals. He also talks about spy Rob Whitecross and the arrest of Carl Niehaus for plotting to blow up the Johannesburg gas works, and his own short detention and assault.

Brett Myrdall in Zimbabwe

Related deployments:

1. A beer with Gavin Evans
2. A beer with Gavin Evans (part 4 – recruitment into the ANC)

The battle against conscription to the SADF hots up, Gavin himself is sent to Johannesburg to campaign against conscription to the SADF there. This was because the ANC thought the pamphlet and other incidents in Cape Town (part 6) might expose him.

Gavin Evans and Janet Cherry were in the same underground ANC unit
Photo Gavin Evans.

This video includes the lead up to the ECC launch with the help of organizations like Black Sash. It also includes the story of Brett Myrdal’s conscription.

Related deployments:

1. A beer with Gavin Evans
2. A beer with Gavin Evans (part 8 Carl Niehaus & assault)

The plot thickens. Chris Hani and Joe Jelle were opposed to NUSAS & Thabo Mbeki’s policy of strategic participation. Back in South Africa, Gavin and his new unit consisting of Richard Goode, and Janet Cherry had to communicate the ANC position that military service was not acceptable.

This was against the established position of NUSAS and caused a lot of trouble. They were also encouraged to send others out on recommendation to Zimbabwe, and Brett Myrdal was one of them.

Gavin also talks about some close calls.

Related deployments:

1. A beer with Gavin Evans (part 8 Carl Niehaus & assault)
2. A beer with Gavin Evans (part 9 – Spies and lies)

There’s a group on Facebook about the history of Cape Town. A few days ago I noticed an interesting picture. John Tailor told me what it was all about. It was June 1972 and there was a protest by UCT students at St. Georges Cathedral. A colonel Crouse – who was in charge – was himself hit, presumably by one of the students.

Tailor continues:

The students were protesting and it was declared an illegal gathering. Colonel Pieter Crous was in charge. The meeting got out of hand and the police baton charged the students. Crous was hit so hard he said he “thought his spleen had burst”.

However, despite this he considered the force being used by his men against unarmed students was excessive. He stepped in between his men and the students to prevent further bloodshed. The overseas press was there and picked up on this. Next day’s head lines were “SA’s St George” a South African colonel defends rioting students against the brutality of his own men etc etc etc. You get the drift.

Well I knew Crous very well. I was working for Foschini at the time and was stationed in Adderley street. Crous was dating my supervisor Rosa Venter a widower. They eventually got married. Because of Crous’s stand at the Cathedral he was considered a liability, promoted to Brigadier and sent to Kimberley to quietly retire. A more decent and upstanding man I have yet to meet.

If anybody has more information on this incident or any similar others, please do send them along.

No related posts.