Afrikaners feeling marginalized, disillusioned
in the new South Africa Afrikaners feeling marginalized, disillusioned
in the new South Africa
Thu Nov 14, 8:36 AM ET
By RAVI NESSMAN, Associated Press Writer
PRETORIA, South Africa--A bombing spree and an alleged coup plot by white extremists have spurred many aggrieved Afrikaners to speak out about their alienation and discontent in post-apartheid South Africa. While the violence is condemned by all but the most extreme Afrikaners, many say it should send a message to the black-led government that it can no longer ignore their problems.
"There is a lot of frustration," said Pieter Mulder, leader of the right-wing Freedom Front party. "Slowly, we are losing out." Only eight years after the end of white rule, Afrikaners descended from 17th century Dutch and French immigrants remain far better off than most of the nation's poor black majority. But many feel they are sliding backward. They complain that their language, Afrikaans, is being excised from universities and government offices in favor of English. They are feeling the impact of affirmative action policies designed to uplift the black community from apartheid's oppressive legacy. They say police are not doing enough to prevent the killings of white farmers and they feel alienated by the government's refusal to harshly condemn the violence against whites in neighboring Zimbabwe.
"If the government is prepared to have a minority in Zimbabwe being treated the way they were treated, then the impression is left that the government would have no regard for the Afrikaans-speaking people in South Africa," said Danie Goosen, a religion professor at the University of South Africa and a member of the Group of 63, a coalition of Afrikaner intellectuals.
The government denies it is ignoring the Afrikaners. On Wednesday, President Thabo Mbeki and several Cabinet ministers met with Freedom Front officials to discuss their concerns. Mbeki recently met with leaders from Afrikaans universities, and the ruling African National Congress (news - web sites) has formed a coalition with the New National Party, successor to the National Party that ruled during apartheid. But government spokesman Joel Netshitenzhe said feelings of frustration might be inevitable "when you eliminate privilege and create equity across society."
Afrikaners, who are the majority of South Africa's 10 percent white minority, are mostly law-abiding people who would never take their anger beyond the voting booth, said Henri Boshoff, an analyst at the Institute for Security Studies. But some extremists are accused of going much further. In recent weeks, police have uncovered weapons caches and arrested 18 members of the Boeremag, or Farmers' Force, over an alleged right-wing plot to overthrow the government and expel all black people from the country.
On Monday, a group calling itself the Boer Nation Warriors, which police believe is a faction of the Boeremag, e-mailed the media claiming responsibility for a two-hour bombing spree last month in Soweto, a black city outside Johannesburg, that damaged a mosque and three rail lines. A woman was killed when bomb debris hit her shack. The group said the bombing was the "beginning of the end of the ANC government." Neither the government nor analysts believe the right-wingers seriously threaten stability, and Boshoff estimates Boeremag support at only 1,200-1,500 people.
The group poses less of a threat than right-wing extremists did in the dying days of apartheid, when many Afrikaners feared vengeance by the newly empowered black majorit--a fear that never came true. For many Afrikaners, the euphoria of post-apartheid reconciliation peaked when Nelson Mandela, then president, appeared at the final match of the 1995 Rugby World Cup, Afrikanerdom's favorite sport, wearing the national team jersey. Comparing then and now, Mulder said, "I must be honest and say we are moving in the wrong direction."
A poll published this year by the South African Institute of Race Relations said 87 percent of Afrikaners felt racism against them was a serious problem. In response to the arrests and the bombings, the Group of 63 sent a letter to Mbeki last week condemning the violence but imploring the government to start focusing on Afrikaner feelings of powerlessness. That letter was in turn condemned by the independent Institute for Justice and Reconciliation as "implicit legitimation" of violence and bad for nation-building. But many Afrikaners say they have been left out of the nation-building for too long. "If the ship goes down we all go down together," Mulder said.
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