SA football website responds to Terreblanche murder news

I asked Karen Lotter of Vuvuzela South Africa about the death of Eugene Terreblanche and the likely implications for the World Cup in her country. Here’s what she had to say.

“The brutal murder of Eugene Terreblanche on the eve of the 2010 World Cup is certainly not what South Africa needed or wanted. But this incident just reminded us of the terrible inequality that still exists in our country.

The September 2009 Business Report said South Africa had overtaken Brazil as the country with the largest gap between the rich and the poor making it the most “unequal society” in the world.

So often in conversations have we joked that the worst place in the country to be a black person must be Ventersburg, Terreblanche's home town and the seat of his Afrikaners Weerstands Beweging (AWB) with their swastika-like regalia.

Besides trying to violently stop the peaceful transition to democracy when Nelson Mandela was released – he attacked and bombed and invaded one of the so called homelands which lead to people losing their lives, Terreblanche also served three years in prison for violently beating a black worker into a state where he is so brain damaged he will never know what's going on around him.

He was also convicted of setting his dog on another black person. So that is the background of a white supremacist and racist who has stated that the Afrikaner is entitled to this land and that he would fight to death for it.

At this moment, it is not known what happened, but the two young men, one 16 and one 20, apparently handed themselves over to the police after the murder. The police say it was a dispute over wages.

The AWB, who have sworn revenge, say that this incident is related to another drama where big mouthed and controversial African National Congress leader Julius Malema started singing some old struggle songs that translated to: Kill the Farmer.

Now your blog readers probably could read most of this in the papers, but what they want to know is what is going to happen to the World Cup? Well I think Terreblanche will be laid to rest and there will be a lot of posturing from his followers (on horseback); analysts will get a lot of airtime and the newspapers will be buzzing looking for really sexy headlines and then it will all die down and it will be business as usual.

My feeling is that he was a repulsive bully and a racist and probably treated all his workers like dirt. Young men of that age don't have much sense anyway – they are full of testosterone, and on a Saturday afternoon, probably a bit of beer as well, for courage to face the baas (boss).

So was this an accident waiting to happen? Ironically, it’s his own disregard for black people, his hatred of them and his belief in white superiority that turned these two young farm workers into weapons that caused his death.

South Africans aren't sissies, we are resilient and within a week we will be blowing our vuvuzelas and diski dancing again, waiting to welcome the visitors to our country for the World Cup.”