“South Africa’s white supremacist paramilitary leader, Eugene Terre’Blanche, is back and he wants his own homeland.” This is according to an article that appeared in the Sunday Times on Sunday. The article also stated that the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) leader “…seemingly has lost none of his old fire, railing against the “communist-inspired” ANC government, Muslims, Catholics and whites who sold out the “volk” at a protest rally in the wintry town of Vryheid in KwaZulu-Natal this week.” He has also been known to say that the Afrikaners are “chosen by God to bring the white light to the darkness of Africa”. By the “white light”, does he mean white-rule, or the gospel…?

In a BBC profile on Terre’Blanche, they say that “Terreblanche’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. Terreblanche seemed to walk a tightrope between racist menace and national joke.”

Terre’Blanche was sentenced to six years in prison for assaulting a petrol station worker, as well as the attempted murder of a farm worker. He was released in June 2004, almost exactly four years ago. He also claims to have become a ‘born-again’ Christian while serving his prison sentence. He was quoted in an article in The Mail and Guardian as saying ‘”I have always been a religious man,” he said. “But like many Christians, God was my back-up, not my rudder. That changed while I was in prison.”’ However he also says that he doesn’t regret any of the things he has done… “I am willing to go to jail another 10 times for what I believe in,” he roared to cries of “amen” from the audience. “They will have to kill me to stop me.”… And this definitely shows in his renewed yearning for an Afrikaner Homeland.

What I don’t understand, is how someone can be so horribly stuck in the past, and can devote all their energy to something that is completely ridiculous, and is never in a million years going to happen. Who in their right mind can possible believe the the ANC will give Afrikaners their own Homeland, where they can live separately without blacks interfering with their lives? And how many Afrikaners does he actually believe will join him? He is an embarrassment for all white, Afrikaans people.

Why can’t he just go and retire in Orania, and leave the rest of us in peace? Or, as the Sunday Times said in their Mampara of the Week segment… “…if you could find a nice cave somewhere and settle down there to a quiet Cro-Magnon existence, that would be nice. Honestly. And please don’t scare the children.”