South African speedster Lungi Ngidi’s comments on the Black Lives Matter movement has raised some serious eyebrows in South Africa, as former South African cricketers are rising to voice their dissent, and bringing to the memory of all that “white farmers are being slaughtered daily”. “All Lives Matter,” which is being described by many as a more inclusive form of an anti-racial campaign, is now being used as a stepping stone for African Whites to describe the reverse racism they face in the country, especially if they happen to be farmland owners and farmers.
Ngidi had expressed the need for the South African cricketers and cricket board to take a solid stand on Black Lives Matter movement, and said that South Africa’s painful history with apartheid and racial discrimination mandated the players to take a stand. However, not everyone agrees. Rudi Steyn, in a post, said: “I believe the Proteas should make a stand against racism, but if they stand up for “black lives matter” while ignoring the way white farmers are daily being “slaughtered” like animals, they have lost my vote.”
Replying to Steyn’s post, Boeta Dippenaar said, “I am afraid to say “Black Lives Matter” have become nothing more than leftist political movement…I would suggest that Lungi Ngidi listens a bit more to likes of Thomas Sowell, Larry Elder, Walter Williams and Milton Friedman.”
Meanwhile, Pat Symcox said, “What nonsense is this? He must take his own stand if he wishes. Stop trying to get the Proteas involved in his belief. Besides the fact that right now Cricket South Africa should be closed down. A proper dog and pony show with cricket being dragged through the mud daily. Buy popcorn and watch.”
Farm killings in South Africa are not spoken about. However, a piece of land in Plaasmoorde houses over 2000 white crosses, each cross signifying a white farmer killed in racial attacks in the country since 1994. In 2017 alone, independent figures suggest 84 white farmers were killed. White farmers in South Africa have almost accepted that they will be killed most certainly, and that it is only a matter of time before a racial mob enters their houses, plunders their possessions, and ultimately slaughters them in the most brutal fashion, as though seeking vengeance for the Apartheid.
Such are the conditions of white farmers in South Africa, that they are forced to resort to seeking training by means of a tactical survival course. Meanwhile, electric fences around houses, and services of private security firms are also required for them to remain alive in the country, for an attack on their lives can come at any given moment. Large protest rallies and calls for justice, not to mention pleas to somehow put an end to the ghastly crimes committed against white farmers, have all fallen into deaf ears.
However, death is not all that white farmers have to fear in South Africa. The government too is doing all it can to effectuate socialist practices upon the people, the hits of which are going to majorly be taken by whites. The ‘land expropriation without compensation’ will give the government the power to usurp white owned farmlands (without paying for them), and equally distribute them among the black population. Whites in South Africa allegedly own over 70 percent of the farm and agricultural holdings in the country despite people of colour making up 90 percent of the population. The move is highly controversial, and countries like the US and Australia have voiced their opposition to the same. Australia had even gone the extra in offering residency to the white farmers of South Africa, since they are evidently living on borrowed time.
Already, the affirmative action laws, while noble in concept indeed, have immensely diluted South Africa’s institutions. Meant to provide a healing touch for the people of colour who were colonized and treated in an inhuman fashion, the affirmative action was supposed to carry out ‘Black Empowerment’.
As a matter of fact, a similar exercise, on the lines of the land expropriation was carried out in what was called the “Bread Basket of Africa” – Zimbabwe. Robert Mugabe, however, distributed land to whosoever he deemed fit, by snatching it away from the original owners, of course.
The fundamental premise used to carry out such attacks is the perception that the ‘whites’ are still an occupational force in South Africa, who have illegally usurped land belonging to the indigenous people of colour. While some did indeed take swathes of land by force, some had even bought it. However, large portions of land were empty, under the ownership of nobody, and were pretty much in the middle of a non-man’s land, claims Afri Forum, an Afrikaner lobby group. In 2018, in a memorandum to the international community, it said:
“The distortion of the past relates to the assumption that white land owners inevitably obtained land through oppression, whereas most of the land owned by white people was legally bought. There were also cases in the 1800s where the Voortrekkers took possession of uninhabited land. Furthermore, it is true that conflict between white and black tribes indeed occurred during the Great Trek. However, the fact is swept under the carpet that conflicts for the purpose of conquering land had at that stage been a common practice among black tribes.”
Reverse racism is very much prevalent in South Africa. It is not spoken about, nor does the fight against it receive global support, because the media would rather show whites as oppressors rather than victims. Dismissing #AllLivesMatter as a movement which is reactionary in nature to BLM is an indication of the disregard of people towards the crimes which a multiplicity of people are subjected to around the world. More so, it is indicative of the fact that culpable minds have been hijacked to make them believe that BLM must be solitary in nature, and for as long as Black Lives Matter continues as a movement, no other atrocities can be spoken about.