Racial tensions

Together with his heavily armed supporters, he was determined to maintain white rule in South Africa, pushing ahead with a campaign of protests and attacks aimed at preventing the first democratic elections in 1994.

Despite being ridiculed and despised by many, he pursued his goal of demanding a homeland for the Afrikaner people. Pulling together a membership of over 70,000 people at his height of his popularity, Terre'Blanche led his self-made army, threatening the local populace and anyone within his own ranks who dared to challenge his leadership.

With his efforts sharply focused on his ideals of white supremacy, he led an armed invasion of South Africa's World Trade Center, where pivotal political negotiations on a new democratic constitution were underway. But despite his attempts at toppling the plans of Nelson Mandela and the negotiating teams, the elections were peaceful and paved the way for democracy.

Now 16 years on, the brutal murder of Terre'Blanche, allegedly at the hands of his farmworkers, has once again raised the specter of racial conflict.

Weak and ailing from a heart complaint, the 69-year-old leader of the ultra right-wing Afrikaner Weeerstandsbeweging (AWB) (Afrikaner Resistance Movement) was beaten and hacked to death with machetes on his farm in Ventersdorp, in South Africa's North West province over the weekend. Two of his workers, one of them aged 15, have already appeared in court, charged with murder. (The case has been postponed until April 14).

Killing has political motives

The killing appears to have been sparked by a wage dispute. But many have been quick to attach a political motive to the murder following recent utterances by the powerful youth leader of the ruling African National Congress, Julius Malema.

During his numerous public addresses the young firebrand has stirred the cauldron of racial tension by the frequent and public singing of a song. The controversy over the song, which translates as "Kill the Boer" (farmer) has been raging for the past three weeks and has raised the ire of Afrikaners in particular, who say it has the potential of inciting violence against them.

Last week, the South African high court banned the song, ruling it as "hate speech" in terms of the country's constitution. The ANC said it would appeal the ruling, saying the song is historic and an important relic of the anti-apartheid struggle.

The charismatic youth leader, who has garnered a strong following in South Africa, fuelled the anger of many when he took the song over the border this weekend, singing the song in Zimbabwe, where the political situation is highly charged. Many white farmers have been driven off the land and some murdered.

With the two incidents revolving around white farmers, South African President Jacob Zuma moved swiftly to calm the atmosphere, appealing to political leaders to think first before making statements that could inflame racial tensions.

"It is important that all leaders - from political formations and non-governmental organisations - unite for the call for calm in this country," he said in an interview earlier this week.

Racial tension on the rise

Opposition political leaders have also weighed in on the debate. The leader of the official opposition Democratic Alliance, Helen Zille, has called for an urgent meeting with President Zuma, following the killing of Terre'Blanche and the rise of what she terms racially polarised incidents in the country.

Zille told journalists that recent cases of racial intolerance, including the singing of the song, have come close to "breaking up" everything the country has built over the past 16 years. She has called for the songs to be laid to rest in archives and museums alone.

But some political analysts say it's irresponsible to link the murder of Terre'Blanche with the "Kill the Boer" song. The timing could have been a coincidence, says Aubrey Matshiqi, a senior researcher at the Johannesburg-based Center for Policy Studies.

"We should allow the court process to take its course," she told Deutsche Welle. "There's a seeming desperation on the part of some groups and political parties to forge a link. People see it as an opportunity to confirm their preexisting prejudices."

"The timing could not have been worse though," adjunct senior politics lecturer at the University of Cape Town, Raenette Taljaard, told Deutsche Welle. "Both sides could equally raise racial tensions."

She believes symbols, such as the apartheid era old South African flag, neo-Nazi emblems worn by AWB members, as well as the anti-apartheid struggle songs, should "be in the attic, in the box marked history."

All eyes on South Africa

South Africa is all too aware that it needs to cool racial temperatures and get its act together ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup which it hosts in two months time.

South Africans from across the spectrum have been building up to the event for years and have ploughed billions of euros into state-of-the-art stadiums, transport and tourism. Taljaard believes this latest controversy "won't contaminate the excitement over the World Cup."

But together with others, she believes, that threats of racism have to be handled with great sensitivity, so that the perception of South Africa is not muddied by high-profile, but isolated incidents.

"With the countdown to the World Cup, we must be careful that we don't play into the hands of the stereotypes," says the leader of the conservative Freedom Front Plus political party, Pieter Mulder.

Mulder, who represents the interests of many Afrikaners, says he's hopeful that President Zuma, together with other party political leaders, will have a firm hand in quelling the racial tension.

"The 1994 deal toward democracy is not automatic. It must be guarded by wise leaders, moderate leaders on all sides."

Although the renewed heightened tension has sent shivers down the country's collective spine, there seem to be enough wise and moderate leaders on all sides to prevent any recurrence of the threats of racial anarchy that nearly tore the country apart in the transition to democracy.

Author: Kim Cloete
Editor: Rob Mudge