Coffin assault men reinforce ANC’s stereotyping of Afrikaners 

16 November 2016

Flip Buys, Chairman of the Solidarity Movement, said the actions of the two men who had allegedly forced a black man into a coffin, threatening to set him alight, reinforce the ANC’s stereotyping of Afrikaners and white people as cruel racists who must be fought by using all the powers of the state.

Buys today spoke out strongly against the behaviour of the two men from Middelburg in Mpumalanga, Willem Oosthuizen and Theo Martins Jackson.

This comes after the two men were arrested for allegedly having forced a man into a coffin, threatening to set him alight. Buys said people such as those men who assault others deserve to face the full might of the law.

According to Buys, behaviour such as this is thwarting efforts in the struggle to contain racism. Afrikaners cannot rant on about Malema’s racist threats on the one hand, yet at the same time tolerate behaviour such as this. Racism has to be countered in all its forms. Deeds such as those, evidently undertaken by extremist individuals, provide the ANC with a stick by which all white people can be lashed for being guilty of racism, also using new legislation, and to condemn and sentence them all as racist criminals.

Several institutions are in the process of submitting comments on the proposed new bill on racism and to bring Malema to book about his blatantly racist statements. “When people make themselves guilty of such bad behaviour then it undoes all the good work others try to bring about,” Buys said.

“By now we all know that certain racist behaviour will be proclaimed from the housetops. Refrain from such behaviour and strive to achieve mutual recognition and respect,” Buys said.

Issued by Francois Redelinghuys, Spokesperson, Solidarity, 16 November 2016