Hacking the Foundations of National Reconciliation
On 6 May, at an ANC rally in Galeshewe, near Kimberly, Julius Malema ratcheted up the ANC Youth League's anti-white rhetoric a few more notches. He said, among other things, that "we must take the (whites') land without paying. Once we agree that they stole our land, we can agree they are criminals and must be treated as such." "They" (white farmers - or perhaps whites in general?) are thieves.
Malema repeated the Youth League's threat to nationalize the mines, the banks and the commanding heights of the economy. "Political freedom without economic freedom means nothing. You can vote until you turn yellow, but without economic freedom it means nothing." The subtext is that key to economic freedom is to grab the wealth that whites ‘stole'.
He called Helen Zille, the Leader of the Opposition, a "dancing monkey" from "monkey town". He chided people for allowing "the madam to kiss your children, when you know that the madam does not care about your children.
They (presumably whites) kill our people (blacks) when they confuse them with baboons." (Guilt for the reprehensible action of a single farmer some years ago is ascribed by Malema to a whole community on the basis of their race.)
We all know the old adage that ‘sticks and stones can hurt your bones but words can never hurt you.' Unfortunately, it is not true - particularly in fragile multicultural societies like our own.