POLITICS

"Eugene Terrorblanche" must be found - Helen Zille

DA leader calls on South Africans to assist in finding originators of horrific Facebook photo

Sunday Times photo: All South Africans must help to find ‘Eugene Terrorblanche'

The Democratic Alliance (DA), like all South Africans, is horrified by the picture which appears on the front page of today's Sunday Times (see here). 

Whether the photo is authentic, or digitally manipulated, is not the key issue here.  The issue is that someone, who goes by the pseudonym of "Eugene Terrorblanche," saw fit to post this gruesome picture on his Facebook page.

He may or may not be the man depicted in the picture. If the man in the picture is an innocent victim of a digitally manipulated photograph, he should come forward immediately to assist the police in their search.

The DA calls on all South Africans to assist in finding the originators of this picture so that the law can take its course.

The national response to the front page of this morning's Sunday Times has been an overwhelming sense of dismay and horror. Social networks and radio station have been filled with condemnations of the photo and the scene it depicts.  Whether or not the picture is genuine, it represents a scene of extreme violence perpetrated against a child by a man. The intention is to evoke racial hatred and polarisation.

Authorities should make every effort to contact the nearly 600 ‘Facebook friends'  of "Eugene Terrorblanche" in order to identify him, and find out why his ‘friends', who have had access to this photo for more than a year, have not reported it to the police.

Statement issued by Helen Zille, Leader of the Democratic Alliance, August 28 2011

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