POLITICS

Don't give the foreign media what they want - Steve Hofmeyr

Singer tells Terre'Blanche funeral that such journalists want images of bloodthirsty Afrikaners

VENTERSDORP (Sapa) - There are no songs in the Afrikaner traditional culture that insults other nations, entertainer Steve Hofmeyr said during murdered AWB leader Eugene Terre'Blanche's funeral on Friday.

"Not a single song in there is insulting or contemptuous of other nations," Hofmeyr said to cheers and loud applause at the packed far-right wing leader's funeral in Ventersdorp.

He discovered this after searching the archives of the federation for Afrikaans culture, he told the congregation.

This was in reference to ANC youth league leader Julius Malema's singing of the lyrics "shoot the boer" as part of the ANC liberation song "The cowards are afraid", which many Afrikaners believe is a direct threat to their safety.

As tension mounted over the lyrics after Terre'Blanche's murder on Easter Saturday, allegedly by two farm workers, the ANC called on its structures to "restrain" themselves from singing the lyrics to prevent polarisation and the league leader has agreed to comply, saying he will only sing it while out of the country.

Hofmeyr said Terre'Blanche's death was a "bitter pill" to swallow.

In an emotional speech he said the international media were waiting "like bloodhounds" to send their clips out into the world to show how bloodthirsty the Afrikaner nation was.

"The eyes of the world [are] upon us as Afrikaners today. If we go out here we are going to show them something else than what they are expecting," he said.

Calling the deaths of Afrikaners "genocide" he said: "No more provocation, no more incitement", to more cheers.

It was not enough to ask for people to remain patient for the sake of a soccer tournament, and added "you can't ask me to enter a stadium called Peter 'kill the boer' Mokaba".

This was in reference to the late ANC youth league leader Peter Mokaba who popularised the slogan "kill the boer".

In the bumper to bumper traffic waiting to leave the town's Afrikaner Protestant Church, Potchefstroom residents Dirk and Rita Venter said recent events had left them fearful.

"It is scary. I feel as if the world is coming to an end. It makes my heart beat faster from fear," said Rita.

Her husband Dirk said the only thing the Afrikaners needed was "a strong leader to take the cause forward".

"The only thing that prevented Eugene Terre'Blanche from doing it was that he didn't have support and money."

Meanwhile, at the service Dominee [reverend] Ferdie Devenier called on people to return to God, otherwise nothing would be achieved for the Afrikaner nation.

He said a democracy created a sinful country because it was about what people wanted, and not what God wanted as it led the country away from a theocracy.

He said the AWB and the Terre'Blanche family had received 30,000 messages of condolence on an unnamed website.

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