Farming more dangerous than being a cop in South Africa
The Equality Court in Johannesburg this afternoon learned it now is more dangerous to be a farmer in South Africa than being a member of the police.
This appears from the evidence of Prof. Christiaan Bezuidenhout, criminologist and expert on the influence of music on young people. Prof. Bezuidenhout was the first witness called by TAU SA in the case against Julius Malema and the ANC on the hate speech issue.
Prof. Bezuidenhout testified that farm murders actually should be a special category of crime. Murders committed on farms in South Africa is 700 times higher than the average in the rest of the world. "It's now more dangerous to be a farmer than to be a policeman,” said prof Bezuidenhout..
In 99% of the cases where a murder takes place on a farm production stops, and every farm murder cost the state R2 million. The risk to be killed on a farm is about 30 times higher than in any other part of the community. The attacks are furthermore extremely violent.
Inflamatory:
Referring to the song "Shoot the farmers”, Prof. Bezuidenhout testified that he regards it as an inflammatory song. “Young people look up to Julius Malema as a role model, and therefore it affects young people's perceptions and he makes an impression on them. Especially in violent communities people can easily be encouraged by such inflammatory music. In such communities role models play a bigger role. Songs that condone violence or scold people or groups as dogs can influence the youth so that they do not believe it is wrong even if they are not immediately turned to violence,’he said.
Prof. Bezuidenhout said it is difficult to change the meaning of a song once it has been used in a certain context over a period of time. This is also applicable to the Malema song. This song is also not in line with reconciliation. Prof. Bezuidenhout suggest that “the song should be placed somewhere in a museum where people can look or listen to it but it certainly does not belong in the public domain." The case continues in the Equality court. For the radio-broadcasts of the testimony in the hatespeech case access Solidarity Radio: --- http://www.solidariteitradio.co.za/julius-malema-haatspraakhofsaak/ http://www.tlu.co.za
74% of surveyed metro-adults believe “Kill the Boer” ANC-chant is hatespeech:
Neil Higgs
- Three-quarters of metro adults feel "Kill the boer"/"Kill the farmer" counts as hate speech
In a survey of 2 000 residents of South Africa's metropolitan areas conducted in May and June 2010, and released today, TNS Research Surveys (Pty) Ltd, South Africa's leading marketing and social insights company, revealed that 74% of metro adults felt that the phrases "Kill the boer" or "Kill the farmer" constitute hate speech. TNS said that 18% disagreed whilst 8% gave a "don't know" response.
-- Civil rights movement Afriforum demanded on April 11 that ANC youth league leader Julius Malema must pay R50,000 to a traumafund which helps victims of farm-murders.This was one of the demands launched by Afriforum and the Transvaal Agricultural Union of South Africa in the Johannesburg high court from 11 April.The two organisations accuse Malema and the ANC of inciting racial hatred and murders against white South Africans with the song.He sang it at major public meetings after it was banned as hatespeech by the high court. For the radio-broadcasts of thetestimony in the hatespeech case in the Gauteng court: access Solidarity Radio:
--- http://www.solidariteitradio.co.za/julius-malema-haatspraakhofsaak/
Although the level of agreement differed considerably by race, showing that this could be a very emotive issue, the majority of all race groups felt that these phases were hate speech:
Agree that "kill the boer" or "Kill the farmer" are hate speech - 74%
Blacks - 66%
Whites - 90%
Coloureds - 82%
Indians/Asians - 91%
Disagree - 18% (blacks - 24%; whites - 5%; coloureds - 13%; Indians/Asians - 5%)
Don't know - 8% (blacks - 10%; whites - 5%; coloureds - 5%; Indians/Asians - 4%)
There are no differences between males and females or across different age groups. Not surprisingly, differences between home-language groups occur:
Agree - 74%
English - 88%
Afrikaans - 87% (this rises to 90% amongst white Afrikaans home-language people
Zulu - 68%
Xhosa - 67%
Sotho - 61%
Tswana/Other - 63%
Amongst white Afrikaners, the level of agreement is higher amongst those aged under 34 years (94%) and those aged 50 years and more (93%) and is lowest amongst those aged between 35 and 49 years (84%). This appears to be related partly to employment status - those working had a lower level of agreement (88%) compared with retirees, students and housewives (100%).
Because of the differing race and language compositions of different cities, differences by area are to be expected. The levels of agreement are highest in Johannesburg, Cape Town and East London and lowest in Bloemfontein. Areas surrounding central Johannesburg also all tend to be lower than average.
Our take out
Whilst there are important differences between race groups in metro South Africa, it is noteworthy that a majority of all groupings feel that these phrases do indeed constitute hate speech. Amongst white Afrikaans people, the figures are lowest in the 35 to 49 year-old age group, and this may link to some extent at least to employment status. It may be that there is greater cross-cultural contact in this most economically active group.
In a telephone study of 500 people conducted by TNS in October 2004, 74% agreed that these phrases constituted hate speech. Whilst this was a landline study and, therefore, not directly comparable with the latest results, it is worth noting that the figures are of the same order of magnitude with figures for the different race groups being 68% for blacks, 86% for whites, 63% for coloureds and 83% for Indians/Asians. It seems that attitudes have changed very little in the intervening six-and-a-half years.
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