DA’s Trollip takes on Tau’s ‘scare tactics’.
A WHITE rights leader threatened to give Eastern Cape DA leader Athol Trollip a schoolyard-style beating at a public meeting in East London on Tuesday night.
Trollip had objected to Transvaal Agricultural Union (TAU) and AfriForum leader Wilhelm Rocher’s “scare tactics” (Gogga maak vir baba bang stories) to get farmers to join their rightwing organisations.
Addressing a meeting in Gonubie of 65 local farmers, Rocher – the chairman of TUA’s western region who farms in Swartruggens near Rustenburg – said: “There was a time when these people were scared of us whites, but in 20 years we have lost our advantage.”
As he spoke he pointed to his skin. Trollip called Rocher’s statements outrageous in a constitutional democracy. “We are not living in a white enclave. All South Africans have equal rights. You can collect all the white farmers you want to shout together but the only way to get is to put an X on a ballot. You can all load your but you will lose everything that way.”
Turning to a policy document on land ownership raised at the weekend by Land Reform Minister Gugile Nkwinti, Trollip accused Rocher of “running after every red herring put out by the ANC”. “The government wants to say that people are racists. But we don’t want to run after every red herring.”
Rocher became angry.
“The DA have done buggerall to assist people with water rights, because politicians feel nothing about people until voting time because you get your money every month.
“We who produce food for the country don’t need people to run us down. You don’t know me, but we can go outside and I will tell you what I am. I am not scared to be white.”
Rocher – tall, powerfully built and described yesterday by National Ratepayers’ Union chairman Jaap Kelder as a “man of steel” – left the front of the meeting and sat on the side of the venue a few metres from Trollip, DA councillor Terri Stander and Buffalo City Ratepayers’ Forum chairman Andre Swart. Trollip told the Dispatch yesterday: “I was lus for him myself.”
Swart, who attended in response to an advert in the Dispatch titled Your Property Rights are Under Threat, said he wanted to hear if ratepayers were affected. “I thought when he moved there he was going to move towards Athol. I was going to help Athol!”
Swart called the handling of the meeting “atrocious”.
Trollip said he went to the meeting as a public representative and farmer who had “an inkling” that TAU and AfriForum would use scare tactics to mobilise the white farming community. “I suspect they are mobilising to form a political party.”
He said the land policy paper that Rocher and Tau’s East London organiser Jon Anderson were waving around proposed share ownership for farm workers based on years of service.
However, it had no weight in the public domain until it entered the parliamentary law-making process, “where we will deal with it”.
“It’s a red herring aimed at painting the DA into the corner of being a small white minority interest group, when in fact, we are a party of all South Africans,” Trollip said.
“They are calling for separatist laws for blacks and whites, just as it was under apartheid.”
While Anderson claimed their name, Tau, had been modernised to refer to the bushman word for “cheetah”, Trollip said: “Their name, Transvaal Agricultural Union, speaks volumes. It’s been 20 years, and now they want a branch in the Eastern Cape.”
As the meeting progressed racial stereotypes flew, with some speakers suggesting blacks were unable to farm commercially. Rocher said: “I am from Rustenburg. When the economics of Rustenburg go down, they go back to Ciskay and Transkay (Ciskei and Transkei) and eat from trees and bushes. We can’t do that. We are going to suffer … We, as white people, need a union.”
Anderson claimed: “If you live in town, your old garden boy , who has been working for you for years will be entitled to 50% of your property.” Farmer Cecil Dalbock said: “Africans can’t farm commercially; they haven’t got it in their culture.”
Trollip exploded, saying black farmers had farmed so successfully that the 1913 Land Act was passed to end to black commercial competition.
“Whites were given land and extension services and more for over a century, no different to what is happening today, but when the boot is on the other foot, you say it is wrong!” — mikel@dispatch.co.za
‘WHITE RIGHT’ SPARKS FLY
A WHITE rights leader threatened to give Eastern Cape DA leader Athol Trollip a schoolyard-style beating at a public meeting in East London on Tuesday night.
Trollip had objected to Transvaal Agricultural Union (TAU) and AfriForum leader Wilhelm Rocher’s “scare tactics” (Gogga maak vir baba bang stories) to get farmers to join their rightwing organisations.
Addressing a meeting in Gonubie of 65 local farmers, Rocher – the chairman of TUA’s western region who farms in Swartruggens near Rustenburg – said: “There was a time when these people were scared of us whites, but in 20 years we have lost our advantage.”
As he spoke he pointed to his skin. Trollip called Rocher’s statements outrageous in a constitutional democracy. “We are not living in a white enclave. All South Africans have equal rights. You can collect all the white farmers you want to shout together but the only way to get is to put an X on a ballot. You can all load your but you will lose everything that way.”
Turning to a policy document on land ownership raised at the weekend by Land Reform Minister Gugile Nkwinti, Trollip accused Rocher of “running after every red herring put out by the ANC”. “The government wants to say that people are racists. But we don’t want to run after every red herring.”
Rocher became angry.
“The DA have done buggerall to assist people with water rights, because politicians feel nothing about people until voting time because you get your money every month.
“We who produce food for the country don’t need people to run us down. You don’t know me, but we can go outside and I will tell you what I am. I am not scared to be white.”
Rocher – tall, powerfully built and described yesterday by National Ratepayers’ Union chairman Jaap Kelder as a “man of steel” – left the front of the meeting and sat on the side of the venue a few metres from Trollip, DA councillor Terri Stander and Buffalo City Ratepayers’ Forum chairman Andre Swart. Trollip told the Dispatch yesterday: “I was lus for him myself.”
Swart, who attended in response to an advert in the Dispatch titled Your Property Rights are Under Threat, said he wanted to hear if ratepayers were affected. “I thought when he moved there he was going to move towards Athol. I was going to help Athol!”
Swart called the handling of the meeting “atrocious”.
Trollip said he went to the meeting as a public representative and farmer who had “an inkling” that TAU and AfriForum would use scare tactics to mobilise the white farming community. “I suspect they are mobilising to form a political party.”
He said the land policy paper that Rocher and Tau’s East London organiser Jon Anderson were waving around proposed share ownership for farm workers based on years of service.
However, it had no weight in the public domain until it entered the parliamentary law-making process, “where we will deal with it”.
“It’s a red herring aimed at painting the DA into the corner of being a small white minority interest group, when in fact, we are a party of all South Africans,” Trollip said.
“They are calling for separatist laws for blacks and whites, just as it was under apartheid.”
While Anderson claimed their name, Tau, had been modernised to refer to the bushman word for “cheetah”, Trollip said: “Their name, Transvaal Agricultural Union, speaks volumes. It’s been 20 years, and now they want a branch in the Eastern Cape.”
As the meeting progressed racial stereotypes flew, with some speakers suggesting blacks were unable to farm commercially. Rocher said: “I am from Rustenburg. When the economics of Rustenburg go down, they go back to Ciskay and Transkay (Ciskei and Transkei) and eat from trees and bushes. We can’t do that. We are going to suffer … We, as white people, need a union.”
Anderson claimed: “If you live in town, your old garden boy , who has been working for you for years will be entitled to 50% of your property.” Farmer Cecil Dalbock said: “Africans can’t farm commercially; they haven’t got it in their culture.”
Trollip exploded, saying black farmers had farmed so successfully that the 1913 Land Act was passed to end to black commercial competition.
“Whites were given land and extension services and more for over a century, no different to what is happening today, but when the boot is on the other foot, you say it is wrong!” — mikel@dispatch.co.za
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