In a country where racial tensions are always threatening to flare up, it is disturbing to observe that it appears that the law is applied selectively. This is unacceptable and will not contribute to the stability of the country.
In Groblersdal, Devon Hofmeyr, Tewie Wessels, Willem Petzer and Francois van der Merwe are detained while Mr. Dries Olivier was also asked to hand himself over to the police.
“We are not going to get involved with the merits of this case,” says Mr. Henk van de Graaf, chairman of TLU SA’s North Region. “Where people come into conflict with the law, the law must take its course and its outcome, whichever side, must be respected.
“We do want to point out that three of these men did turn themselves in to the police when they were asked to do so. Clearly they are no flight risk, and a warning or immediate bail would probably have been sufficient, rather than locking them up,” says Mr. Van de Graaf.
“Apparently one of the complaints against them is that they committed public violence or incited it.
“The same weekend that they were instructed to surrender themselves to the police, the EFF leader, Julius Malema, sang his infamous song ‘Kill the boer, kill the farmer’ in front of a packed stadium. If what the young men allegedly did in front of a handful of people in Groblersdal amounts to incitement, what Malema did in front of a packed stadium is incitement squared! But he was not told to hand himself over to a police station to be arrested, which amounts to selective application of the administration of justice,” says Mr. Van de Graaf.
Meanwhile, in the week following Malema’s call, several farm attacks took place across the country. “Of course, it will be argued that it cannot be linked to Malema’s call, but he is still creating a climate for it. The worst thing is that it seems like the country is degenerating into a mafia state where there is no respect for its constitution and where victimization and intimidation of racial groups is getting out of hand.
“This is unacceptable, and the agricultural community is now insisting on the arrest of Malema on charges of incitement,” says Mr. Van de Graaf.
