‘Attacks on Whites Must Be Investigated’

The police must follow-up “disturbing criminal cases” of attacks on whites and apprehend those responsible for these crimes, says President Thabo Mbeki.

He was responding on Thursday to the debate on his state of the nation speech delivered at the opening of parliament last Friday.

Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Mulder had said he was tired of “double standards” in which whites were accused in the National Assembly of racism, “while blacks can do no wrong.”

Mulder referred to Dr Rufus Nortje, a young Afrikaner doctor who worked in Mmamethlake hospital near KwaManhlangu in Mpumalanga.

Three young black men placed a gun against his head and threatened to kill him on Tuesday February 8 “and threatened to kill him after they asked him whether he was Afrikaans.”

Mulder also reported that Indian shops in Phomolong — near Hennenman — were destroyed on Tuesday this week while the black shops were not touched.

In addition Jock de Fouveia was a 70-year-old farmer in the Heidelberg area. Mulder reported that he had died in December last year.

“He was beaten on his head after which a rope was tied round his neck. He was fastened to a vehicle and dragged behind the vehicle. He died of strangulation — a result of being dragged behind the vehicle.”

Four young black men were arrested — “some of them are 15-years- old.”

Mulder noted that the ANC Youth League had been reported as saying in the Sunday Times that: “When a black person says he does not like white people, that is not racism, it is prejudice . . . blacks have no capacity to be racist — they can only respond to it.”

The president said: “The police must follow up these cases and apprehend those responsible for these crimes, so that they face the full force of the law. As we said on Friday, we will continue to improve the capacity of the police services so that criminals such as those cited by Dr Mulder are dealt with accordingly.”