Posted on September 18, 2018

White Existence Is a Crime, Says BLF Spokesperson

Daniel Friedman, The Citizen, September 17, 2018

The BLF spokesperson has posted views reflecting his party’s belief that all white people in South Africa are criminals by virtue of their existence.

Black First, Land First spokesperson Lindsay Maasdorp has told the author of this article and others about the controversial party that my “existence is a crime.”

He also repeated his party’s slogan, “land or death.”

Last week, Maasdorp took to Twitter to voice his disapproval of an article in which The Citizen had looked at his tweets alleging that “white media” companies had benefited more from the state than the now-defunct Gupta-owned newspaper The New Age.

Maasdorp said The Citizen “must really learn to read” in a public tweet and also sent us a private message expanding on his views. We published a follow-up article noting his concerns with our initial coverage.

{snip}

While once a prominent member of the party, Mngxitama has long been ejected from it, and the EFF and BLF often come across as bitter enemies.

Maasdorp managed get one of BLF’s pet issues, their attempt to have former apartheid president FW De Klerk arrested, into his tweet despite it seemingly having absolutely no relevance to what was being discussed.

{snip}

Maasdorp’s assertion that, as a white person, “my existence is a crime,” provides some insight into the party’s apparent belief that, due to the theft of land by white people during colonisation and apartheid, all white South Africans are therefore criminals, regardless of when they were born and what their political views, history or affiliations may be.

At the recent land hearings held in parliament, Mngxitama called for section 25 of the Constitution to be scrapped entirely to ensure that all land owned by white people is returned to their black counterparts.

The BLF leader said this section should be replaced with a declaration that all land owned by white people in South Africa was stolen property.

Mngxitama has repeatedly made the assertion that absolutely all land occupied by white South Africans should be expropriated.

This makes the party the most extreme in South Africa when it comes to the land issue and in its attitude to white people in general.

They have been accused of hate speech by the South African Human Rights Commision, who have recommended that the party be prevented from contesting the 2019 elections on the grounds that they have made statements violating the Electoral Act.

Maasdorp has come under fire in the past for his posting on both Facebook and Twitter that “I have aspirations to kill white people, and this must be achieved!”

{snip}