Province
Tangeni Amupadhi
Northern Province Premier Ngoako Ramatlhodi is to call a meeting with community leaders to address increasing racial tensions between blacks and whites.
Ramatlhodi’s peace efforts come in the wake of a spate of attacks on farmers and what appear to be revenge strikes on blacks in the province.
”People should never take the law into their own hands,” says Kenny Mathivha, Ramatlhodi’s representative. ”Farmers are not the only victims of crimes – and it would be wrong to compartmentalise whatever crime as racial attacks.”
Earlier this week 16-year-old Stephen Lefifi was shot dead while he and his brother Alpheus (12) and sister Ida (19) waited for their father, who had gone to get help after their car broke down on the way to the University of the North.
Charles Edward Austen, who appeared in court in connection with the attack, is accused of having pumped 21 bullets into the car.
Ida Lefifi says Austen parked parallel to their car, switched the lights off and started firing. Stephen was hit several times and Ida was shot in the eye. Alpheus escaped unhurt because he was in the back seat.
On Tuesday passengers in a bus and minibus were shot at by people in a car travelling in the opposite direction. Some passengers say the occupants of the car were white.
President Nelson Mandela on Wednesday visited crime victims in the province, including farmers, and appealed to people not to view the attacks in a racial light.
However, the National Party leader in the provincial legislature, Burger Lategan, says black and white politicians have been whipping up emotions: ”Whites and blacks are drifting apart … I see white people around me who were never racially inclined now becoming racist.”
He says politicians need to tone down their speeches because some of their ”extremist supporters” may be interpreting such talk as a green light to attack people of another race.
Police say they were still trying to establish ”categorically” that this week’s attacks were racially motivated. They could be ”surmised as such”, said Superintendent Motlafela Mojapelo.