About

Contact

Find my representatives

Find those who have been elected to represent you in government

Find those who have been elected to represent you in government

Use my location

Find representatives

Find by name

Find by committee

Search for MPs and MPLs

Legislatures

National Parliament

National Assembly

National Council of Provinces

Provincial Legislatures

Browse by province

Eastern Cape

Free State

Gauteng

Kwazulu-Natal

Limpopo

Mpumalanga

Northern Cape

North West

Western Cape

MP Performance

Follow the activities of representatives and hold them accountable

Follow the activities of representatives and hold them accountable

Activities & Performance

Questions to ministers

pmg external link icon

Parliamentary committees

pmg external link icon

MP Corner

Transparency

Attendance of meetings

Members' interests

Code of conduct

pmg external link icon

Civic Education

Learn more about governance in South Africa and your representatives

Learn more about governance in South Africa and your representatives

From our blog

Infographics

All articles

Understanding government

Central Tenets of Government

Structure of Government

How are laws made?

State Institutions Supporting Democracy

Take action

Find the actions you can take to participate in governance

Find the actions you can take to participate in governance

Have Your Say

Write to an MP

Write to a Committee

Get involved

Petitions

Visit Constituency Offices

Attending and observing parliament

Participating in calls for comment

About

Contact

  • Home »
  • Hansard »
  • 2015 »
  • March »
  • 19 »
  • PROCEEDINGS AT JOINT SITTING (Thursday, 19 March 2015) »
  • DEBATE ON HUMAN RIGHTS DAY: BUILDING A CARING SOCIETY BY ENTRENCHING HUMAN RIGHTS FOR ALL
  • Picture of Pieter Willem Adriaan Mulder
    Dr P W A Mulder 19 Mar 2015 hansard

    Speaker, yesterday the hon Deputy President said that all of us, as leaders, need to act against the cancer of racism. I agree 100% with him. Leaders must set an example, but let me give an example to show what a complicated country South Africa is.

    Recently an old couple was attacked by three young men on their smallholding near De Wildt. Mr Motswaledi Moloto is 80 years old and his wife, Constance Moloto, is 74. The attackers were three white men. The young white men attacked Mrs Moloto with an axe and made racist remarks.

    When Mr Moloto refused to give the keys of his vehicle to the young men, they took an iron and burnt his legs with it. The neighbours, who later took him to hospital, described how the skin fell off his legs as a result of all the wounds on his legs.

    The question is: Is this an ordinary crime or racism? About this, one finds different opinions. I would describe it as white racism due to the cruelty of the crime and the racist comments.

    This attack did take place earlier this year, with one difference. You did not read about it in the media. The newspapers and television largely ignored it. Why? Because the attack was not perpetrated on Mr Moloto but on the old couple Hannes and Annetjie van der Merwe from De Wildt. They are white and the attackers were black.

    If it had been three young white men who had attacked a black elderly couple, it would have brought South Africa to a standstill. Every talk radio programme would have discussed racism for hours. The Human Rights Commission would have immediately started an investigation and politicians would have angrily issued media statements about it.

    Why these double standards? Is it political correctness? Are journalists scared to tell the truth? Of course, it is not only white farmers who are being killed. Elisa Mokoena and Augustine Khonjana, two farm workers, were strangled during a farm attack and shot in the stomach. Last year in the Free State, a black commercial farmer was shot dead by attackers and his wife was kicked and raped.

    Statistics show that in South Africa, many more black people are murdered than white people. The world's average for murders is 7 in 100 000 of the population. The South African average is a shocking 31 for all people. For police officers, it is 54 and for farmers and farm workers, it is 133 - I am using the SA Security Council's statistics. Clearly, this is a crisis.

    Section 12 of the Constitution reads:

    Everyone has the right to freedom and security of the person, which includes the right -

    a) not to be deprived of freedom arbitrarily or without just cause; b) not to be detained without trial; c) to be free from all forms of violence from either public or private sources; d) not to be tortured in any way; and e) not to be treated or punished in a cruel, inhuman or degrading way.

    When cash-in-transit heists were a crisis, the Minister of Police made it a priority crime. Within two years the problem was largely solved. Why can this also not be done for farm murders and what's happening in our rural areas at the moment, because if you look at the statistics that I gave to you it shows that this is a crisis. I thank you.

    Link in context Link

Correct this page

Follow us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram

Sitemap

  • Home
  • Rep Locator
  • People
    • Find by name
    • Parliament
      • National Assembly
      • National Council of Provinces
    • Provinces
      • Eastern Cape
      • Free State
      • Gauteng
      • KwaZulu-Natal
      • Limpopo
      • Mpumalanga
      • Northern Cape
      • North West
      • Western Cape
  • Blog
  • MP Profiles
  • MP Attendance
  • Public Participation
    • Make yourself heard
    • Elections
      • Election 2014 Candidates
      • Election 2019 Candidates
    • Petitions
    • Write to a Committee
  • Hot Topics
    • Questions
    • MP Assets
    • MP Corner
    • Infographics
  • Links
  • Get the data
  • For Representatives

Contact us

People's Assembly
contact@pa.org.za

Tel: (021) 465 8885

Fax: (021) 465 8887

2nd Floor 9 Church Square Parliament Street
Cape Town 8001
South Africa

Disclaimer

The data for this site has been sourced form a range of organisations and websites and often received in formats that are hard to process. As a result, errors can occur - if you see something that you think is an error, please click on the "Correct This Page" button and let us know so that we can investigate. Please click here to read more about our source data.

  • Privacy
  • Give us feedback

This site runs on open source code written by mySociety.