Terre'Blanche the Terrible

Eugene Terre’Blanche was and in his death continues to be a man of contradictions. Contradictions within himself as well as surrounded by contradictory views of him. Denis Beckett’s article, “Eugene, the arch-ogre” highlights only too well these contradictions, despite being written 30 years prior to Terre’Blanche’s death. According to Beckett, Terre’Blanche was a man who, although he appeared to have the best interests of his “volk” and family at heart as well as deeply entrenched Christian morals, still believed in fighting and the use of violence and racism, even though he vehemently denied this.
Terre’Blanche was murdered on 3 April 2010 and the public and government’s reactions to his murder are distinctly mixed. Terre’Blanche was seen by the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweeging (AWB) supporters and his other supporters as a hero. He was regarded by them as some kind of god, who would fight for their plight, and according to Beckett, Terre’Blanche clearly thought this about himself too. But there are those who are rejoicing in the death of Terre’Blanche, calling him a murderer, a racist and questioning his ‘Christian’ motives.
It is ironic that Terre’Blanche was killed by two black farm workers, at a time when ANC youth League president, Julius Malema, has been singing and encouraging ‘freedom songs’ such as “Kill the Boer, kill the farmer.”
We will never know now whether Terre’Blanche’s ideas and motives were based on a truly moralistic and wish for a better country as a whole, or on racist and separatist ideals that would ultimately benefit only the white Afrikaner “volk.”