News / Africa
Shocking racist Facebook image probed
28 Aug 2011 at 07:25hrs | Views
JOHANNESBURG ' South African police are probing an image on Facebook of a white man posing with a gun and the seemingly lifeless body of a black child like a hunter with his kill, a newspaper reported.
The picture was posted on the Facebook page of one "Eugene Terrorblanche", a play on the name of white supremacist leader Eugene Terre'Blanche, who was murdered in April last year, according to the Sunday Times.
Police spokesman Zweli Mnisi said an investigation had been opened and called on the rifle-bearing man in the photograph, or anyone who recognises him, to come forward, regardless of whether the picture is fake or not.
"If, indeed, it reflects a real incident, those responsible must be severely punished," said Mnisi.
The newspaper said the photograph was uploaded on June 24 last year.
By Sunday, the picture had been removed from the page, which boasts a photograph of Terre'Blanche on horseback, waving the swastika-like flag of his Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB --Afrikaner Resistance Movement).
The AWB's khaki-wearing supporters violently opposed South Africa's transition to democracy and campaigned for a self-governing white state.
Their campaign included bomb attacks ahead of the country's first all-race polls in 1994 which ended the white minority apartheid state.
Terre'Blanche was hacked to death at his farm house outside the northwest town of Ventersdorp on April 3 last year in a murder that revived lingering racial tensions.
Two black farm workers were charged with the murder after handing themselves over to police, allegedly saying they had fought with their employer over pay.
"Eugene Terrorblanche" lists firearms and close-combat fighting as interests on his Facebook page, says he is self-employed, and has 589 registered "friends".
The picture was posted on the Facebook page of one "Eugene Terrorblanche", a play on the name of white supremacist leader Eugene Terre'Blanche, who was murdered in April last year, according to the Sunday Times.
Police spokesman Zweli Mnisi said an investigation had been opened and called on the rifle-bearing man in the photograph, or anyone who recognises him, to come forward, regardless of whether the picture is fake or not.
"If, indeed, it reflects a real incident, those responsible must be severely punished," said Mnisi.
The newspaper said the photograph was uploaded on June 24 last year.
By Sunday, the picture had been removed from the page, which boasts a photograph of Terre'Blanche on horseback, waving the swastika-like flag of his Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB --Afrikaner Resistance Movement).
The AWB's khaki-wearing supporters violently opposed South Africa's transition to democracy and campaigned for a self-governing white state.
Their campaign included bomb attacks ahead of the country's first all-race polls in 1994 which ended the white minority apartheid state.
Terre'Blanche was hacked to death at his farm house outside the northwest town of Ventersdorp on April 3 last year in a murder that revived lingering racial tensions.
Two black farm workers were charged with the murder after handing themselves over to police, allegedly saying they had fought with their employer over pay.
"Eugene Terrorblanche" lists firearms and close-combat fighting as interests on his Facebook page, says he is self-employed, and has 589 registered "friends".
Source - AFP
