Foxnews.com, and their accomplice Donald Trump, have been promoting the propaganda of a white nationalist (and racist internationalist), Apartheid-apologist organization, Afriforum. Most recently by Fox yesterday in an online article written by Hollie McKay. This is part of the process in which racist, rightwing ideology is currently spreading its poisonous view across the globe.
The Fox piece from yesterday tells the story of the horrific killing of Johann Heunis at his home in South Africa in 2016. Heunis’ widow, Mariandra Heunis, who witnessed the hideous murder of her husband, is now an advocate of Afriforum. Fox next cranks out the disinformation, calling Afriforum a “civil rights group” that has “seemingly” become controversial:
Heunis now owns a funeral parlor and advocates on behalf of what has seemingly become a controversial civil rights group known as AfriForum, which represents mostly white Afrikaners and is dedicated to putting a global spotlight on what she – and others – have endured as the survivors of an ongoing rash of farm attacks across South Africa.
Fox notes that BBC and WaPo have called the claims of Afriforum false; so McKay then goes on to broadcast Heunis’ deceitful, mealy-mouthed response:
In response, Heunis denied characterizing the farm attacks as “white genocide,” but said “there are elements of the definition of genocide within these crimes” and expressed a deep concern that it was being dismissed.
Pure Fox there, giving voice to the false notion of the genocide of South African whites.
Fox is here serving as a conduit between post-Apartheid South African racists and Trump, with his U.S. rightwing support base.
Going back to last year, you may recall Trump’s embrace last August of the neo-Nazi, white nationalist, absurd claims about “white genocide”. In that month Trump sent out a tweet saying that his administration would “closely study the South Africa land and farm seizures and expropriations and the large scale killing of farmers.” Linking to Tucker Carlson, Trump then posted the quote, “South African Government is now seizing land from white farmers.” As noted by Vox, Trump was here posting “a virulent, racist conspiracy theory that has been a pet cause of hardcore white nationalists, neo-Nazis, and the alt-right for several years”.
Trump’s statement had its origins in lies promoted by the toxic Tucker Carlson, in particular his advocacy of the propaganda of Ernst Roets, deputy CEO of Afriforum:
the main influence on Mr Trump's tweet was Fox News' Tucker Carlson, who aired a programme about farm killings, and who had also hosted Mr Roets during AfriForum's US tour.
Roets had appeared on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show in May where they spoke about what they called targeted killings of white farmers and plans to take land along racial lines.
The government, academics and a wide range of commentators say neither is happening, but right-wing journalists from Canada, Britain and Australia have made programs on the issue.
“Afriforum has understood this emergence of white chauvinist identities around the world and is manipulating it for its own ends,” said Adam Habib, vice-chancellor at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.
[Source: Reuters]
Numerous academic studies and journalistic reports have proven such claims about these supposedly “targeted killings of white farmers” as part of a “white genocide” to be false. Fox knows this, and is now providing space for Afriforum to counter with its lies.
As noted by the Washington Post,
White-nationalist groups have for years spread false claims about the murder rates, assertions that have been widely debunked.
See also here: “South Africa: The groups playing on the fears of a 'white genocide’”:
The BBC has found that there is no reliable data to suggest farmers are at greater risk of being murdered than the average South African.
And here: “They're prepping for a race war. And they see Trump as their 'ray of hope'”:
The biggest problem with AfriForum’s claims about possible ethnic cleansing and farm murders is that they are not true, says Gareth Newham of the Institute of Security Studies (ISS), a South African research group.
“There is no evidence to support that. There is no evidence that a group of people are killing farmers for political purposes.
The group also tries to whitewash Apartheid:
'Apartheid was not a crime against humanity': AfriForum CEO's remark sparks outrage
Having made these false, racist claims, representatives of Afriforum were happily met by Republicans last year, including John Bolton and aides for Ted Cruz.
Here’s Afriforum representatives pictured with the execrable Bolton:
In a response to the tweet above, Wits University vice-chancellor, Adam Habib, captured the essence of these meetings (see below the photo):
The rise of internationally active racist, rightwing groups, such as Afriforum, and their monstrous ideas are being actively promoted by Fox, Trump, and the Republican party.
Five years ago Thorne Godinho presciently warned:
Just as the European far right has learned to paper up its history of fascism, violence and racism, the right-wing in South Africa is learning to connect with a post-apartheid population….
Following the end of apartheid, AfriForum has built the right-wing voice that’s been absent in our discourse for 20 years. This voice has been growing louder and clearer, largely unnoticed and unchallenged. It may seem innocuous, even unimportant, but the clever political operators (with their troubling history) behind AfriForum make this far more serious. Unchallenged, it could split the opposition and polarise our fragile democracy even further.