My Reaction to the Documentary Farmlands by Lauren Southern

Cover from the YouTube Channel for the Documentary "Farmlands"

I am just from watching the eye opening documentary of the above title and was frankly shocked at first. It took me a while to compose myself and get my thoughts together after seeing such a shocking documentary about something going on quietly in South Africa today that I frankly wasn’t even aware of until one week ago when I read a relatively shocking headline which at first I thought was one of those bad internet jokes circulating on social media. The headline was suggesting that the South African government has begun the process of expropriating land from white farmers and redistributing to black South Africans.

I thought it was a joke because we all know what happened in Zimbabwe. To put it mildly, it did not work. However, when I watched a report by Tucker from Fox News, then I knew it was serious. But what I did not bargain for is what the Afrikaners are calling “Plaasmoorde” or Farm Murders which have been ongoing for almost 20 years. The saddest thing is that these murders have increased in frequency to almost one every day. They target rural isolated farmers and commit some of the most barbaric acts in the murder of these poor white South Africans.

I then took some time to watch all the various news reports from different sources about the situation. And I must admit that it hasn’t really gotten the attention one would expect. But then, if one thought about it, neither does the xenophobia which still goes on today in South Africa, though not at the wide spread rate as we saw a while back.
Back to my topic, it was in all this that I then chose to watch this seemingly well researched documentary that was posted on YouTube about the same terrible plight of Farm Murders going on I South Africa today. And with President Cyril Ramaphosa responding to a “threat tweet” from the master of Tweeting his mind, President Donald Trump, this makes for a very fresh and relevant topic.

After taking time to let her documentary “sink in” so to speak, I then now had the time to respond to some of the points she raised and also give my views on this documentary.
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I have given the link here so that more can watch and see for themselves what is going on in South Africa today, which is rather sad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_bDc7FfItk&t=11s

​But even after sharing the link, I must hasten to add that Miss Southern glosses over so many things and leaves out so much in her documentary that I would be doing terrible injustice to your readers if I did not highlight the pros and cons of this documentary.

I have also chosen not to label any attacks on her as an individual, or even speak about her "controversies" surrounding her brand of "activism" as these are honestly beyond the scope of this blog and will just muddy the points I am raising here, besides, objectivity dictates I stick to the topic and not the person, and that is what I do here.

Below is my take on the same. Read on.

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The Pros

Lauren Southern

1# I must commend Lauren for coming out in a precise way about what is going on with the Farm Murders. Something that is very unfortunate and terrible to say the least. Hearing some of those stories truly brought tears to my eyes. No human being whether white or black deserves this form of brutality going on in those farms against white farmers.

2# The attitude by those in authority is scary to say the least. And what is even scarier is the fact that there is so much sentiment for expropriation at whatever cost that no one is thinking beyond immediate satiation of a long standing issue. Indeed that gentleman from the ANC interviewed put it bluntly that the bureaucratic processes are too slow and they need to act fast, but at what cost?

3# If you push any people against a corner, the result is that they will push for self-defense, and with the Suidlanders advocating for civil war readiness, who can blame them?

​4# Watching those squatter camps for white people who cannot access welfare on account of their race is appalling to say the least. Surely in this day and age, if government has the means, why not assist?
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The cons

Orania Town, South Africa

In spite of Miss Southern doing a splendid job with this documentary, she also pushed some downright scary notions in her documentary that cannot go without mention.
1# Her video has an agenda, pushing for apartheid all over again. She closes this documentary by suggesting Orania (a stronghold for Afrikaans and the Afrikaner identity by keeping their language and culture alive which welcomes anyone who defines themselves as an Afrikaner and identifies with Afrikaner ethnicity to live there) as a great option and even equates it with “Tribal Homelands”.

That is frankly an insult to the intelligence of all Africans who know the history behind those homelands or Bantustans as they had come to be known. Native South Africans were forcibly taken there to ensure they do not live in the city save as workers there. The conditions were economically backward, and this forced many to seek employment in the cities. This in itself posed a major challenge as many had no rights including travel, owning of property, movement and were paid very low wages. This is the history behind the rise of squatter houses or shanty compounds. Their history and background are very sad to read about.

Many nations including my own (Zambia) paid very heavy prices in terms of lives to see South Africa become free. The South African government sponsored the massacre of many Africans north of the Limpopo including Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Angola, Namibia and even Tanzania. We lost thousands of people through letter bombs, outright raids by the South African Defense Forces and mercenaries and even abductions which always led to torture for the purpose of extracting information on the works of the ANC. The price paid was very high.
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As for South Africa itself, we can never forget Sharpeville Massacre (21st March 1960), Soweto Uprising (16th June 1976), the thousands of men, women and children of all races with the majority being blacks who were killed in many terrible ways by the government. She cannot gloss over such appalling things in the name of this agenda she is now pushing here.

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A Mozambican necklaced to death whilst one of the SAPS grimace at the terrible sight.

2# To suggest the lack of crime is apparent is a blatant albeit veiled way of suggesting the presence of blacks is the reason for crime anywhere! That is such a low blow. I was actually quite shocked by her covert way of putting this across. Perhaps the irony cannot be lost when you realize that this documentary is being presented by a blonde white young female which fits the stereotype of the white savior complex. Anybody remember Louise Linton?

3# She highlights correctly the terrible crime of white farm murders, but then blatantly leave out the horrendous xenophobia that took place twice in South Africa and continues even now without being reported. She knows very well about the horrendous killings that were perpetrated by black township gangs who went about destroying, looting, raping, killing and necklacing so many black Africans of neighboring countries. She knows that even the SAPS (South Africa Police Service) literally stood by and watched without doing a thing until it became a continental and world embarrassment to all. Who would have imagined a day when South African blacks would turn on their very brothers and sisters who stood by them during the liberation struggle?
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They say a picture speaks a thousand words; the worst example of such is the picture below. To imagine a member of the South African Police Service grimacing as an innocent Mozambican burns to ashes after being necklaced by an angry mob is nothing short of shocking.

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4# She also glosses over the terrible crime rates in South Africa today. Yes the white farm murders are terrible, but when you contrast them with car jackings (that lead to murders), robberies, rapes, bank heists, highway heists and township murders, these PALE IN COMPARISON. The numbers of people being killed daily in SA at the hands of criminals is mind staggeringly huge. So, what she did was focus on a very small number and not contrast it with the reality the authorities are grappling with on a daily basis. This is skewed journalism.

5# Apartheid was a horrible system whose aim was to disenfranchise the black man. And it certainly did. The system ensured that black township kids never got the right education, were always second class, had no means to really advance and were most times under curfew or the watchful eye of the SAPS who patrolled their townships regularly looking for “troublemakers”. The few that tried were under immense pressure from peers and so many never advanced in education. Contrast that with exiles that had the privilege and opportunity to complete their education and so be better placed to take advantage of the later introduced Black Empowerment Program.
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What we now see in SA today is the backlash of such a terrible system. When you oppress and kill hundreds of thousands of people systematically over almost 50 years, when you teach them repeatedly that they are second class human beings, inferior to white people, when you enforce that through repressive tactics, then this is the result.
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COnclusion

An example of the laws prohibiting blacks to own any land during the Apartheid era.

Unfortunately, many of our South African brethren have seemingly gotten a reputation of carrying a “chip on their shoulders” and seeking “what is their right”. This is better known as an entitlement mindset. It is so bad that any South African whether white or black who is middle class, and entrepreneur or business man will readily admit (though not openly), that they would rather hire blue collar foreigners any day over their own fellow citizens. This is a tragedy.

So, yes Lauren has done a great job in highlighting such a terrible plight against these white farmers, but her documentary is seriously skewed and one sided and only highlights in a very focused way that ignores the greater picture purposely, the plight of one group of people (whose number is really small) in comparison to the gargantuan problems of crime and murder plaguing the entire nation of South Africa.

Let me say this here, any human being that can tie up a three year old white child to a table, repeatedly rape that child and then kill that child by wrapping them with newspapers and pouring fuel on the papers and burning that baby is worse than an animal. Any human being that can forcibly drown a twelve year old boy in hot boiling water is worse than an animal. These are demon possessed evil human beings with whom no words can describe their levels of brutality. I was very heartbroken to hear the case of the poor woman whose husband was shot dead at point blank range and even after the perpetrators were arrested, they were finally sentenced to 15 years! Fifteen years!? That is pure injustice at its worst. :'(
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South Africa is a cauldron of simmering issues. I believe Nelson Mandela and De Klerk did their best under very very difficult circumstances to balance what were seriously opposed forces pushing for more radical approaches and solutions. Against all odds, the wisdom of Mandela prevailed. Today, a number of people advocate that Mandela was a sell out, a position I find very sad because if this man had taken any other position, who knows where South Africa would be today? It is this author’s belief that the wisdom that Mandela exhibited as a president is what led to what South Africa is today, a prosperous middle income nation.
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Yes we admit that there are many challenges, but one must never forget where they are coming from, the complex social and economic challenges it faces and the daunting task faced by every government that comes in on how best to solve these challenges.
May we see the hand of God prevail in that nation and see the best of it shine through so that it continues to be a proof of a thriving democracy with institutions of governance that actually work – in Africa.

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