Apartheid leader Botha’s racist speech goes viral
A three-decade old speech by South African President P.W Botha that accuses the “black” population of among other things “only marrying many wives and killing each other”, is trending on social media.
The sudden “return” of this speech comes in the wake of a spate of violent deaths in Africa most notably from the Xenophobic attacks in South Africa.
Deaths as a result of terrorist attacks, violent military coups and election related violence are also common on the continent. The speech was reprinted by David G Mailu for the Sunday Times, a South African newspaper in 1985.
Botha’s speech reads in part:
“We are not obliged even the least to try to prove to anybody and to the blacks that we are superior people. We have demonstrated that in 1001 ways. If God had wanted us to be superior to the blacks, he would have created us all of a uniform colour and intellect.
“I believe that the Afrikaner is honest, God fearing person, who has demonstrated practically the right way of being.
“By now every one of us has seen it practically that the Blacks cannot rule themselves. Give them guns and they will kill each other.
“They are good in nothing else but making noise, dancing, marrying many wives and indulging in sex. Let us all accept that the Blackman is a symbol of poverty, mental inferiority, laziness and emotional incompetence.”
Born Pieter Willem Botha in 1916, the former Apartheid Head of State ruled South Africa from 1978-1989, before passing on after suffering a heart attack aged 90.
So just how significant and relevant is the content from his speech 28 years on?