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WOKE in South Africa - The white student braving racial politics
 [BBC] Teenager Jess Griesel does not seem the usual red beret-wearing member of South Africa's Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) - the party intent on upsetting the country's political landscape.She is a 19-year-old white, Afrikaans-speaking undergraduate who was recently elected to the Student Representative Council (SRC) of Cape Town university on an EFF ticket. But in a country as racially charged as South Africa, her stance has not gone down well with some people. When Ms Griesel announced her SRC candidacy in September, one social media user described her as a "race traitor". Twenty-seven years after the end of white-minority rule - when Nelson Mandela was elected as president in South Africa's first democratic election, calling the country "the rainbow nation" - Ms Griesel tells me the backlash shocked her. "Being called a race traitor was something that I found very interesting and very telling about South Africa today. It insinuates that there's still an 'us' and a 'them' club." To understand the reaction she has faced - one needs to understand how the EFF has shaken up politics in South Africa. Formed in 2013, it is led by the fiery Julius Malema, who has modelled himself on Venezuela's late President Hugo Chavez and unapologetically promotes the interests of poor black South Africans. The party describes itself as "a left-leaning, radical, anti-imperialist and economic emancipation movement, inspired by the broad Marxist-Leninist school of thought." Members are disruptive, literally and figuratively. They are often accused of being anti-white. That is because they have repeatedly demanded that white South Africans give up the land taken from black people. Some EFF supporters occasionally sing the apartheid-era chant "Kill the Boer, kill the farmer", a highly controversial song that a court ruled as hate speech and which is seen as being directed against the white farming community. Related: South Africa: 2021-10-27 Roads were blocked, shops were shut, phones were down and mosque loudspeakers blared calls for a general strike in Sudan South Africa: 2021-10-23 Russian FSB stops ISIS attack in Stavropol South Africa: 2021-10-18 Palestine welcomes efforts of preventing admission of Israel as AU observer member Related: Economic Freedom Fighters: 2020-10-17 Hundreds of armed black protesters face off with white farmers as South African town braces for bloodshed over farm murder case that prompted violence last week Economic Freedom Fighters: 2020-02-27 De Klerk finally comes to his senses, then aplogizes for.....coming to his senses Economic Freedom Fighters: 2019-09-05 Leftist South African Leader Calls for Xenophobic Anger to Be Directed at Wealthy Whites Posted by: Besoeker 2021-10-31 |
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