Mmusi Maimane: "The South African Human Rights Commission Must Investigate Government Official Who Said That Afrikaner Culture Leads To Murder"

Oscar Pistorius and the late Reeva Steenkamp

Y'all have probably heard about South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius on trial for allegedly murdering his model-girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, whom he claims he accidentally shot after mistaking her for an intruder. Mr. Maimane, the moderate-liberal spokesperson of the Democratic Alliance, takes issue with one cabinet minister's statement about the case: "In an interview with an Australian News Channel, the Minister of Women, Children and People with Disabilities, Lulu Xingwana, reportedly said in reference to the ongoing Oscar Pistorius murder investigation that: 'Young Afrikaner men are brought up in the Calvinist religion believing that they own a woman, they own a child, they own everything and therefore they can take that life because they own it.'"

Mr. Maimane continues his statement, on behalf of his political party: "This is an offensive and divisive remark. The HRC must investigate it; and the Minister should apologise and formally withdraw her comment. It is utterly unacceptable for Minister Xingwana to suggest that any South African culture is conducive to murder. The minister was engaging in a gross generalisation which is offensive and ill-informed. A government Minister, representing all South Africans on a foreign news station, should not be making offensive remarks about the people she purports to represent. Secondly, the Minister was commenting on a very sensitive matter currently before the courts. It would have been prudent for Minister Xingwana to refrain from commenting on an ongoing investigation. No ethnic or racial group can be singled out in the fight on violence against women and children. It is a societal problem that we must all face together."

Booker Rising response: In all fairness, Ms. Xingwana didn't only single out Afrikaner culture. In her full statement, she also said: "We also have cultural differences as well in our own communities [presumably the indigenous black African communities] where we have women who are forced into marriage and we are dealing with all those issues." However, the Afrikaners are kicking up dust, and are threatening to lodge a complaint before the Equality Court.