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Australia, Rathbone not spared as Lekota rages against post-1994 'racists'

Angela Quintal

15 February 2007 - Cape Times (Edition 2) - South Africans who emigrated post-1994, were more motivated by racist fears of black rule than concerns about crime, according to Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota.

Replying to questions from the Cape Times a day after he criticised expatriate crime whingers and labelled them unpatriotic and disloyal, Lekota said he did not believe his comments would damage the government's drive to attract skilled South Africans to return home.

Nor did he mince his words about race in Australia and the status of black people there.

Lekota also had uncharitable words for Vi Rathbone, whom DA leader Tony Leon had used as an example of someone who had emigrated to Australia, unwillingly, after a close relative was attacked.

Lekota questioned whether the octogenarian had been motivated by concerns about crime, or because "white people were still law" in Australia, unlike South Africa.

Rathbone, is the grandmother of Clyde, former SA Under-21 rugby captain, who left for Australia in 2002.

Lekota said there were many former South Africans who had "left in the early days and having watched the movement in this country, are actually coming back".

However, those who were leaving now, knew that "the scare stories that drove others away" were untrue.

"The others left because they were made to understand at the beginning (that) a new government would take property away from whites, would kill whites, would rape white women, would do all these things.

"Those people left because they believed that. They had nothing to tell them otherwise. Now they have discovered that, they are coming back," he said.

Lekota questioned the bona fides of those who were emigrating and citing crime as the reason. "Which country does not have crime? Every country has crime and crime is not the policy of the government.

"Crime is an aberration that happens, as a result people have no work, people are hungry, people have no education and training and so on."

Asked how an 80-year-old woman who had left the country to join her family could be regarded as unpatriotic, he said: "What is the difference between South Africa and Australia?"

In the past, black South Africans were non-citizens and had no rights, similar to Australia, Lekota said.

"Until 1967, aboriginal Australians were not counted when the census was done.

"They were not counted, like kangaroos were not counted.

"They were put up in those aboriginal reserves, in the same way we were shepherded into the so-called bantustans and homelands."

Today in South Africa, black people enjoyed full political rights alongside white South Africans, unlike in Australia, "where aboriginal Australians remain trapped in the poverty of those reserves" and were not in government, Lekota said.

Source: Cape Times

South African slams Aboriginal treatment

16 February 2007 - Australia's treatment of Aborigines has been criticised by a South African government minister, who says white Australians are "still law".

Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota has questioned why people in South Africa continue to emigrate to Australia, in response to a letter written by Vi Rathbone, the grandmother of Wallaby star Clyde Rathbone, who came to live here in 2002.

Ms Rathbone wrote that she emigrated to Australia after a close relative was attacked in South Africa.

But Mr Lekota has told The Cape Times newspaper he wondered if her move was motivated by the fact that, unlike in South Africa, "white people were still law" in Australia.

He said that in the past black people in both countries had been denied rights and were treated as non-citizens.

And while Aborigines may have rights on paper, they still did not enjoy the full benefits of being citizens.

"Until 1967, Aboriginal Australians were not counted when the census was done," he told The Cape News.

"They were not counted, like kangaroos were not counted.

"They were put up in those Aboriginal reserves, in the same way we were shepherded into the so-called bantustans and homelands."

Mr Lekota said that in South Africa black people enjoyed full political rights alongside white South Africans.

But in Australia, he said, "Aboriginal Australians remain trapped in the poverty of those reserves" and were not in government.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

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