Letters to the
Editor
De Telegraaf
Amsterdam
Dear Sir/Madam
The article “Moeder
van drie” by Catherine
Keyl (De Telegraaf, wo
20 nov 2013)
refers.
As the author of
the world’s only history
of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) of South Africa,* I
must point out
that the above article is completely untrue.
It is also one of
the worst examples of poor
research and rumour-based gutter journalism that I have ever
seen.
The article claims
that right wing whites
are killing white farmers with the intention of blaming blacks
and stirring up
racial tension, and that a “mother of three,” one Cornelia de
Wet, has
“confessed” to taking part in these murders.
However, Ms Keyl
has failed to do the most
basic research—which would be expected of any professional
journalist—before
publishing this incredible claim.
I wish to point
out just some of the basic
facts which should have been checked before the article was
published:
1.
De Wet’s allegations were rejected in court by the South
African police at an
unrelated trial on 4 November 2013—TWO
WEEKS BEFORE THE
ARTICLE BY MS KEYL APPEARED in De
Telegraaf.
A
police officer rejected claims by a rightwing woman that she
played a part in
the Steenkamp murders on a farm near Griquatown last year, the
Northern Cape
High Court heard on Monday.
“There
is no truth in these allegations,” investigating officer Dick
de Waal
testified.
2.
The police investigating the farm murder upon which the claim
centers,
rejected De Wet’s
allegations as
completely untrue and without basis on 31 October 2013—THREE
WEEKS BEFORE THE ARTICLE BY MS KEYL APPEARED in De Telegraaf.
[D]ie
polisie “twyfel sterk” oor haar weergawe. Die polisie twyfel
oor haar weergawe
van gebeure, omdat sy dit glo reeds verskeie kere verander het
en nié bepaalde
uitwysings kon doen nie.— GW-stad:
‘Daar’s net 1’, Volksblad,
31 Oktober 2013
3. Tobie van den
Bergh, editor of the Middelburg
Observer in Mpumalanga, who
has known Cornelia de Wet since she was 16, has said that she
has previously
made “amazing confessions” to the press about “right wing
activities and farm murders”
which have all proven to be completely false.
He gave two
examples of such claims:
- Once, De Wet and
her mother presented
themselves “in bloodied clothes” at his newspaper offices,
claiming that they
had been tortured by blacks with razor blades. Van Den Bergh
said it was
obvious that they had cut themselves in an “attempt to draw
attention to
themselves.”
- Another time, De
Wet claimed to him that
she had been raped by “her bosses in the right wing.”
Needless to say,
none of these wild
allegations were taken seriously by anybody, the police
included. Van den Bergh
added that De Wet was “in urgent need of psychiatric treatment.”
ALL THIS WAS PUBLISHED IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN THREE
WEEKS BEFORE THE
ARTICLE BY MS KEYL APPEARED in De
Telegraaf.
De
Wet, wat op 29 Mei verlede jaar in hegtenis geneem is en weer
op 28 November in
die hof moet verskyn, het voorheen ook al “opspraakwekkende
onthullings” rondom
plaasmoorde of regse bedrywighede teenoor die media gedoen.
Tobie
van den Bergh, redakteur van die Middelburg Observer in
Mpumalanga, sê hy voel
baie jammer vir De Wet.
“Sy
het dringend sielkundige hulp nodig. Ek ken haar vandat sy 16
jaar oud is. Sy
en haar ma het baie kere, in ’n bebloede toestand, in my
kantoor gesit. Albei
het beweer swart mense het hulle met lemmetjies gemartel.
“Ek
is nie ’n kenner nie, maar glo hulle het hulself gesny om
aandag te trek en ’n
soort belangrikheid te kry. Sy wil graag ’n indruk maak op
haar base in die
regse bewegings. Sy het ook al beweer haar regse base het haar
verkrag.”—
GW-stad: ‘Daar’s net 1’, Volksblad, 31
Oktober 2013.
4. The man named
by De Wet as being the
head of the “security firm” which carried out the attacks, has
been publicly
identified as Jac Sherman.
He has denied even
knowing De Wet, and has
dismissed the allegations as “nothing but lies.”
THIS WAS PUBLISHED IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN THREE
WEEKS BEFORE THE
ARTICLE BY MS KEYL APPEARED in De
Telegraaf.
Jaco Scherman,
accused of being the
mastermind behind the alleged “hit squad” responsible for the
murders of three
members of the Steenkamp family in Griquatown, has denied ever
meeting white
female farmer and member of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging
(AWB), Cornelia de
Wet.
“These allegations
are nothing but lies.
She has a personal vendetta against me after I refused that she
use my company
as a front to raise money. She is absolutely crazy. I have never
met her and do
not know where she lives. I have only spoken to her on the
telephone twice,”
Scherman said.—Security
boss denies AWB hit squad claim, Diamond Fields Advertiser, Independent Online,
November 1 2013.
As I am sure you
will now see, the article
by Ms Keyl is completely untrue.
Furthermore, all
the facts had been
published and were in the public domain THREE WEEKS BEFORE De Telegraaf printed her story.
The situation with
farm murders in South
Africa is bad enough as it is.
This completely
false and gutter journalism
of Ms Keyl’s only adds to the problem and spreads lies about an
already tragic
situation.
I do hope that in
the interests of your
newspaper’s credibility that you publish this letter—or at the
very least, issue
a complete retraction, apology and correction of the article in question.
Yours sincerely
Arthur Kemp
* Victory
or Violence: The Story of the AWB of South Africa ISBN 978-1471067464.
UPDATE 25 November. Ms Keyl has advised that she was "misled" by her South African sources and has undertaken to correct the article.....
UPDATE 25 November. Ms Keyl has advised that she was "misled" by her South African sources and has undertaken to correct the article.....
1 comment:
Good show, Arthur Kemp!
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