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Ernst Alex Roets (born 5 September 1985) is a writer and filmmaker in South Africa. He is Deputy CEO of AfriForum and the CEO of the film production company Forum Films.
Roets grew up in the agricultural town of Tzaneen where he matriculated in 2003 from the Merensky High School. He obtained his LLB degree in 2009 from the University of Pretoria (UP). During his student years he served in various leadership structures, including the Student Representative Council (SRC) and the Senate, at this university.
During his student years Roets served as founding member and the first National Chairperson of Solidarity Youth. In 2008 Solidarity Youth changed its name and the organisation was converted to AfriForum Youth. In 2016, Roets obtained his LLM degree in Public Law with distinction from the UP. The title of his dissertation was ’n Peiling van die middele kragtens die Suid-Afrikaanse Grondwet, ter afdwinging van die basiese regte van minderheidsgemeenskappe. [1]
Roets was arrested in 2010 after he attempted to install a billboard with the words “Welcome to Pretoria ” next to the N1 highway. This action was in protest against the Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality’s use of the word “Tshwane” to refer to the capital during the 2010 Fifa Football World Cup. [2]
In 2011 Roets was appointed as Deputy CEO of AfriForum. He testified on behalf of AfriForum in 2011 in the case of AfriForum vs. Malema. On behalf of AfriForum he submitted a charge of hate speech against Julius Malema after Malema sang the song “Dubul' ibhunu” (Shoot the Boer) at various political gatherings. [3] The court found Malema guilty of hate speech. [4]
In May 2018, following criticism of Afriforum by a North-West University professor, Elmien du Plessis, [5] Roets posted a YouTube video where he used an analogy to describe his anger at the denial of the extent of farm murders, by academics like du Plessis, by quoting Victor Klemperer, a Jew who survived the Holocaust, who after the Holocaust wrote that "If one day the situation were reversed and the fate of the vanquished lay in my hands, then I would let all the ordinary folk go and even some of the leaders, who might perhaps after all have had honourable intentions and not known what they were doing. But I would have all the intellectuals strung up, and the professors three feet higher than the rest; they would be left hanging from the lampposts for as long as was compatible with hygiene", [6] referring to his anger at academics and others who in Klemperer's words "had given intellectual support to Nazism". Following the video posting, du Plessis and her family received threats of violence. [7] [8] [9] A petition condemning the threats against academics was subsequently circulated. [10]
In May 2018, Roets appeared on the American TV news channel Fox News, hosted by Tucker Carlson, to discuss farm murders in South Africa as well as the South African government’s plans to amend the country’s Constitution to allow for expropriation of land without compensation. [11]
Roets has also been interviewed by other platforms such as CNN, [12] Al Jazeera, [13] BBC, [14] ABC News [15] and Russia Today, [16] regarding various issues in South Africa. In 2020, Roets appeared before the United Nations Forum on Minority Issues to make a presentation about hate speech against minorities in South Africa. [17]
In April 2022, Roets was a speaker at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Hungary where he addressed: "South Africa's 46% unemployment, only 5% of citizens paying income tax, 500 000 people murdered since 1994 and the 125 laws discriminating against white people passed by the ANC government". [18]
He is the son of Sarel Arnoldus and Irma Mariette (Née Ernst) of Orania. Roets married Lelanie (née De Kock) on 5 December 2009 and has four children. [19] He is also part of a heavy metal band called "Soms Wen Die Wolf". [20]
“Tainted Heroes” is a South African documentary film that was produced by Forum Films under direction of Elrich Yssel, with Roets and Beatrice Pretorius as producers. The film is about the violent battle of the African National Congress (ANC) against apartheid in South Africa between 1976 and 1994. [21] The documentary is based on the book People’s War: New Light on the Struggle for South Africa [22] by Anthea Jeffery.
A spokesperson for the ANC, who are the main protagonists in the film, said "This is nothing else but propaganda. “They should be doing a film about how many of them in AfriForum have collaborated with apartheid. They are nothing else but hardcore racists. They are a group like the Ku Klux Klan (American white supremacist group).”. [23] However, AfriForum and Roets himself have repeatedly denounced "white nationalism", saying that it should be “exposed and opposed”. [24]
“Kill the Boer: Government Complicity in South Africa's Brutal Farm Murders” is a book written by Roets, that sheds light on the brutality of farm murders in South Africa. The book was released on Amazon in January 2019 and is currently listed as an international bestseller.
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, also known as Winnie Mandela, was a South African anti-apartheid activist and politician, and the second wife of Nelson Mandela. She served as a Member of Parliament from 1994 to 2003, and from 2009 until her death, and was a deputy minister of arts and culture from 1994 to 1996. A member of the African National Congress (ANC) political party, she served on the ANC's National Executive Committee and headed its Women's League. Madikizela-Mandela was known to her supporters as the "Mother of the Nation".
Kenneth Rasalabe Joseph Meshoe is a South African evangelist, politician, reverend and teacher. He has been serving as the inaugural leader of the African Christian Democratic Party, a Christian democratic political party, since 1993. He became a Member of Parliament in 1994 and has since been re-elected five times. He is one of the longest-serving MPs.
Eugène Ney Terre'Blanche was an Afrikaner nationalist who founded and led the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging. Prior to founding the AWB, he served as a South African Police officer, was a farmer, and was an unsuccessful Herstigte Nasionale Party candidate for local office in the Transvaal. He was a major figure in the right-wing backlash against the collapse of apartheid. His beliefs and philosophy have continued to be influential amongst white supremacists in South Africa and across the world.
South African farm attacks are violent crimes, including murder, torture, rape, assault and robbery, that take place on farms in South Africa. The attacks target both white and black farmers. The term has no formal legal definition, but such attacks have been the subject of discussion by media and public figures in South Africa and abroad.
The concept of a Volkstaat, also called a Boerestaat, is a proposed view to establish an all-White Afrikaner homeland within the borders of South Africa, most commonly proposed as a fully independent Boer/Afrikaner nation. The concept excludes Afrikaans-speaking Coloureds but accepts South Africans of English ancestry and other White South Africans, if they accept Afrikaner culture and customs.
The South African Institute of Race Relations (IRR) is a research and policy organisation in South Africa. The IRR was founded in 1929 to improve and report upon race relations in South Africa between the politically dominant white group and the black, coloured, and Indian populations, making the Institute "one of the oldest liberal institutions in the country".
Julius Sello Malema is a South African politician who is the founder and leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), a populist far-left political party known for the red berets and military-style outfits worn by its members. Before its foundation, he served as President of the African National Congress (ANC) Youth League from 2008 until his expulsion from the party in 2012.
Solidarity is a South African trade union that negotiates on behalf of its members and attempts to protect workers' rights. Although the union is often involved in issues of political import, it does not align or formally affiliate itself with any political party. Solidarity is a trade union within the Christian tradition of unionism.
Racism in South Africa can be traced back to the earliest historical accounts of interactions between African, Asian, and European peoples along the coast of Southern Africa. It has existed throughout several centuries of the history of South Africa, dating back to the Dutch colonization of Southern Africa, which started in 1652. Before universal suffrage was achieved in 1994, White South Africans, especially Afrikaners during the period of Apartheid, enjoyed various legally or socially sanctioned privileges and rights that were denied to the indigenous African peoples. Examples of systematic racism over the course of South Africa's history include forced removals, racial inequality and segregation, uneven resource distribution, and disenfranchisement. Racial controversies and politics remain major phenomena in the country.
AfriForum is a South African non-governmental organisation focused mainly on the interests of Afrikaners, a subgroup of the country's white population. AfriForum has been described as a "white nationalist, alt-right, and Afrikaner nationalist group", though this description is rejected by the organisation's leadership, who refer to themselves as a civil rights group.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) is a South African Marxist–Leninist and black nationalist political party. It was founded by expelled former African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) President Julius Malema, and his allies, in 2013. Malema is President of the EFF, heading the Central Command Team which serves as the central structure of the party. It is currently the third-largest party in both houses of the South African Parliament. The party is also the official opposition in three of South Africa's nine provincial legislatures.
Black First Land First (BLF) is a black consciousness, pan-Africanist and revolutionary socialist political movement and political party in South Africa. It was founded in 2015 by Andile Mngxitama following his expulsion from the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), led by Julius Malema.
General elections were held in South Africa on 8 May 2019 to elect a new President, National Assembly and provincial legislatures in each province. These were the sixth elections held since the end of apartheid in 1994 and determined who would become the next President of South Africa.
Puleng Peter "Pule" Mabe is a South African politician who served as the national spokesperson of the African National Congress (ANC), South Africa's governing party, from 2018 to 2023. He formerly represented the ANC in the National Assembly from 2014 to 2017.
Pinky Sharon Kekana is a South African politician who is currently serving as the Deputy Minister in the Presidency. She was first appointed to the national executive in February 2018 when President Cyril Ramaphosa named her as Deputy Minister of Communications, an office she held until she was appointed to her current position in August 2021.
"Dubul' ibhunu", translated as shoot the Boer or kill the Boer, is a controversial anti-apartheid South African song. It is sung in Xhosa or Zulu. The song originates in the struggle against apartheid when it was first sung to protest the Afrikaner dominated apartheid government of South Africa.
Andrek "Panyaza" Lesufi is a South African politician who was appointed the seventh Premier of Gauteng in October 2022. He was previously Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Education in the Gauteng provincial government between May 2014 and October 2022, with the exception of a two-day stint as MEC for Finance in May 2019. Simultaneously, he was acting MEC for Social Development between November 2019 and June 2020.
Jacob Boy Mamabolo is a South African politician from Limpopo who serves as a Member of the National Assembly of South Africa. He was elected to Parliament at the 2019 general election. Mamabolo is a member of the African National Congress.
Brendin 'Choppie' Horner was a 21-year-old South African farm manager for the Bloukruin Estate at Paul Roux, Free State, who was killed by a suspected stock thief or thieves. His body was recovered at DeRots farm outside Paul Roux, and two suspects were taken into custody. Horner's death heightened tensions in South Africa's ongoing farm attacks situation, and the first appearances of the two suspects at Senekal's Magistrate's Court was accompanied by protest action by political and civil rights groups, as well as far right groups that alleged Horner's murder was an example of the White genocide conspiracy theory.
The Witkruis Monument or Plaasmoorde Monument is a monument complex along the N1 route between Potgietersrus and Pietersburg, South Africa, conspicuously located on the slope of Ysterberg, on private property of the Harmse family. Since June 16, 2004, symbolic white-painted metal crosses have been planted on the area of about 5 hectares for each death during a South African farm attack. 925 of the approximately 3,000 white metal crosses on the slope are arranged in a striking central cross shape to emphasize the Christian nature of the monument. About 20 red crosses at the top of the monument represent local casualties. In 2020 and 2022, further monuments were placed at the foot of the cross field.