Johannesburg (Earth Times) - Thousands were expected to attend the Friday funeral of Eugene Terreblanche, the leader of South Africa's white far-right Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) party who was murdered on his farm on the weekend.
The 69-year-old Afrikaner "patriot," who had vehemently opposed an end to white dominance under apartheid, was clubbed to death on his farm on April 3, in an apparent dispute over wages with farm workers.
A strong contingent of police and media, onlookers, firefighters and medics were gathered in the North West Province town of Ventersdorp, where the funeral was to take place at noon (1000 GMT).
"We are expecting a very large crowd of people and we are ready for any kind of incident," police Captain Adele Myburgh said.
His murder has raised fears of racial unrest in South Africa and renewed calls from the country's predominantly white community of farmers for government action to curb attacks on farms, which have claimed an estimated 3,300 lives since the fall of apartheid in the mid-1990s.
Tension between white supporters of Terreblanche and blacks from Ventersdorp was evident outside the town's magistrate's court earlier this week when a 28-year-old man and a 15-year-old boy appeared briefly on charges of having killed Terreblanche with a machete and a knobkerrie, or club.
In the decade to his death, Terreblanche had kept a low public profile, following a jail term for the attempted murder of a black man.
Before that, he had come into conflict with both the Afrikaner nationalists of the apartheid regime and later, black South Africans to whom the old regime was forced to relinquish power.
Terreblanche was regarded as a die-hard racist by blacks, but as a prophetic and charismatic leader by members of the AWB. The party, with its small following, was blamed for a series of bombings as final negotiations for a handover of power from whites to a black majority was underway.
The 69-year-old Afrikaner "patriot," who had vehemently opposed an end to white dominance under apartheid, was clubbed to death on his farm on April 3, in an apparent dispute over wages with farm workers.
A strong contingent of police and media, onlookers, firefighters and medics were gathered in the North West Province town of Ventersdorp, where the funeral was to take place at noon (1000 GMT).
"We are expecting a very large crowd of people and we are ready for any kind of incident," police Captain Adele Myburgh said.
His murder has raised fears of racial unrest in South Africa and renewed calls from the country's predominantly white community of farmers for government action to curb attacks on farms, which have claimed an estimated 3,300 lives since the fall of apartheid in the mid-1990s.
Tension between white supporters of Terreblanche and blacks from Ventersdorp was evident outside the town's magistrate's court earlier this week when a 28-year-old man and a 15-year-old boy appeared briefly on charges of having killed Terreblanche with a machete and a knobkerrie, or club.
In the decade to his death, Terreblanche had kept a low public profile, following a jail term for the attempted murder of a black man.
Before that, he had come into conflict with both the Afrikaner nationalists of the apartheid regime and later, black South Africans to whom the old regime was forced to relinquish power.
Terreblanche was regarded as a die-hard racist by blacks, but as a prophetic and charismatic leader by members of the AWB. The party, with its small following, was blamed for a series of bombings as final negotiations for a handover of power from whites to a black majority was underway.
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