20100409
AFRICA NEWS

Thousands of supporters are expected to throng the funeral grounds of Eugene Terreblanche, the infamous South African white supremacist leader, who was shot in his farm last Sunday. The burial rite is taking place in the rural town of Ventersdorp to commemorate his controversial life.
South africa police
Two of his workers have been charged with murder.

Terreblanche fought South Africa's transition to democracy and was hated by many, if not most, of his fellow countrymen, according to the BBC.

But thousands of Terreblanche's supporters are expected to fill the grounds of the Afrikaans Protestant Church for his funeral.

Though all the indications are that the murder had more to do with money than politics, it has led to a period of heightened racial tension.

White groups and opposition parties blamed an ANC official, Julius Malema, for singing an apartheid-era song at rallies, that includes the lyrics "shoot the farmer".

The ANC has rejected that link, but accepts that the song and the debate around it was polarising society. It has now instructed its members to stop using it.