This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost Australia, which closed in 2021.

Sky News Host Calls For South Africa To Be Banned From Sport Over Farm Seizures

'Little things built to what became apartheid, little things can build to a reverse of it'.
Australian immigration minister Peter Dutton, who has called for the fast-tracking of visas for white South African farmers.
Getty Images
Australian immigration minister Peter Dutton, who has called for the fast-tracking of visas for white South African farmers.

Australian media are reporting that South Africa should be banned from international sporting events as "punishment" for land reform plans and attacks on white farmers, just as it was during apartheid.

Paul Murray, a popular host on Sky News Australia, hinted that land expropriation without compensation is apartheid in reverse.

"I don't want to ostracise the entire population of South Africa tomorrow, but in the same way that little things built to what became apartheid, little things can build to a reverse of it," he said during a panel discussion on his show.

"I don't think they [South Africa] should be banned tomorrow [from the Commonwealth Games in Brisbane in April], but I do think it's a little bit weird that no one is having a conversation about punishing South Africa through sport as we did quite correctly for apartheid, when they have passed laws in their parliament to forcibly remove the land of whites."

Australian media is abuzz with a debate around the land issue in South Africa, and the peril faced by white South African farmers.

This comes after Australia's minister for immigration and border protection, Peter Dutton, reportedly said that his department is considering fast-tracking the visas of white South African farmers looking to emigrate to Australia, because the group deserves "special attention" owing to the "horrific circumstances" they face in South Africa.

The Guardian on Wednesday quoted Dutton as saying: "If you look at the footage and read the stories, you hear the accounts, it's a horrific circumstance they [white farmers] are in ... from what I have seen, they do need help from a civilised country like ours."

Australian former speaker and ex-MP from the Liberal Party Bronwyn Bishop told Murray during his panel interview that Nelson Mandela's legacy is now dead.

"Well, it's apartheid isn't it?," she claimed. "It's [land expropriation is] being brought in, and it means Mandela's legacy is dead. He was such a remarkable man with such a vision as to how things could be reconciled and people could live together, and this is reinstating apartheid – this time by black over white."

"They are following the Zimbabwean path," she alleged, "where [Robert Mugabe] became such a hideous dictator, where government took over all their agriculture. This used to be a food bowl for all of Africa and it absolutely meant that people starved to death. Its just so sad, so sad. And the question will come, where will those whites go? And I think they should come here."

In another interview with Sky News Australia, Sunday Mail editor Peter Gleeson said Dutton's bid to fast-track the visa process for white farmers was a good idea.

"I think this is a good one from Peter Dutton. I mean bring them in. Just the gravity of what's going on in South Africa, with 400 white farmers murdered every year. The murder rate in South Africa among these people is 138 out of one hundred thousand; when you consider that in Australia, it is three out of one hundred thousand," Gleeson claimed.

"If ever there was a case where we should bring our South African neighbours who are in peril – these people are in peril; they are being subjected to the most extraordinary torture and murder regime. If we can't bring some of these people out here and have them own the land in some of our rural and regional areas, I don't know what this country is coming to... At the moment, those statistics around the murder rate and the rape rate are extraordinary."

Close
This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost Australia. Certain site features have been disabled. If you have questions or concerns, please check our FAQ or contact support@huffpost.com.