Former deputy chief executive of AfriForum, Dr Ernst Roets says some people are threatening to kill him after the explosive interview he had on The Tucker Carlson Show in the United States.
The wide-ranging interview has sparked heated divisions across the already polarised South African society, with many applauding him on social media platforms, while numerous critics have been left fuming - accusing Roets of taking part in a misinformation campaign.
On social media platform X, Roets wrote: “Some people threatening to murder me because of my interview with @TuckerCarlson. In South Africa, a ‘necklace’ is a brutal method of murdering someone”.
Roets also shared a post by one X user by the name M Lephole who wrote: “@ErnstRoets must be given a beautiful necklace for saying Winnie (Madikizela-Mandela) was a terrorist”.
During the interview with Roets, Carlson raised the question of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.
Carlson said: “During the time that (former president Nelson) was in prison, his wife was effectively his spokesperson, Winnie Mandela - a woman of peace and decency, really a transcended figure, a holy figure, and then it turned out that actually she was a murderer who had burned to death of supervised the murder of a bunch of different people, tell us about that?”
Roets responded: “Yes, and she famously said at a political rally - with our necklaces and our matches, we will liberate this country - which of course is a reference to the necklace murders which were very popular in South Africa, and still happen in South Africa.
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“That is when you take a rubber tyre, you fill it with petrol or gasoline, you put it around someone’s neck so that it is bound around their arms and you set it on fire. You stone that person while he is burning to death. That happened, there were I think five or 700 people killed like that during political violence in South Africa. She encouraged this,” said Roets.
“Initially she denied this, then it came out that it was recorded."
“That is when you take a rubber tyre, you fill it with petrol or gasoline, you put it around someone’s neck so that it is bound around their arms and you set it on fire. You stone that person while he is burning to death. That happened, there were I think five or 700 people killed like that during political violence in South Africa. She encouraged this,” said Roets.
“Initially she denied this, then it came out that it was recorded."
During the interview, Roets also made several other controversial claims, including that South African universities were teaching "white genocide" and that the government was attempting to confiscate land.
Affectionately known as the "mother of the nation", the struggle stalwart Winnie Madikizela-Mandela passed away on April 2 2018 at Milpark Hospital following a long illness. Days later, she was buried at the Fourways Memorial Park, north of Johannesburg.
It was reported last month that Roets, the head of policy at the Solidarity Movement and former AfriForum deputy CEO had resigned to “pursue greater contributions outside the movement”.
On Wednesday, IOL reported that South African-born billionaire Elon Musk has continued his criticism of South Africa, stating that the current situation in the country is not aligned with Nelson Mandela's vision.
Musk, along with right-wing groups such as AfriForum and Solidarity, has been a vocal critic of South Africa’s affirmative action policies, which were implemented to address the country's extreme inequality. According to the World Bank, South Africa remains one of the most unequal countries in the world.
Responding to Roets' interview with Carlson on X, Musk said what was currently going on in South Africa was not what former president Nelson Mandela intended.
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