SA websites in racial war of words
Helen Bamford
August 19 2006 at 09:37AM
A war of words has erupted between the Cape Town-based creators of two controversial websites, with allegations of racism, plagiarism and a white supremacist campaign being flung about.
Pieter Boshoff set up his website, realsouthafrica.co.za, in response to Neil Watson's site crimexposouthafrica.org, which highlights crime and discourages tourism to South Africa until crime is reduced.
Boshoff has now lashed out at Watson for featuring the old South African flag on the front page of his website as well as a discussion entitled "Achieving a white state in Africa".
"There are very racist articles on his website and he posts hundreds of news articles with no reference to where they come from, which is actually plagiarism and a crime in itself," Boshoff said.
But Watson has hit back, saying it was most likely that Boshoff posted the flag himself in an effort to embarrass him.
"We spotted it last weekend but only about 70 people checked the site before we removed it, so it's very funny that he happened to see it."
He said he had since changed his website so that people could no longer post items such as photographs. Watson conceded that right-wing extremists were continually trying to "take possession" of his website, which was why everything was now moderated.
"We even have a link where people can report any offensive listings that may have slipped through," he said, adding that 50 percent of all the listings they received were instantly deleted because they were blatant right-wing propaganda.
"We do have people suggesting violence and things like creating underground cells, but I just delete it straight away. It is not what we are about."
Boshoff told The Independent of Saturday that a Google search had shown that Watson's biggest support base was white supremacist websites.
"As the posts are moderated, it seems as if this is what he agrees with." But Watson said he did not support white supremacists in any way.
"People who want volkstaats are not my friends. I am totally against right-wing extremists. I think they are pathetic and I don't want any connection to them.
"He suggested Boshoff was simply after personal fame and fortune by making irresponsible allegations.
"All I am trying to do is expose the government's denial of crime," he said.
Watson told The Independent on Saturday that by Monday final arrangements would be announced for a series of demonstrations either in "Johannesburg, Pretoria or London" to expose violent crime in South Africa.
On his website he urges locals to take part in it. "We don't want anti-government slogans - just people making their feelings known," he said.
http://www.iol.za.org/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=3015&art_id=vn20060819085403524C343742
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment