Weblog warrior lays charges for death threat - Cape Argus

Weblog warrior lays charges for death threat
Sipokazi Maposa
September 26 2006 at 02:13PM

A pro-South African weblog warrior, Pieter Boshoff, has laid a criminal charge with the Cape Town police after allegedly receiving racial slurs and death threats from the supporters of a rival website.

Boshoff, who started his website www.realsouthafrica.co.za in August in response to what he calls an "anti-South African" website, www.crimexposouthafrica, says that over the past two months he has received "racist and crude" calls on his cellphone from supporters of Crime Expo website.

The website, which discourages visitors from coming to the country because of the high levels of crime, was set up by Neil Watson.

The two South Africans have over the past few months attracted a huge audience.

Watson's Crime Expo SA website focuses critical attention on crime in South Africa, and has been widely criticised for its stance, which has also attracted much support from the political right - while Boshoff's website represents itself as the voice of moderation and optimism.

Last month the row also involved retail magnate Raymond Ackerman, after he made pro-South African statement endorsing the thrust of Boshoff's campaign. Watson called on his supporters to boycott Pick 'n Pay.

Boshoff has since laid a charge of contravening the Post & Telecommunications Act after the threatening calls and emails he said he'd been getting.

"After receiving a lot of racist and crude calls from people who say they support the Crimexpo website, I decided to lay a criminal charge. People have been phoning me from private numbers, sometimes even at 3am.

"I want to show them I'm not scared; I haven't committed a crime. They are the ones who are committing a crime. It doesn't make sense that they say they want to kill me, yet claim they don't support crime," he said.

Boshoff said: "I will continue promoting South Africa for the wonderful land it is, without hiding the fact that we have some major challenges.

"I've a lot of support from people and I can't stop now. I strongly believe we can make a difference in South Africa."

Police Superintendent Billy Jones confirmed that Boshoff had laid a complaint and that charges of contravening the Post and Telecommunications Act and making anonymous threats by telephone were being investigated