Peter Mokaba

Who was Peter Mokaba?

Peter Mokaba, OLG was a member of the South African parliament, deputy minister in the government of Nelson Mandela and president of the South African governing party's youth wing, the ANC Youth League. The Polokwane stadium for the 2010 FIFA World Cup was named after him.

Mokaba became known in the 1990s for his use of the slogan "Kill the farmer, kill the Boer", a traditional struggle-era chant which in 2003 was ruled hate speech by the South African Human Rights Commission. Opponents of the song argue that it bears a literal interpretation, inciting racial violence against whites; defenders claim that its value is purely as a reminder of South Africa's history, and that it does not incite violence.

Mokaba was HIV positive, but refused treatment because he viewed pharmaceutical drugs as poisonous; he died in 2002 of AIDS-related pneumonia. According to Mokaba, anti-Aids drugs had no benefits "beyond profits for the pharmaceutical industry"; the fight against these companies, he said, should be waged with the same intensity as the struggle against apartheid. Privately, he assured supporters that the HIV virus and Aids were part of an "international Western plot" to decimate blacks and "regain colonial control" in Africa.