(Thumbnail Image: Life)

"Kiss the boer, the farmer, [inaudible] Shoot to kill, kill the man, shoot to kill [inaudible]"

Can this simple song push people to murder? That's what some are saying after the violent death of South African far-right leader and farmer, Eugene Terre' Blanche. The white supremacist hacked to death by black workers on his farm, supposedly over a wage dispute.

Terre'Blanche was the leader of the infamous neo-Nazi group, the AWB, who publicly opposed an end to apartheid. Its leader's death brings to light the issue of farm murders in the country.

According to Agence France-Presse, 1,278 farmers and farm workers have been killed between 1997 and 2007. A reporter for Sky News says people blame the traditional liberation song, 'Kill the Farmer'."

"We've actually seen an increase in the number of farm murders in recent months. They're taking place at  an average of roughly three a week, but this is across the country, not in any isolated area. ...The argument against the song is that it incites hate speech and violence against white farmers specifically."

A representative of the Freedom Front Plus party tells The Times Online that he places blame with South African President Jacob Zuma, another widely-criticized politician. He says the murder will have a disastrous effect on the way South Africa is viewed as it hosts the World Cup this summer.

“We think it is time for Mr. Zuma to condemn songs which incite violence like 'Kill the Boer'. By not condemning it, he is condoning it. People already see South Africa as a dangerous country and this won’t help the 2010 soccer World Cup. People sitting in their homes abroad will be saying, ‘I’m not going there’.”

Robyn Curnow of CNN says his murder has brought many other things. Jubilation, fear of revenge, but even more so, it has exposed the fact that South Africa is still a racially-torn country.

"The archetypal stereotype of the white Afrikaner has just been killed in the last few hours in South Africa, and many people fear there's going to be some retribution by the small pockets of white supremacists who will feel that perhaps Eugene Terre'blanche was a martyr. So in the sense, this is a terribly unwelcome incident within South Africa's again, still very racially polarized society, all these years after the end of apartheid."

Do you believe that the song "Kill the Farmer" caused the death of Terre'Blanche and many other white farmers? And what effect will the murder have on South Africa? 

Writer: Victoria Uwumarogie

Producer: Newsy Staff