Chris Louw commits suicide

Afrikaner journalist commits suicide
South Africa was shocked by the news last week that Chris Louw, a well known Afrikaner journalist committed suicide with the aid of an AK47. He was one of those who early on reacted against apartheid and held high hopes regarding the new incoming leadership in the ANC.
Disillusioned he had found the new leaders if possible worse than the old ones. What is the point of living?
Flip Buys writes in Rapport (Sunday 6 December 2009) that “Chris Louw’s death and the way he died symbolizes everything that has gone wrong in our country”. After that Buys, himself an Afrikaner of course, enumerates all the ills from which South Africans now are suffering under the new dispensation, i.e. ANC. He even means that what was regarded as a miracle, namely the reconciliatory talks leading to the 1994 elections, is now falling flat into nothingness.
The article focuses on white South Africans pointing to the fact that these, especially Afrikaners, today are the ones not enjoying freedom and justice (a quote from a well known Afrikaner writer, Van Wyk Louw).
I want to say only two things here, one is a statement on the graveness of the situation, the other is the possible way forward.
This short article gives evidence of the fact that Afrikaners as such are deeply touched by this untimely death, a suicide committed by one of their own, who had showed the way forward into the new. He suddenly symbolizes the nearly total despair that especially Afrikaners may feel at this time. They have given away the political power and what they get in return is a leadership that acts as if they did not exist. What I want to say is simply that there is under the surface a collective inclination towards total hopelessness, which articulation could be said to be suicide, among those who dare call themselves Afrikaners. The seriousness of this state of affairs should not be underestimated, but has to be discussed openly.
Flip Buys writes at the end of his article that “the challenge remains to react positively and constructively, otherwise we will not be able to escape. Therefore we rather have to put our hand on the plough rather than on the AK. For the freedom and justice of Van Wyk Louw is also valid for Afrikaners”.
Secondly I think that Buys takes too lightly the issue of guilt. It is not discussed as such but is discernible through what he writes. His attitude seems to be that Afrikaners are now dealt with unjustly and that without reason. I would here prefer to talk about whites in South Africa in general. The problem here is pertinently about guilt. Very few whites have admitted to the burden of guilt which is there on all whites in virtue of the apartheid system that was built in their name. The only way forward I think is to admit to this guilt, regardless of others’ possible guilt.
This, however, may not be possible unless there is a clear source that can eventually relieve you from that guilt. The church could here play a role and when it comes to the Afrikaners, the Dutch Reformed Church could here play a decisive role, so as to pre-empt actions like the one Chris Louw committed the other week. It takes I think an extraordinary measure for this, somebody beyond us must help us. The Dutch Reformed Church has access to such means. Their leaders better make use of them now. These same leaders would in the same spirit of admitting guilt, so as to become liberated, do well if they paid heed to the urgent call of the URCSA (Uniting Reformed Church in South Africa) to become one.