Yesterday, 16 June 2015, ‘Scorched Earth Policy’ was celebrated which was introduced during the Second Boer War in the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek, informally known as Transvaal and Orange Free State when the British realized they could not overpower the Boers.
The ‘scorched earth policy’ was initially introduced by Lord Roberts and later expanded by Horatio Kitchener during the Second Boer War.
Lord Roberts on June 16, 1900 made the following proclamation No. 5/1900:
“Whereas small parties of raiders have recently been doing wanton damage to public property in the Orange River Colony and South African Republic by destroying railway bridges and culverts and cutting the telegraph wires, and whereas such damage cannot be done without the knowledge and connivance of the neighboring inhabitants and the principle civil residents in the districts concerned;
Now, therefore, I, Frederick Sleigh, Baron Roberts, of Kandahar and Waterford, K.P., G.C.B., G.C.S.I., G.C.I.E., Field-Marshal, Commander-in-Chief of Her Majesty’s Troops in South Africa, warn the said inhabitants and principle civil residents that, whenever public property is destroyed or injured in the manner specified above, they will be held responsible for aiding and abetting the offenders. The houses in the vicinity of the place where the damage is done will be burnt and the principle civil residents will be made prisoners of war.”
Pretoria 16th June 1900.
In complying with this policy almost all the farmers’ homesteads were burned to the ground, livestock killed, crops burned and the women and children were sent to concentration camps. In the camps there were inadequate food and medical services and during 1901 about 25,000 children and 3,000 women died in these camps.
In total, more than 35 000 Boer women and children died.
What is happening today? We forget history and revived it 115 years later.
With more than 70 000 murders committed on whites and more than 800 000 whites living below the poverty line in ANC hell-camps, perishing, there is no difference between the then ‘scorched earth policy’ and today’s so-called democracy in South Africa.
Let us we never forget the sacrifices of these brave women and children.
They are buried across the length and breadth of this country. Our land was bought with blood.
Blood ground…
South Africa Today – South Africa News
