2,000 at funeral of baby shot dead by farmer hear appeals for calm

A funeral service was held yesterday for the baby reportedly shot dead by a white farmer in an incident which has reignited black…

A funeral service was held yesterday for the baby reportedly shot dead by a white farmer in an incident which has reignited black passions and highlighted South Africa's lingering racism.

Her tombstone read simply that Thobile Angelina, who was six months old, would be "remembered by your family and the nation".

But it will be how the nation remembers the baby's brutal death in the months to come that is crucial for South Africa's brittle, post-apartheid race relations.

Politicians from most of the parties who will contest next year's general elections were present at the funeral service at the city hall in the greater Johannesburg suburb of Benoni.

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The crowd of around 3,000 listened as speaker after speaker denounced her death, including Mrs Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, who heads the Women's League of the ruling ANC.

"We who fought so hard for the liberation of our country are stunned by this tragedy," she said. "This shocking tragedy makes us ask questions about the state of the nation four years after the ANC government was put into power. Maybe there is no rainbow nation after all because it does not have the colour black."

The farmer, Mr Nicholas Steyn, is in custody pending trial next month on charges of murder and attempted murder after firing on a group of black children walking through his fields, hitting baby Angelina in the head.

Angelina's cousin, Francina (11), on whose back she was being carried, was hit in the chest.

Angelina's mother has been employed as a domestic by Mr Steyn's father for eight years. The situation provides a vignette of the employer-labourer relationship between privileged whites and blacks the length and breadth of the country.

The presiding minister prayed for Mr Steyn's protection from the spirit of revenge, backed by Mrs Madikizela-Mandela, who said: "No one should do anything senseless to the Steyn family. The law must take its course."

She said later that many white business people had given Angelina's family financial assistance and sympathy. "These incidents confirm that although the process of transformation is slow, we are getting there," she said.

After the service, around 2,000 people packed into hundreds of vehicles made their way to a regional cemetery for the burial. Shots were fired in the air, despite appeals for calm by the mourners.