Some readers may remember that, a few years ago on a BBC TV show called ‘Question Time’, a spectacularly stupid Labour MP (is there any other sort?) made an utter fool of herself, bleating about the Concentration Camps of the Boer War, and spewing out the tired old, discredited National Party myths about them. She was calmly put in her place by another – rather more knowledgeable – member of the panel, Jacob Rees-Mogg – which obviously infuriated the True Believers and various other idiots in South Africa.
Despite a career which appears to have been devoted more to perpetuating myths and propaganda than to the study of History, for some reason Professor Pretorius was, back in 2019 at least, still regarded as an authority on the Boer War in some sections of the South African press, and so he was duly dusted off, and wheeled out to defend the indefensible. With his trademark blinkered bias and breathtaking lack of objectivity, the Prof totally overlooked all the mistakes the Labour lady made (presumably because these mistakes supported the much-cherished Apartheid-era myths?), and instead turned his rather pitiful fury onto Rees-Mogg.
Anyway, I wrote an article about it at the time:
I was recently made aware of another, much longer and more in-depth article which was inspired by the same exchange, and which also showed just how one-eyed and wrong the poor old Prof is, and really is well worth reading:
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