Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging
The Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB for short. English= Afrikaner Resistance Movement) is a White separatist movement founded, in 1973, by seven conservative Afrikaners. Since its inception the AWB has attracted criticism from both the National Party (who ruled South Africa under Apartheid), as well as liberal anti-Apartheid activists who demonised the movement’s aims in a bid to isolate conservative White South Africans from the mainstream of South African politics. The AWB’s founding members were Eugene Terre’Blanche (who subsequently occupied the post of leader and has remained leader to the present day), Jan Groenewald, JJ Jordaan, DJ Jordaan, Renier Oosthuizen and Piet Preller. All 7 men founded the group in the garage of Eugene Terre’Blanche’s home in Heidelberg in July 1973. The AWB’s origins lie in an earlier right-wing party, the Herstigte Nasionale Party (Re-constituted National Party), which vehemently opposed the liberal reforms of the Apartheid government from 1966 onwards. The HNP, by the May 1981 general election attracted massive support from within the White electorate, winning approximately one third of the Afrikaner vote (but only 16% of the overall White vote)
Contents
Early years
Until 1978 the AWB existed in a very small way, with no membership lists or cards (as part of an effort to avoid detection by the infamous secret service of the Apartheid government), however in 1979 a wealthy AWB member, Albert Hertzog, began to fund the rent of an office in Pretoria which began to serve as an AWB headquarters. The early 1980s witnessed tremendous growth amongst the right-wing of White South Africa, as President PW Botha warned that Afrikaners must “adapt or die”, this effectively signalled the commencement of a punishing string of reforms which lead to the dismantling of Apartheid in 1990. The AWB grew rapidly and soon had an active membership in the thousands.
Early Militancy
In 1977 35 AWB members, under the leadership of Eugene Terre'Blanche, tore up petitions being circulated by a group of liberal White actors at a shopping mall in Pretoria. The actors were petitioning for the Breyten Theatre, a state-owned theatre in Pretoria, to be opened to non-Whites.
Militant Action
In the mid 1980s the AWB developed a tradition of disrupting National Party meetings held in the Transvaal and Orange Free State (the two most conservative provinces of South Africa). As early as 1979 the AWB had heckled National Party speakers at meetings, including future Conservative Party leader Dr. Andries Treurnicht (who became sufficiently disillusioned with the reforms of the National Party that, in 1982, he and 18 other MPs former the Conservative Party). On March 28th 1979 a group of 40 AWB members, including AWB leader Eugene Terre’Blanche, bluffed their way into a lecture at the University of South Africa. The lecture was being given by Professor Floors Van Jaarsveld, a noted liberal who had insulted an Afrikaner Christian celebration (the Day of the Vow). Van Jaarsveld was made an example by the AWB, who publically tarred and feathered him. Van Jaarsveld had insulted the Day of the Vow, a sacred Afrikaner celebration which is commemorated annual by most Calvinist Afrikaners. By 1988 the AWB enjoyed a vast support base and membership, with estimates ranging from 5000 members to 70000. However despite the best efforts of the AWB, and other South African conservatives, in 1989 the newly inaugurated President DeKlerk announced that Apartheid (a system of separating the White, Coloured, Indian and Bantu races) was to end. DeKlerk cowering to international pressure infuriated many White South Africans who felt betrayed by DeKlerk (when he assumed office DeKlerk had assured the White population that no major reforms to Apartheid would be made).
The BVP
In October 1979 the AWB registered a political party (intended, initially, to contest seats in parliament during elections) with the Department of the Interior. The party was called the Blanke Volkstaat Party (BVP) which, translates in English as, the White People's State party.
The BVP had four express purposes.
1.To guarantee freedom (as the AWB saw it)
2.To establish a Volkstaat (People's State, exclusively for Whites)
3.Never to be "activated" against any other right-wing party
4.To provide a legal front from which the AWB could raise funds
In the 1989 general election (the last Whites-only election) the BVP was intending to contest elections, and Eugene Terre'Blanche addressed meetings across the Transvaal and Orange Free State in his capacity as BVP party leader. However the BVP never did participate in any elections.
It became known as the Tar and Feather Party because it was founded in the same year as 40 AWB members tarred and feathered a University of Pretoria History Professor for upsetting them with his lectures on Afrikaner history.
Namibia and UNTAG
In 1989 the territory of South West Africa (renamed Namibia in 1990) was still under South African occupation. It had been given to the Union of South Africa under a League of Nations mandate after the First World War, it had previously been a German colony.
In 1989 the South African government agreed to hold multi-racial elections there. The AWB had offices in the Namibian capital city, Windhoek, and a large following amongst the White population of Namibia.
In the run-up to the elections the United Nations Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG) had established stations there to govern the territory during the period of transition from White rule to SWAPO (South West African People's Organisation) rule.
Five AWB members, under the leadership of the AWB's Johannesburg leader, Leonard Veenendaal, attacked an UNTAG base in Outjo, northern Namibia. Phosphorous grenades were thrown and it was riddled with machine gun fire. One UNTAG guard, Michael Hoaseb, was killed in the attack.
The men were apprehended and sent, on December 4th, to Outjo district court to stand trial. En route they escaped, and in the processes killed one of the policemen escorting them, Constable Van Wyck (who was shot in the stomach by Veenendaal).
The men escaped to South Africa and, in 1997, before the South African government could deport them to stand trial in Namibia had fled to Britain.
The Namibian government, with the assistance of Interpol, are still trying to have the two men, who are in Britain, extradited to stand trial.
Battle of Ventersdorp
Terre'Blanche and 2000 AWB supporters led a march on a National Party meeting being addresed by President DeKlerk on August 9 1991 in Ventersdorp. In an ensuing gunfight 7 policemen were shot, 43 AWB members wounded (3 killed) and 15 innocent bystanders injured).
Bophuthatswana
In 1994 the AWB were the victim of an international media hate campaign after they propped up the supposed dictatorship of Bantustan leader Lucas Mangope.
It was alleged that the 750 AWB paramilitary members who went into Bophuthatswana shot and killed 5 or more innocent Black civilians. Although no prosectuions were ever brought so the truth of the matter is unknown.
1990-1994
AWB membership plummeted following DeKlerk’s announcement that Apartheid would end, AWB membership waned continuously until 1994 when it constituted only a few hundred members. However splinter groups of the AWB, namely the Orde Boerevolk (Order of the Boer Nation), were involved in the execution of large scale bombing campaigns against left-wing targets (with Black trade union offices and National Party offices being favourite targets).
In 1991 FW DeKlerk, against the advice of senior policemen, held a meeting in the right-wing stronghold of Ventersdorp (where the AWB had its headquarters from 1989 onwards). In the ensuing chaos, as AWB members attempted to hand a petition to DeKlerk, 3 AWB members were killed and some 43 injured as the police and AWB exchanged gunfire.
In March 1994 the AWB agreed to prop up the regime of Lucas Mangope, President of Bophuthatswana (a Bantustan), by despatching 750 of its Wenkommando (commandos) to put down rioting by ANC members. However the Bophuthatswana army and police mutinied and fired on the AWB.
In a cold blooded attack 3 injured AWB members were killed, in front of TV news cameras, by a Bophuthatswana policeman.
In the days leading up to the “democratic” (ie multiracial) South African elections of 1994 dozens of explosions rocked numerous locations across South Africa (including Jan Smuts airport in Johannesburg). A total of 21 people were killed and 176 injured in the AWB’s pre-election bombing campaign.
In the New South Africa
Until recently (March 2008) the AWB had largely collapsed following the advent of ANC rule in South Africa, with a dwindling membership and with 30 AWB members jailed for organising and executing the pre-election bombing campaign. In 1997 AWB leader Eugene Terre’Blanche was tried for allegedly assaulting a gas station attendant in 1996 and for allegedly pistol whipping a disobedient employee of his farm. The AWB has dismissed the allegations as part of a left-wing conspiracy against the AWB, however in 2000 Eugene Terre’Blanche was sentenced to 7 years imprisonment for one count of assault and one count of attempted murder.
Terre’Blanche was paroled on June 11th 2004. During his prison stay his impoverished wife and daughter were forced to sell his family farm (inherited from his father in 1985) in Ventersdorp.
However in light of the genocide of White farmers in South Africa (with 2950 murdered since 1991)[1] the AWB, responding to pleas from a desperate White South African public, has been re-activated and is now holding meetings the length and bredth of South Africa (with two meetings attracting 500 visitors).[2]
Volkstaat Concept
Initially the AWB regarded the entirety of South Africa (except for the Bantustans which were designated Black countries) as belonging to "the White man". However as it became apparent that some concessions would need to be made to appease the international community and non-Whites in South Africa, the AWB favoured a 'Volkstaat' (People's State) solution.
The AWB proposed that the traditional lands occupied by the Boer people, which were the Transvaal, Orange Free State and Northern Natal be made into a Volkstaat, with an AWB government.
The AWB agreed to concede the Cape province to the 4 million or so Cape Coloureds (a mixed race population who's origins lie in 17th century relationships between European settlers and non-European slaves).
And, later on, the AWB agreed that the 800,000-strong Indian community, heavily centred in the Natal province, could have the Natal. With the Whites taking just the Transvaal and Orange Free State.
However the plan was flawed on several levels. Firstly the National Party government refused to hold a referendum on the issue of a Volkstaat and there was some 18 million Blacks in the Transvaal and Orange Free State.
The AWB did not intend to consult the Black people living in the Orange Free State or Transvaal, but this would have no doubt caused internal problems if an AWB Volkstaat had ever come about.
Boer claims to Transvaal and Orange Free State
However the Boer nation, who the AWB argues that it represents, has historical rights to the Transvaal and Orange Free State. In the Sand River Convention (1852) Queen Victoria of Britain acquiesed to Boer demdands and agreed that they should be allowed to rule the Transvaal as a republic.
Queen Victoria also agreed to allow the Boers run the Orange Free State under the terms of the Orange River Convention (also known as the Bloemfontein Convention), signed in 1854.
Flag controversy
The AWB’s flag is a Triple Sevens with a red and white background, the 3 sevens represent the 777 of God (in direct conflict with the 666 of Satan), the white represents the purity of the AWB’s ideals and the red represents the blood of Jesus Christ. Some journalists have libelled the AWB as being “neo-nazi”, even though the AWB is not anti-semitic (as of the revised Program of Principles, released in 1988) and does not regularly propound White supremacist beliefs (although the AWB demands the maintenance of the division of White and non-White people). The AWB has only three requirements for membership (as laid out in its first Program of Principles), that members must be White, Christian and proficient in Afrikaans. The early AWB flag was simply a four pointed star (opposing the five pointed star of Zionism and the five pointed star of communism, both of whom the AWB were decided enemies).
