Young white South Africans are taking part in secret military training exercises on farms across the country, as part of an effort to defend themselves against “crime and bloodshed”.
Over weekends and during school holidays, about 1000 young whites go into the bush for boot camps, where border war veterans train them in parade ground drill, handling of firearms and self-defence.
“It is a matter of survival for our people,” said Col Franz Jooste, executive director of the Commando Corps.
“This is in accordance with the laws of the land, and we are only training our people to protect themselves against crime and bloodshed.”
The paramilitary training takes place on farms all over the country.
But political commentator Harald Pakendorf described the training camps as “beyond absurd” and said they represent only a very small minority of whites in South Africa who still practise racism.
“There is no need for this kind of paramilitary training. A township like Alexandra next to the upmarket suburb of Sandton also suffers violent crimes, but they do not resort to these kind of extremes,” Pakendorf said. “It is nothing but racism.”
Jooste used to be one of the instructors who trained late AWB leader Eugene Terre’Blanche’s elite unit, Ystergarde (Iron Guard) during the 1980s.
They changed their name from Boer Commando Corps because they did not want to be associated with the Boeremag, currently standing trial for high treason in the Pretoria High Court.
“Julius Malema threatens white South Africans with a revolution and we are concerned about the wide support he enjoys amongst the revolutionary black youth in South Africa.
“He showed his true colours when he recently visited President Robert Mugabe in Harare, and he makes no secret of the fact that he supports Mugabe’s land grab policies,” said Jooste.
He said this week that if the ANC Youth League managed to change the land ownership clauses in the Constitution it would mean war in the country.
He said that the whites would not give up their land, as it was their only investment for a future in South Africa.
According to Jooste, it was the late Peter Mokaba who started the Boer genocide on the farms with his slogan, Kill the Boer and Malema is taking the call for this bloodshed further.
He said the corps had also embarked on a major recruitment campaign to revive the old commando system.
Apart from the cadet training of the white youth, the corps also regularly hold training camps for men and women, teaching survival methods and advanced training for commando members.
“This will be a security network spanning all of South Africa but, other than the usual neighbourhood watches, it will only be for whites,” Jooste said.
“Our own people and our own land face major threats. The enemy has only one goal in mind: they want take everything we build up. We do not want to attack anybody and do not want to threaten anybody. We only want to protect our own people and our own land. Therefore we have decided to form the commandos again. We are not the aggressors, but do not provoke us,” he warned.
The Commando Corps is a registered Article 21 company with five directors who are former defence force officers. Its president, Col Dawid Grobbelaar, told The New Age that they are training their people in the war against crime.
“Nowhere in our vocabulary will you find the words Boer Army,” said Grobbelaar.
Referring to the beliefs of the Israel Vision that the Boer prophet, Siener van Rensburg, warned against the “Nag van Verskrikking” (The Night of the Long Knives)—supposedly due to happen when Madiba dies—Grobbelaar said that certain people let their emotions lead them, based on these prophecies.
“We respect those historical memories, but we can’t plan our future according to prophecies.
“It’s our right to protect our families and next of kin against the war on our streets and on our farms—the robberies, murders and rapes on our people.
“Most of the criminals are well trained terrorists, with excellent weapons at their disposal, therefore we have to be well.”