TRC Final Report

Volume 6

Section 3

Chapter 6

Subsection 2

AFRIKANER WEERSTANDSBEWEGING

17. The Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AW B )²¹⁹ was founded in Heidelberg during 1973 on a more radical and militant manifesto of conservative aims. AWB leader Eugene Terre’Blanche traced the origins of the movement to dissatisfaction with the policy of ‘appeasement’ of then Prime Minister BJ Vorster. He and six others met to start a cultural/political movement with the aim of protecting the interests of Afrikaners, uniting the Boerevolk (Boer people) and establishing a volkstaat (nation-state). It was felt that Afrikaners did not share the same destiny as other whites in the country. A volkstaat would have a form similar to that of the old Boer republics.

18. The AWB was not willing to further its cause at the ballot box or negotiating table. Mr Terre’Blanche stated on numerous occasions that the borders of such a volkstaat would be drawn in blood.

19. The AWB has been the most prominent of all ultra-right movements. Its prominence owed much to the media profile of Terre’Blanche, although this was seriously eroded following the ill-fated intervention of AWB troopers in Bophuthatwana in March 1994.²²⁰ Up to forty of its members were arrested in election week in April 1994 and charged with a spate of pre-election bombings. Many applied to the Committee for amnesty.

WENKOMMANDO

20. The Wenkommando (WK)²²¹ was established by the AWB in 1990 to take over from the various paramilitary groups operating under the banner of the AWB . Attached to the WK was the elite Ystergarde (Iron Guards),the Rooivalke (Red Falcons),the Witkruisarende (Black Eagles), the Penkoppe ( Youth), Stormvalke (Storm Falcons), the underwater unit and various ‘ethnic’ units such as the exclusively Portuguese commandos in Johannesburg. In 1993, an air wing was also introduced and parachute training initiated.

21. The Ystergarde unit, with its membership of up to 200 men, was regarded as a more polished fighting unit, as several of its members were former members of the South African Defence Force (SADF) and South African Police (SAP) Special Forces.

22. The Rooivalke were the female counterpart of the Ystergarde and operated under the command of Mrs Ansie Cruywagen, wife of a Wenkommando chief of staff, Mr Alec Cruywagen. The Witkruisarende appeared to be a medical team consisting of female members of the Wenkommando with paramedical training. The Penkoppe were regarded as the Wenkommando Youth League and consisted almost exclusively of the children of active AWB members.

23. The Stormvalke unit was founded in late 1979 and can be regarded as the first paramilitary wing of the AWB. It never became more than a motorcycle gang wearing AWB insignia. Dormant in the mid-eighties, it was revived again in 1992 under the leadership of a Roodepoort motorcyclist.

24. Three men clad in diving gear made their first appearance at a May 1992 rally as the underwater unit of the Wenkommando. They surfaced again in 1993 at a joint rally of the AWB and AVF on 29 May.

25. In 1993, AWB spokesmen numbered Wenkommando membership at between 34 000 and 36 000. In September 1992, an official police assessment put WK membership at 15 000. Analysts have claimed that both figures were inflated. However, it is true that the WK expanded rapidly during the course of 1993. Political violence and concurrent polarisation played into the hands of the AWB, with an estimated 2 000 members joining up in the two weeks following the killing of Chris Hani. Towards the end of 1993, membership may have totalled 25 000.

26. Although it had a relatively large membership compared to other private armies, a distinction must be made between active members of the Wenkommando and those who had signed up at some stage but did not become active in the movement. Indications, such as attendance figures at rallies in 1992, suggest an active membership of no more than 5 000 countrywide.