---

Published in Monograph No 81, March 2003

‘Volk’ Faith and Fatherland
The Security Threat Posed by the White Right

Martin Schönteich and Henri Boshoff

A few isolated, but significant, violent incidents after 1994 revealed that there was some activity on the fringes of the white right. On Christmas eve 1996 two bombs at a Worcester (Western Cape) shopping centre killed four Coloured shoppers and injured 60. A group calling itself the Boere Aanvals Troepe claimed responsibility for the blasts. The group demanded the release of all Boer ‘freedom fighters’, and that the Boers be granted their own territory. Two weeks later four explosions occurred in Rustenburg (North West province), of which two were at a mosque injuring one person. The Boere Aanvals Troepe again claimed responsibility for the explosions. The perpetrators of the bombings in both towns were convicted and sentenced to long prison terms.¹⁸⁴

In early 1997 a dozen right wingers attempted to steal weapons and military equipment from the Pomfret military base in the Northern Cape province. The leader of the group called the Pretoria Boerekommando (Pretoria Boer Commando) was Willem Ratte, a high ranking ex-special forces member of the SADF.¹⁸⁵ In February 2001 Ratte was convicted for the raid and sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment, of which three years were suspended. Ratte made headlines in the run up to the 1994 election when he was placed in charge of protecting the transmission station of the right wing ‘Radio Pretoria’. Ratte also led a group of armed men in the symbolic occupation of Fort Schanskop in early 1994.¹⁸⁶Fort Schanskop is a Boer fort dating back to the Anglo-Boer War, located on the outskirts of Pretoria.

In May 1998 a group of men broke into the Tempe army base in Bloemfontein. Over 100 weapons, including machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and night-vision equipment were stolen. Two weeks later the same group robbed a Tempe army truck (and murdered its black and coloured occupants) of rocket and grenade launchers, bombs and various weapons including machine guns and ammunition worth millions of rands. Four men have been arrested and tried for the theft, robbery and murder. They are alleged to be members of a right wing organisation known as ‘Die Volk’ (the nation/people).¹⁸⁷ The organisation was set up to arm whites to take over the country after they had incited black people to murder each other and create chaos in the country. The group had allegedly also planned to assassinate president Thabo Mbeki, cordon off Bloemfontein, take over parliament and poison the drinking water in black areas. There are indications that the four accused are followers of the Israel Identity movement.¹⁸⁸ It is alleged that Johan Niemöller is Die Volk’s leader in the ‘Transvaal’.¹⁸⁹ Niemöller, an ex-special forces and paratrooper battalion member, has denied the allegation.¹⁹⁰

In March 2002 four followers of the Israel Identity movement were arrested for allegedly colluding to blow up the Vaal Dam on 6 April 2002.¹⁹¹ It is unknown whether it is a coincidence that it was on the same date, on 6 April 1652, that Jan van Riebeeck and his crew of seafarers landed at the Cape, setting in motion the beginning of white settlement in South Africa. (Up to 1994, the 6th of April was an official public holiday: Founders’ Day.) During their trial the accused revealed they were staunch believers in the prophecies of Boer seer Nicolaas van Rensburg.¹⁹²

In late 2002 the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) revealed that a group calling itself the Boere Vryheids Aksie or BVA (Boer Action for Freedom) planned to plant bombs made from plastic explosives, chlorine and other substances in parliament. The group allegedly also planned to poison water reservoirs with Tetranium, an agricultural poison, in Soweto and the Pretoria townships of Atteridgeville and Soshanguve, and Laudium.¹⁹³

According to press reports, the NIA has been analysing the extreme right wing threat in South Africa since 2000. In terms of its analysis, the NIA identified several right wing groups that have been involved in plots against the government: Verligte Aksie Groep or Enlightened Action Group (1995–99), Niemöller Initiative (1997–98), the Willem Ratte group (1994–2002), and the Boere Intelligensiediens or Boer Intelligence Service (2001).¹⁹⁴

The Boeremag: fulfilling prophecy?

While some of the available information was unconfirmed at the time of writing, events during the latter half of 2002 revealed that a group of hardcore right wingers were tenaciously devoted to creating an independent Afrikaner state. The story of this group—die Boeremag (Boer force/power)—is a valuable case study of how the extreme right mixes religion and politics. It appears that the Boeremag’s sabotage campaign was driven by a philosophy based on extreme nationalist views and a sense of God-given purpose: a lethal cocktail, given the damage religiously-inspired terrorism has caused in other parts of the world.¹⁹⁵

The Boeremag makes a good case study for another reason. Initially belittled by the media, and underestimated by the police and the intelligence community, the danger posed by the organisation rapidly grew to become South Africa’s primary security threat during the last quarter of 2002. In the ensuing panic the state’s security forces overreacted and alienated sections within the conservative Afrikaner community. Such a mistake could have been costly had it not been for the rapid arrest of some of the ringleaders within the Boeremag in late 2002.

During 2002 almost two dozen alleged Boeremag members were arrested and charged with, inter alia, terrorism-related offences, sabotage and treason. Three of the arrestees were serving South African National Defence Force (SANDF) officers.¹⁹⁶ It is alleged that one of these SANDF officers met with former state president PW Botha to seek the latter’s advice on the possibility of a white government ruling South Africa again. Botha is alleged to have responded that it was possible, but definitely not through an election.¹⁹⁷ The prosecution is linking the arrestees to documents which set out detailed plans for overthrowing the constitutional order in large parts of South Africa (see section on Boeremag documents below).

The activities of the Boeremag came to light in September 2001 when a lieutenant-colonel in the SANDF was contacted by alleged Boeremag members. The lieutenant-colonel was given a detailed military plan (Document 12—which is analysed below) setting out the steps that needed to be taken to rid the country of the ‘Boer’s enemies’ and take over the country’s strategic military, economic and communication centres. The document also contained sensitive information on police stations and military installations, including the number of personnel, weapons and models of aircraft and military vehicles.¹⁹⁸ The SANDF officer gave this information to his commander who reported the matter to the South African Police Service’s (SAPS) Crime Intelligence. On another occasion alleged Boeremag members invited the second-in-command of the Mpumalanga Commando to a meeting where those present were asked to mobilise to take over the country. This was also reported to the police.¹⁹⁹

In response to these revelations the police launched Operation Zealot in May 2001 and placed suspected right wing extremist groups under covert police surveillance. In October 2001 the police conducted raids on homes of suspected right wingers in the towns of Brits, Warmbaths and Krugersdorp and confiscated documents stored on computer hard drives.²⁰⁰ One of the documents was the incriminating Document 12. The residents of the homes in which the documents were confiscated were arrested in April 2002 on the allegation that they had been linked to plans to topple the government.²⁰¹ The arrestees were a former Vista University lecturer, an ex-policeman and a farmer.202 At the time of the arrests a police spokesman was quoted as saying that they “do not consider these people to be a real threat because they are such a small organisation”.²⁰³

In mid September 2002 the police revealed that it had foiled an elaborate Boeremag plan to disrupt the World Summit on Sustainable Development. The Summit was held at the Sandton Convention Centre (Johannesburg) in early September 2002, and attended by dozens of heads of state and some 30,000 accredited delegates. The Boeremag planned to insert 120 powerful explosives into portable gas canisters that were to be delivered to the Summit venue as part of the catering equipment.²⁰⁴ It was later revealed that other Summit related targets included the Johannesburg Securities Exchange and the main bridge from Sandton across the M1 freeway—one of the busiest roads on the continent.²⁰⁵

On 13 September 2002 the police uncovered an eight-tonne truck which had been parked in an industrial area of Lichtenburg (in the North West province). It appears that the purpose of the truck was to serve as a mobile headquarter in a violent conflict. The truck was equipped with a computer, a scanner, medical equipment, food, two-way radios and thousands of R-1 rifle, shotgun and .22 rifle rounds of ammunition, one AK-47 rifle, pipe and petrol bombs, base compounds for homemade explosives, and small flags and insignia carrying the Odal rune (see text box on page 74 below).²⁰⁶

According to the police the truck was part of a convoy of vehicles that had been making its way from Nelspruit (Mpumalanga province) to Thabazimbi (Limpopo province). Along the way the convoy split up and the police’s Crime Intelligence Unit members who were following it “lost some of the cars”.²⁰⁷ The truck was eventually found in Lichtenburg, where police were aware of “planning for things that were going to happen in the area”.²⁰⁸Letters had been sent to people in various parts of the country calling them up to attend a ceremony in Lichtenburg to celebrate the declaration of a Boer Republic on 14 September. The ceremony, which was planned to take place at the headquarters of the Lichtenburg Commando, never occurred. Recipients of the letter were also urged to bring with them weapons and ammunition, Bibles and a hymn book, military uniforms, medication, emergency equipment, headache tablets, suntan lotion, camping equipment, umbrellas, tents, caravans and enough food and water to last three days.

Letters had also been sent to the media and political parties announcing a ‘state of war’. The letters were issued by the Tussentydse Regering van die Suid-Afrikaanse Boere-Republiek (Interim Government of the South African Boer Republic), stating that theBoerevolk (Boer people/nation) had declared war against the Republic of South Africa, its partners, “traitors of the Boerevolk and any other ally who tried to assist the ANC regime”.²⁰⁹ Translated from Afrikaans the letter further read: “Our aim is to live in our own independent and autonomous [state] where we only answer to our Almighty Father and ourselves, as an autonomous nation, safe to live, free from murdering gangs who daily torment us.”²¹⁰

‘Liberation’ in Lichtenburg: coincidence or prophecy? It seems bizarre that the Boeremag advertised their plan to declare a Boer Republic by posting letters to this effect around the country. Declaration of a Boer Republic—backed up with a truck filled with bombs and ammunition—is an act of high treason which would certainly elicit a response by the police and SANDF. One interesting explanation for this bizarre behaviour is that the Boeremag placed blind faith in their interpretation of a prophecy made by the Boer seer, Nicolaas van Rensburg, in the early twentieth century (see chapter 3). Convinced that prophecy was on their side, the Boeremag might have thought that their victory was preordained irrespective of the response of the state’s security forces. In his visions Van Rensburg saw a man “in a brown suit rise very unexpectedly to gather the nation together and take matters in hand by means of a coup d’état”.211 Moreover, that the Boers are summoned to a hillock north of Lichtenburg where the man in the brown suit makes his first appearance and is accepted by the Boers as their leader (our emphasis).212 Could it be that the leader of the Boeremag (at the time of writing it was not clear who the leader is) saw himself as the metaphorical man in the brown suit who would lead the Boers to freedom? Not only the location, but also the date, can be linked to historical events and visions of Seer Van Rensburg. With the outbreak of the First World War, Britain asked South Africa to invade German South West Africa. The South African government acceded to the British request. Many Afrikaners opposed the idea of fighting for the British. They yearned for the days of the Boer Republics, and the outbreak of war in Europe seemed an opportune moment to throw off the English yoke and declare an independent republic. Amongst those who thought along these lines was the influential General Koos de la Rey of the western Transvaal. Within days of the outbreak of war notices were circulating in his district, Lichtenburg, calling on the burghers to arm themselves and assemble at Treurfontein (now Coligny, about 30 km from Lichtenburg).213 On 15 September 1914 General Beyers resigned as Commandant-General of the Union Defence Force, and he and De la Rey left for Potchefstroom, intending to launch a rebellion in opposition to the planned South African attack on South West Africa. En route De la Rey was killed at a police roadblock and the Boer protest plan was thrown into confusion. Interestingly, Van Rensburg did have a vision of “a white piece of paper with two black letters written on it—a one and a five (15). This white paper with the black letters is hanging over Lichtenburg.”214 Many Boers initially interpreted this as meaning that their liberation had been ordained to occur on the 15th day of the month.215 As the Boer rebellion failed, the vision was later reinterpreted as foretelling the death of De la Rey on 15 September 1914. Could it be that the Boeremag gave the vision its original interpretation—the 15th as the day of their liberation? Moreover, that their liberation would commence in Lichtenburg? This would imply the celebration to declare a Boer Republic would have taken place as planned on the 14th, but that the actual declaration of a Republic would have happened after midnight—on 15 September.

In early October 2002 the police uncovered a major arms cache, including 16 large cylinder bombs, R-1 and R-4 assault rifles, handguns, a box containing about 40 hand grenades manufactured from steel pipes and 24 boxes of ammonium nitrate (a basic ingredient for homemade bombs). The cache was found on a farm belonging to a suspected Boeremag member in the Modimolle (previously Nylstroom) area of Limpopo.²¹⁶

At a media briefing after uncovering the weapons cache the national commissioner of police, Jackie Selebi, revealed that there were about 100 key Boeremag members in the country, many of whom had access to the SANDF’s Commandos and their weapons. Selebi expressed his concern about how young some of the suspects were—all between the ages of 17 and 40 years—and that many of the suspects were highly qualified professional people and prosperous farmers. Selebi announced that a number of police stations would forthwith be guarded after it was revealed that police weaponry could be handed over to the Boeremag (presumably by Boeremag sympathisers within the police).²¹⁷ Shortly thereafter armoured vehicles and other extraordinary security precautions were deployed around a number of state buildings in Pretoria, inter alia, the Union Buildings, the Reserve Bank and the national headquarter building of the SAPS.

Only some six months previously a police spokesman had stated that they “do not consider these people [the Boeremag] to be a real threat because they are such a small organisation”.²¹⁸ It is apparent that both the SAPS and the state’s intelligence agency, the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), had underestimated the size of the Boeremag and the threat the organisation posed to the state.

Just after midnight on 30 October 2002 eight bomb blasts rocked Soweto, the country’s largest black township. Seven of the blasts occurred on main commuter railway lines running through the township. The damage to the railway lines was extensive and estimated at about R2 million. More than 200,000 commuters were inconvenienced. One of the explosions flung a piece of railway line a few hundred metres onto a shack killing its sleeping occupant—the only fatality of the explosions. The eighth blast occurred at a mosque forcing parts of the building to collapse. A ninth bomb was found at a disused service station and diffused by the police. Some hours after the Soweto blasts, the detonator from another bomb exploded at a Buddhist temple in Bronkhorstspruit, about 30 kilometres east of Pretoria, slightly injuring two security guards. According to national police commissioner, Jackie Selebi, the explosive used in the blasts was ammonium nitrate.²¹⁹

Boer victories on 30 October in history220 There is no obvious historical significance of the date of the Soweto bombings (30 October) other than two battles of the Anglo-Boer War, both of which were won by the Boers: 30 October 1899: Battle of Modderspruit/Nicholson’s Nek near Ladysmith, alias ‘Mournful Monday’, during which 1,764 British troops died. The day has been called “one of the gloomiest days in the history of the British Army”. At the time it was “the most humiliating day in British history since Majuba”.221 30 October 1901: Battle of Bakenlagte near Bethal, in which the British lost 77 men including Lieutenant-Colonel G E Benson.222

While one analyst described the extreme right’s ability to set off explosions in Soweto as “twitchings of an amputated limb”, the direct and indirect financial consequences of the bombings were substantial.²²³ The many commuters who did not go to work on the day of the bombings invariably made an impact on the local economy in Gauteng—the country’s economic powerhouse. News of the bomb blasts also caused the rand to loose 21 cents to the US dollar as the markets initially panicked, but recovered some of the lost ground at the close of trading that day. The Gauteng Tourism Authority felt the blasts could negatively affect visitor numbers unless quick action was taken to apprehend the perpetrators.²²⁴

In early November 2002 various newspapers received an e-mailed letter in which the Boeremag said that its enemies should know they were not challenging the lower ranks of the organisation, but the God of Blood River. The group, describing themselves as soldiers of God, stated that the Soweto and Bronkhorstspruit bombings were the beginning of the end of the ANC government. Translated from Afrikaans the letter further stated:

We also declare that it is the end of suppression of the Boer nation, and for that we honour only God. For this reason the ANC must also know that it is not only dealing with the Boer nation, but with the revenge… of the God of the Boer nation. Here in the Southland we will establish a nation for our God that will honour only Him.²²⁵

The letter added that no “heathen temples or places of prayer would be permitted in the Southland”. Declaring that farm attacks, murders, rapes or violent attacks on members of the Boer nation would no longer be tolerated, the writer(s) stated each of these would be avenged. The writer(s) demanded that 35 right wing prisoners—including the arrested members of the Boeremag—be released. “Should our demands not be met, the ANC will be held responsible for the results before and during this false outer-world festive season,” the letter stated.²²⁶

In mid-November the NIA claimed it had uncovered a plot by the Boeremag to target specific days during the December period in a bombing campaign. Moreover, that a new bombing campaign would start on 16 December.²²⁷

The 16th of December is a historically and religiously significant day for conservative Afrikaners. Before 1994 it was a public holiday, the Day of the Vow, commemorating the Boers’ victory over the Zulus at Blood River on 16 December 1838. In 2002 the day also marked the beginning of the ANC’s 51st national conference held in Stellenbosch. All senior heads in the NIA were ordered to cancel their leave to monitor the situation across the country. The NIA further revealed that about 40 right wing individuals, spread throughout the nine provinces, were involved in the Boeremag planning process^.228

An ammonium nitrate bomb One of several types of fertiliser, ammonium nitrate is used in large quantities by the commercial farming sector in South Africa. The stable fertiliser is ideally suited for soil that farmers do not want to dig up, such as fields prone to erosion. By itself, the fertiliser is not dangerous. However, purified and mixed with diesel fuel, and equipped with a detonator and a small amount of unstable explosive, such a fertiliser–based bomb can become “a concoction so cheap, powerful and easy to handle that it has largely replaced dynamite in the commercial blasting industry”.229 As ammonium nitrate is very stable it requires a primary explosion to ignite. A primary explosion is created by adding an electric current to some unstable explosive such as flash powder (a mixture of black powder and saltpetre). Flash powder is used in commercial fireworks and is fairly easy to procure. Ammonium nitrate was the main ingredient of the two-tonne truck bomb used by Timothy McVeigh to blow up a federal government building in Oklahoma City in 1995. The explosion caused the death of 168 people, and injured over 400.

On 23 November a powerful bomb badly damaged a building containing the Police Airwing at Grand Central Airport (outside Johannesburg). A police helicopter was slightly damaged. No one was injured or killed in the explosion which occurred on a Saturday night.²³⁰ In the early morning hours of 27 November an explosive device damaged the Umtamvuna bridge near the Wild Coast Sun casino and hotel complex on the border between the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.²³¹ The bridge suffered structural damage and was closed to road traffic for about three weeks while undergoing repairs.

In a statement e-mailed to newspapers the Boeremag claimed responsibility for the aforementioned bomb blasts. It claimed it had damaged the Umtamvuna bridge to prevent people entering a gambling house. “During the previous phase we [the Boeremag] have engaged ourselves in a power demonstration. We have deliberately identified targets which would have resulted in minimum loss of life,” the e-mail stated. It further read that the government ignored the demands of the Boeremag, and that the organisation will take revenge for loss of life of farmers and its compatriots: “Therefore we will continue with the next phase, Operation Elohiem of Revenge, to include revenge attacks throughout the country.”²³² (Elohim is a Hebrew word for God.)

On 29 November the SAPS launched ‘Operation Hopper’, and raided 94 farms and homes of right wing suspects and possible Boeremag sympathisers. The raids resulted in 11 arrests and the seizure of ammunition and 64 illegal firearms.²³³ In early December, during the second phase of Operation Hopper, the police searched the homes of 43, largely well-known, right wingers such as Barend Strydom (White Wolves), Piet Rudolph (Orde Boerevolk), Manie Maritz (AWB), Gustav Styles and Dries Kriel (executive members of the ‘South African League of Former Police, Soldiers and Officials’) and Willem Ratte.²³⁴ During the search of a particular house the police found a list containing the names of detectives investigating the Boeremag.²³⁵

In mid-December the police arrested five alleged Boeremag members who were wanted on charges of terrorism, high treason and sabotage. During the arrests police seized almost 900kg of explosives, firearms including an R-4 rifle and pistols, as well as other military type equipment and time delay devices.²³⁶ At the time of writing it was not clear whether the confiscated explosive was ammonium nitrate fertilizer and, if it was, whether it was in purified form ready to be used in the production of a bomb. To execute the arrest of key Boeremag suspects who the police had been looking for non-stop since the October bomb explosions, police secret agents were forced to blow their cover after two years of infiltrating the right wing underground.²³⁷

During the final days of 2002 the police revealed that the Boeremag had planned to bomb a Durban stadium during a concert with artists from India, attended by 50,000 people. It was further revealed that bombs were planned to be detonated in Durban, Port Edward, and in the Gauteng, Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces simultaneously. A separate attack was also planned for Cape Town.²³⁸

With the December arrests the police seriously disrupted the plans of the Boeremag. At the time of writing the police were claiming that the persons responsible for the Soweto bombs, and the leadership of the organisation, were behind bars awaiting trial. If the Boeremag is organised in a cell-like structure (which seems likely), it is probable that some individual cells have gone unnoticed by the police. Indeed, in a bail application by an alleged Boeremag member in January 2003, the state advocate admitted as much.²³⁹ In March 2003, police crime intelligence reports alleged that the Boeremag was planning a renewed bombing campaign, and that the remnants of the organisation were regrouping after the December arrests.²⁴⁰

It needs to be borne in mind, however, that members of Boeremag cells which have not been infiltrated by the police or intelligence agencies will have been discouraged by the state’s successes against their organisation. The ability of the police to infiltrate the Boeremag to its highest levels will deter many members of the organisation from committing illegal acts any time soon, lest they be uncovered by infiltrated police agents. It is consequently unlikely that the Boeremag will engage in large-scale acts of sabotage or terror in the foreseeable future.

Boeremag documents

At the time of writing the prosecution intends using a number of documents, which were found in the possession of alleged Boeremag members, to prove charges of high treason against them. The documents set out detailed plans for overthrowing government authority in large parts of South Africa. While the three documents discussed below all contain plans to create an independent Boer state, they differ in the detail about how such a state should be created and what form it should take.

It is apparent that the author(s) of the documents are driven by fundamentalist Christian beliefs and a sense of God-given mission. It is probable that one of the documents was composed by someone well informed about the SANDF and the deployment of its equipment throughout the country, and the location of strategic key points in South Africa.

Contingency Plan

The document entitled gebeurlikheidsplan (Contingency Plan) is an easy to understand co-ordinated national emergency plan which can be implemented by civilians without military training. It can be deduced from the contingency plan document that it was written between November 2000 and early September 2001.²⁴¹

The Contingency Plan is based on the premise that a nationwide attack by blacks on whites is inevitable. The plan sets out how the Boers should react to the attack so as to reclaim territorial sovereignty for the Boer people and stabilise the unrest situation. The plan is primarily reactive as opposed to offensive. The plan stresses the importance of the Boers not taking the law into their own hands, but acting within the law until the enemy attacks them and other white South Africans. The plan does not identify all blacks as the enemy, but is based on the belief that some blacks will side with the Boer’s cause. Such black people are to be protected and accommodated at Boer assembly points and eventually be given their own land where they can rule themselves.

Christian fundamentalism

Sections of the contingency plan contain deeply religious interpretations of the future of the Boers and their enemies. The document argues that God is punishing the Boerevolk or Boer nation because of its materialism.

According to the Contingency Plan, God never acts without informing his servants beforehand. In the case of the Boer nation, God informed ‘Oom Siener van Rensburg’ (Nicolaas van Rensburg, see chapter 3), and it is the responsibility of the Boers to comply with Van Rensburg’s prophecies. The document states that God revealed to its author(s) the action which needs to be taken to counter the onslaught against the Boer nation. This ‘discussion’ between the document’s author(s) and God resulted in a comprehensive national plan: the Contingency Plan document.

The document further argues that the struggle of the Boers has an important spiritual dimension. On a physical level the Boer people are threatened by the Illuminati, or international money-power, which manipulates international events to bring about a global one-world government. Such a government will be ruled by Satan, as has been foretold in prophecy in the New Testament book of Revelation.

Diverse enemy

According to the Contingency Plan, the Illuminati is opposed to the territorial integrity of states and the God-given right of every nation to rule itself. In South Africa the Illuminati advances its objectives by exploiting black nationalism and establishing an ineffective and corrupt black government. Thereafter political unrest is created to enable the Illuminati to further its expansionist neo-colonialist project by extracting the country’s minerals at low prices.

The document identifies a range of Illuminati front organisations, such as the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, multi-national corporations, the world media, the Commonwealth, the World Council of Churches, the Roman Catholic Church, Zionism, the New Age movement, Freemasonry, the Palestine Liberation Organisation and international communism. According to the document the main Illuminati front organisations in South Africa are the Freemasonry movement, the South African Zionist movement, the ‘ANC/PAC/SACP alliance’, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), the public service, the South African media, all financial institutions, the South African Council of Churches and the Afrikanerbond (successor organisation to the Afrikaner Broederbond).

According to the Contingency Plan the forces opposed to the Illuminati are those who fight for what is right in God’s eyes and what is in the interests of the Boer nation. This implies that there can be blacks who will fight on the side of the Boer nation, while many whites will be the enemy of the Boers. In terms of the Contingency Plan, whites who elect to leave the country during the time of the unrest, instead of making their way to the Boer assembly points, will not be allowed to return to South Africa. Blacks who flee the fighting in the cities and who are sympathetic to the Boer cause will be accommodated at the mentioned assembly points. After the Boer’s have attained their freedom, black people also receive their own sovereign territory independent of any foreign bonds.

Enemy plans

The Contingency Plan discusses the most likely course of action the Illuminati and its front organisations will take to subjugate South Africans generally and the Boer nation in particular:

• Step 1: political phase. Mobilisation of the black masses, and discrediting the Boer nation.
• Step 2: guerrilla phase. Continuation of the pre-1994 bush war through farm attacks.
• Step 3: conventional phase. To occur in four stages:

  * Preparation by the enemy: organised violent crimes against whites such as shooting incidents at military bases, farm attacks and racially motivated urban violence.

  * National strike by blacks: discontent among black South Africans is fostered.

  * Death of an important statesman: the death may be from natural or unnatural causes. If the statesman is murdered, then it is likely that the perpetrators will be the ‘black enemy’ to radicalise moderate black South Africans to engage in violent acts.

  * National attack: midnight attack by blacks on Johannesburg, followed by a national attack on the white inhabitants of rural and urban settlements. This attack will encompass the murder and rape of whites and the looting of white properties.

• Step 4: takeover phase. Complete takeover of power by the ANC, its allies and the Illuminati and the redistribution of land and wealth.

The Contingency Plan describes in some detail how each of the above steps should be opposed. Considerable emphasis is placed on local protection, and the mobilisation of the Commando’s at Prieska and Lichtenburg, and the establishment of an operations centre to secure first rural areas and small towns, then the provinces and ultimately the nation’s capital.

The document describes detailed preparations Boers should take to prepare themselves for the enemy’s actions. Preparations include the storage of fuel and foodstuffs, establishing alternative communication networks, setting up underground military cells, and reconnaissance of enemy infrastructure and strategic installations. It is only with the midnight attack on Johannesburg that the contingency plan comes into active operation with the withdrawal of the Boer people to the main assembly points in Prieska and Lichtenburg.

The Contingency Plan states that no unlawful or guerrilla-type acts should be committed by the Boers until the commencement of the aforementioned step four by the enemy (the ‘takeover phase’). This is to prevent the arrest and incarceration of Boers before the real conflict begins and harming the Boer’s international image, and to permit the Boers to enter the fight with “a clear conscience before God”.

Midnight attack and German weapons Step three of the Contingency Plan presupposes a midnight attack by blacks on Johannesburg, followed by a national attack on the white inhabitants of the country. Since 1994 South Africa has not suffered any violent attacks across racial lines involving mobs of people. On the face of it the prediction contained in the Contingency Plan seems peculiar. It is likely that the prediction is taken from Seer Van Rensburg’s prophecies. In one of his visions Van Rensburg saw an unexpected night attack on Johannesburg by black people during which thousands of white people will be killed in one night.242 The Boer prophet also had a vision of the violent death of a black leader, whereafter “violence and civil war will erupt… The first large-scale violence erupts and the Witwatersrand (Gauteng) in particular feels the brunt of black violence.”243 Both the Contingency Plan and Document 12 place great significance on the small Karoo town of Prieska as an assembly and consolidation point for the Boer forces. Moreover, that the railway line between Prieska and Lüderitz (a harbour town in southern Namibia) is safeguarded. The significance of Prieska is not readily apparent, unless the reader is aware of a vision Van Rensburg had, that German arms would be supplied to the Boers in Prieska by rail from the port of Lüderitz. It is at Prieska, Van Rensburg foretold, where the Boers would be armed and where an interim Boer government will be formed.244 Snyman, a well known interpreter of Van Rensburg’s prophecies, puts it as follows: When the new leader has ended his speech, Nicolaas van Rensburg sees many hobbled horses grazing around the hillock near Lichtenburg. This means the men are ready and willing to fight; there is no stopping them now. Even the new leader does nothing to stop them, as he urged them to unite, take up arms and meet the enemy as believers. The Boers turn southwards towards Prieska from Lichtenburg. A miracle occurs and the Boers get unexpected help in the form of ‘new guns’ at Lüderitzbucht. For the first time since the War the Boer nation will rise up to reclaim his freedom and stolen heritage through the barrel of a gun.245

Finally, the Contingency Plan sets out how a Boer army will be established and consolidated in Prieska to launch a counter-attack. The operational and strategic purpose of such an offensive will be to free the whole of South Africa from the enemies of the Boer people, and to establish a sovereign Boer Republic in South Africa. The offensive will mainly be in the form of guerrilla-type activities and concentrated offensives against targets of opportunity.

Document 12

The second document linked to the Boeremag is, for reasons unknown, entitled Document 12. The document contains a detailed nationwide military plan to rid the country of the enemies of the Boers and take over the country’s strategic military, economic and communication centres. The technical detail contained in the document indicates that it was written by a person(s) well informed of the military strengths and weaknesses of the SANDF.

Unlike the Contingency Plan, Document 12 is less restrained. The Contingency Plan makes provision for the creation of a Boer Republic as a defensive reaction to a black attack on whites (first in Johannesburg and then throughout the country). Moreover, the Boer’s are admonished not to initiate the conflict but act primarily in self defence.

Document 12 provides two scenarios for the commencement of hostilities: an attack by blacks on whites in Johannesburg (as in the Contingency Plan), or an attack by the Boers on the country’s infrastructure to create widespread chaos. According to Document 12 the latter Boer attack is to be conducted in such a way that the perception is created that Jews or Muslims were the perpetrators. Unlike the Contingency Plan, which hopes for some black support for the Boer cause, Document 12 proposes that all blacks and Indians are driven out of the country or into KwaZulu-Natal.

Five-phase plan

Document 12 refers to five phases culminating in the Boer forces taking over the country by force and establishing a Boer government.

• Phase 1: Organisation phase

  During this phase the military wing of a new Boer government is established. Information is gathered on, inter alia, military installations, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), the cabinet and parliament with a view of taking over or destroying these institutions and other logistical and strategic key points. Boer personnel are identified to protect the country’s towns and cities, and other important key points which should not be destroyed. During this phase the Boers of the Western and Eastern Cape, and KwaZulu-Natal are informed where they should report for duty. Identifying flags and signs in the form of the Odal rune are produced (see box below).²⁴⁶ Phase 1 continues until the start of the Phase 2.

• Phase 2: Creating chaos to achieve freedom of movement

  This phase is activated by black attacks on the white community, or a Boer attack on the country’s infrastructure to create widespread chaos (a Boer attack should appear to be the work of Jews or Muslims). The resulting chaos will allow the Boer forces to move freely and mobilise support without much government resistance.

• Phase 3: Coup d’état

  During this phase the military wing of the Boer government comes into operation, and some 4,000 men are mobilised countrywide. The Odal rune—the battle insignia of the Boer forces—is displayed openly.

  This phase includes shutting down the electricity supply to the greater Johannesburg area and Bloemfontein for ten days, the elimination of Boer traitors, the takeover of Radio Pretoria, Radio Oranje and Radio Jakaranda, the takeover or destruction of SANDF and SAPS helicopters and aircraft, the looting of military and police ammunition stores, the takeover of all SANDF bases containing military vehicles, the takeover of the National Intelligence Agency’s headquarters and fuel depots, and the freeing of incarcerated right wingers and convicted apartheid-era police operatives.²⁴⁷ The railway line between Prieska and Lüderitz is safeguarded.

• Phase 4: Occupation of secondary targets and expulsion of blacks

  During this phase the Boer forces take over secondary targets throughout the country, such as harbours and commercial airports, radio stations, telephone exchanges, water reservoirs, hospitals, engineering works, abattoirs and large shopping centres and food depots.

  Blacks and Indians will be told to leave the country or settle in KwaZulu-Natal. To entice blacks and Indians to do so, food will be made available along roads leading out of the country and to KwaZulu-Natal. At the same time black and Indian residential areas outside of KwaZulu-Natal will be bombarded to drive their inhabitants out of South Africa.

Odal rune According to Document 12 the Boer forces will use the Odal rune as an identifying sign. Small flags bearing the Odal rune were recovered by the police in an abandoned truck in Lichtenburg. The truck also contained ammunition, homemade bombs and medical equipment destined for Boeremag activities. The truck belonged to Dr Johan ‘Lets’ Pretorius—an alleged member of the Boeremag. At the time of writing Pretorius was awaiting trial on charges of contravening the Arms and Ammunition Act. Runes were used by Germanic tribes as magical symbols and as characters in an alphabet. According to Germanic and Norse mythology Odin is said to have been the first to discover the secret of the runes. It was believed that Odin was the chief god who, with his brothers, created man and the universe. Odin was also the god of war and the god of victory in battle.248 The Odal rune represents “the ancestral home or property and fixed wealth and inheritance. This can include inherited characteristics from past generations that will be passed on to one’s children—or it can represent a united family’s strength.”249 The Odal rune has also been interpreted as being the rune of the farmers representing land, property and home country.250 Another, but similar, interpretation of the Odal rune is that it represents country, patriotism, commitment and prejudice.251 Given the Odal rune’s pagan origins it is surprising that it has been chosen as the identifying sign of the Boeremag—an organisation with a professed Christian worldview. It is not the first time that the Odal rune has been used by the right wing in South Africa. In the late 1970s the right wing Anglo-Afrikaner Bond used it (as did its aptly named youth wing the Odal Clan), followed in the 1980s and 1990s by the Blanke Bevrydingsbeweging and the Afrikaner Studentefront (Afrikaner Student Front). It has also been used by the HNP, first in party meetings in the then South West Africa (Namibia) and later in South Africa as well. The HNP, which contains Christian elements in its programme of principles, argues that “in earlier times the Odal sign was used by the white race as a sign of ownership and property, while later it also suggested the bond to a fatherland”.252 The Odal rune has been adopted by a number of extreme right wing, and white supremacist, groups in Europe.253

Phase 5: Implement new government

This last phase comes into operation once most black people have been expelled from the country outside of KwaZulu-Natal and the security situation has been stabilised. The military wing of the new government in co-operation with the Boer president appoint the political arm of the new government which starts governing the newly established Boer Republic.

Proclamation by the War Cabinet

The third document linked to the Boeremag is a proclamation in the name of theOorlogskabinet van die Suid-Afrikaanse Boere Republiek (War Cabinet of the South African Boer Republic). On 11 July 2002 the ‘war cabinet’ issued a proclamation announcing the establishment of an interim Boer governing authority. The war cabinet appeared to consists of different departments—known as the Council of Seven—who execute state functions. Each department consists of three members, creating a Council of 21. The activities of the Council of Seven are co-ordinated by a state secretary, (also called the deputy interim president).

According to the proclamation, on 11 July 2002 representatives of the Boer nation proclaimed the restoration of the former Boer Republics of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek, Republiek van die Oranje Vrystaat and the Republiek van Vryheid as a new unitary state to be known as the Suid-Afrikaanse Boere-Republiek (South African Boer Republic). Geographically such a state would cover the present South African provinces of the Free State, Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West and northern KwaZulu-Natal.

The document further claims the following areas for the Boer nation: the area of the Cape Colony (present day Western Cape and large parts of the Eastern and Northern Cape), Zululand (large parts of northern and central KwaZulu-Natal), Namibia, Swaziland and Delagoa Bay (Maputo and surrounds going inland up to the South African border).

Boeremag structure

Unlike the typical right wing saboteur of the early 1990s, the alleged Boeremag arrestees are not predominantly farmers, blue-collar mineworkers or socially marginal individuals. Many of them appear to be middle class family men, and some hold senior positions in the SANDF. One of the alleged kingpins of the group was a self employed businessman with a home in a leafy eastern suburb of Pretoria.

Who is the real interim president of the Boer Republic? The proclamation purported to be issued by the War Cabinet of the South African Boer Republic is signed by, inter alia, Theunis Krüger, as the “interim president of the South African Boer Republic”. The police allege that Theunis Krüger is, in fact, Marius Lamprecht. Lamprecht was a staff sergeant at the Tempe army base in May 1998 when large quantities of military equipment were stolen from the base by members of a right wing group Die Volk (see above). Police allege that Lamprecht was the mastermind behind the weapons haul.254Lamprecht has been on the run from the police since May 1998.

The level of detail contained in the Boeremag ‘coup documents’ reveals that its authors were methodical and well informed about the personnel and military equipment kept at virtually every military base in the country. The technical detail contained in the documents was not dreamed up by a delusional idealist, but written by someone with a sound understanding of the military strengths and weaknesses of the SANDF. The documents reveal that it is the purpose of the Boeremag to, among other things:

• organise the community according to the Contingency Plan;
• recruit, train and employ receptive Boers in military structures and commandos;
• infiltrate military and police structures to obtain weapons, ammunition and communication equipment;
• attack selected targets according to the Contingency Plan; and
• employ strict security measures to prevent infiltration of the Boeremag by state security and intelligence agents.

It can be deduced from one of the confiscated documents that it was written more than a year prior to the first arrest of alleged Boeremag members. It is likely that its authors had some time to identify and connect likeminded people before the state’s security agencies began observing them. The fact that the Boeremag arrestees, and the individuals sought by the police, are spread across the country is also indicative of this.

In July 2002 the ‘war cabinet’ appointed the command of the armed citizen’s force (presumably the Boeremag). According to the proclamation of the war cabinet, the citizen’s force is tasked with establishing armed commandos throughout the country which can enforce the authority of the South African Boer Republic and enable it to govern. From the information contained in the confiscated documents, it is likely that the Boeremag adopted an organisational structure used by successful guerrilla or terrorist organisations throughout the world to minimise their risk of being infiltrated by state intelligence agents. It is therefore possible that the Boeremag is organised into small cells consisting of three or four people, co-ordinated into commandos and sectors. The organisational structure of the Boeremag may look something like that shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5: Possible Boeremag command structure

Information about the Boeremag’s likely organisational structure can also be gleaned from an analysis of who was arrested (such as experienced SANDF officers) and the wide area over which alleged Boeremag members were arrested (suggesting that the organisation consists of geographically distinct cells). Given this, it is likely that the organisational structure of the Boeremag has been designed for an organisation that needs to operate in secrecy and commit acts of sabotage. Consequently, the modus operandi of members of the Boeremag could be based on known guerrilla and terrorist doctrine as practiced by Mao Tse-tung and Ernesto (Che) Guevara.²⁵⁵

State’s response to the Boeremag

It appears that the SAPS and the NIA were not expecting the significant upsurge in right wing activity as occurred with the Boeremag during 2002. In the years prior to 2002 the annual Nation Intelligence Estimate evaluated the radical white right as a low level threat.²⁵⁶ As a result the NIA did not develop a strong intelligence gathering capacity on the white right.

The state’s response to the right wing threat differed from the way it dealt with PAGAD (People Against Gangsterism and Drugs). PAGAD is a Western Cape Muslim based anti-crime organisation whose members have been implicated in a bombing campaign and a number of murders that occurred in Cape Town in the late 1990s. The operations against PAGAD were co-ordinated within the National Operational Co-ordinating Committee (NOCOC), involving the SAPS, SANDF, NIA and local security agencies. The aim of the operations against PAGAD was to stabilise the urban terror situation in the Western Cape and arrest the perpetrators.²⁵⁷

The operation against the Boeremag was codenamed ‘Operation Zealot’. Given the sensitive nature of the right wing threat, and the danger of isolated security force collusion with the white right, the operational aspects of Operation Zealot were co-ordinated and executed exclusively by the SAPS at national level. Co-ordination on the strategic level took place between the SAPS, Defence Intelligence and the NIA, within the ambit of the National Intelligence Co-ordinating Committee (NICOC).²⁵⁸

On an operational level a team of investigators was assembled from specialist police units, including bomb disposal experts, crime intelligence, serious and violent crime detectives, and forensic units.²⁵⁹ The SAPS’ operational co-ordination occurred through the following institutional components:

• Crime intelligence

  This is the police’s Crimes Against the State (CATS) Unit which is responsible for intelligence gathering and investigation of crimes against the state, including illegal right wing activities. To deal with the Boeremag threat the police’s CATS component was strengthened by police officers from provinces where right wing activity was suspected.

• Serious and violent crimes

  This is a component of the police’s detective services, and includes the Crimes Against the State Unit. The police’s serious and violent crimes component is responsible for investigating serious crimes involving violence, including acts of terrorism committed by the Boeremag.

• Operational response services

  The Intervention Units of the Public Order Police protect police investigators during arrests, engage in search operations and protect crime scenes. Operational response services includes the Special Task Force which provides armed backup to the regular police in high risk operations.

At the time of writing the police had arrested 23 alleged Boeremag members (the charges against one of the arrestees were withdrawn in late 2002). By and large the police was successful in identifying and arresting key suspects, confiscating weapons and explosives, and bringing to a halt the bombing campaign before it resulted in any major loss of life. The police’s success appears to have been largely based on good intelligence work. Months before the first bombs exploded in Soweto, SAPS crime intelligence agents reportedly infiltrated some of the Boeremag structures. Once ensconced, the agents lay low and waited for the most opportune moment to reveal their true identities and arrest key Boeremag members red-handed with bomb making materials in their possession.