A suspected military training base. The training camp was uncovered by members of the police working together with the Provincial Joint Structures (ProvJOINTS) and the Department of Home Affairs
By Carl Niehaus
The ongoing revelations of white supremacist ultra-right wing paramilitary training camps operating throughout our country are deeply disconcerting. The latest disturbing revelation came when the Hawks announced that such a training camp was raided outside Modimolle in the Limpopo Province.
According to the media statement issued by the Hawks twelve rifles and twelve pistols were confiscated during the raid on notorious white right-winger Laurens Steytler, and his equally notorious so-called ‘Phoenix Project’, which is a project of the right wing ‘Suidlander’ defence organisation.
The ‘Suidlanders’ are led by an equally notorious white supremacist; the so-called ‘colonel’ Wynand Du Toit, who continues to illegally use the officer title of ‘colonel’, which he had during the Apartheid Regime, when he was a former senior Special Forces officer (commonly known as ‘Recces’).
During the apartheid era Du Toit was captured in Angola, when he was as a ‘recce’ involved in carrying out terrorist activities, together with Jonas Savimbi’s CIA and SADF sponsored UNITA, against the MPLA government of Angola. His eventual extradition to South Africa was highly contentious, and on his return he was celebrated as a hero by Afrikaner racists. Du Toit has evidently not changed his ways at all!
Apparently the Hawks found Steytler, together with two other training instructors, one of whom is also a former ’recce’ officer, at the Phoenix Project training camp. Under apartheid the ‘recces’ were the most notorious and vicious operatives of the old South African Defence Force (SADF), and were responsible for the vicious torture, maiming, and killing of black South Africans. The ‘recces’ were also with, devastating consequences, deployed by the apartheid regime in Namibia, to fight the liberation forces of the South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO ). During their reign of terror in Namibia they implemented a scorched earth strategy, killed thousands of civilians, and wiped out whole villages in Northern Namibia, in the Ovamboland area.
It is indeed deeply disconcerting to hear that such racist monsters are still operational in South Africa, and that they are giving military training at white supremacist training camps. There can be absolutely no doubt that such training has only one objective, and that is to unleash violent white racist terror, in a race war, against black South Africans!
The ‘recces ’ were under apartheid a specifically trained racist killing machine. Many of them were also sent, under a special co-operation programme to Apartheid Israel, to be trained in the vicious terror and torture interrogation techniques of the Israel Defence Force (IDF), and the notorious Israel intelligence agency, MOSSAD.
Many of these vicious racist monsters were given amnesty by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), that was one of the many unpalatable compromises reached during the CODESA negotiations. It is a sad fact that as a consequence they now live freely among us, and have faced absolutely no consequences for their dastardly deeds, and the war crimes that they have committed. All of this as a consequence of the sell out TRC agreement that the ANC negotiators, under the leadership of Cyril Ramaphosa, concluded with the Apartheid Regime, as part of the overall highly compromised CODESA negotiations.
However, even the sellout provisions of the amnesty that the TRC granted to the ‘recces’, and to other apartheid regime criminals, do not allow them to proceed with the activities that they have been granted amnesty for. When they continue to do so, their amnesty becomes null and void, and these racist monsters must now not only be apprehended for their current involvement in illegal racist training camps, but they must ALSO be charged for all the other war crimes that they have committed during the apartheid era. Continuing with the very same activities, informed by the same white supremacist world view, show that they have no remorse whatsoever for all the terrible crimes that they have committed, and that they are in fact un-rehabilitated and un-rehabilitatable.
It is totally unacceptable to learn from the media statement of the Hawks, that although they raided the Phoenix training camp outside Modimolle, and found Steytler and the other two training instructors there - fully armed and in military camouflage fatigues - not a single arrest was made. Equally disturbing is the fact that the weapons that were used in this racist training camp, although licensed with a firearms dealer in New Germany in KwaZulu-Natal, were illegally transported to Modimolle without a permit, which in itself made the presence of those arms in the Phoenix camp illegal.
Despite all of this, the Hawks did not effect a single arrest, and their statement limply and weakly states that, “the owner was ‘addressed’ regarding the violation of the Fire Arms Control Act”. One cannot conclude otherwise, than that whites are simply allowed to flaunt the law with impunity, without any consequences!
The EFF has raised in a media a statement, a couple of weeks ago, our concern that the so-called ‘Boeremag’, ‘Suidlanders’, and other white supremacist groupings, are openly operating illegal all white training camps in various areas of Mpumalanga, the Free State, Gauteng, Limpopo and the North West Province. We also noted that videos of such training are posted on social media, with paramilitary trainees chanting racist slogans, and displaying racist symbols such as the former national flag of the apartheid regime, and the so-called ‘Vierkleur’ (Four Colours) flag of the old Transvaal colonial republic. In fact, one of the videos that went viral on social media was actually of training at the Phoenix camp outside Modimolle. The trainees captured on that video can be heard chanting, “Die Boere kom!” (The Boers are coming), and shouting various racist insults, including using the ‘K’ word. Despite all of this, they are evidently able to continue with their illegal activities with total impunity.
Decisive action must taken against ALL illegal paramilitary camps, and training facilities, without fear or favour. The nonsense that white racists are allowed to do as they wish, must once and for all come to an end! Currently the unfortunate perception exists that white racists are untouchable, and at most they will get away with a limp warning and a slap on the wrist. This perception is confirmed by the weak inaction of the police during, and after, the raid on the Phoenix camp at Modimolle.
Those involved in the illegal white racist Phoenix training camp, including Steytler, the bogus ‘colonel’ Wynand Du Toit, and the New Germany arms dealer that provided the weapons, must be arrested and charged. They are vicious racist criminals, and killers, and they must be treated as such. Any other, similar, racist military training camps must also be raided, closed down, and those involved arrested and charged.
Our Constitution outlaws racism, and the current laws at the disposal of our law enforcement agencies are adequate to effect the decisive action that we call for. However, if there are legal loopholes that can be exploited by the white racists in order to continue with their unrepentant racist activities, laws must be amended, and even new legislation introduced, in order to ensure that none of these racist activities, in whatever guise or form, can possibly continue.
Furthermore, exclusivist white enclaves such as Orania, Eureka, and all white security estates, serve as ideological justification, and in fact geographical bases, for the ongoing fostering of racism among white South Africans. This inevitably leads to outrages such as white racist training camps. Therefore, if racism is to be effectively combatted in South Africa, not only all the white supremacist training camps must be banned and closed down, but similarly all exclusivist white enclaves must be banned, and closed forthwith.
Too many heroic South Africans paid the ultimate price, and sacrificed their lives, to liberate our beloved country from racism, and to establish a just and humane society. For us not to act decisively against these white racists, is to betray their legacy. This should not be allowed to happen any longer.
* Carl Niehaus is an EFF Member of the National Assembly
** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media.