Eugène Ney Terre'Blanche (, 31 January 1941
[Terre'Blanche's year of birth is alternately given as 1941 or 1944. The majority of sources indicates 1941; sources that claim 1944 as his year of birth includ]
''The Star''
and th
– 3 April 2010) was an
Afrikaner nationalist
Afrikaner nationalism ( af, Afrikanernasionalisme) is a nationalistic political ideology which created by Afrikaners residing in Southern Africa during the Victorian era. The ideology was developed in response to the significant events in Afrik ...
who founded and led the
Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging
The Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (), meaning "Afrikaner Resistance Movement", commonly known by its abbreviation AWB, is an Afrikaner nationalist paramilitary organisation in South Africa. Since its founding in 1973 by Eugène Terre'Blanche and ...
(AWB; Afrikaner Resistance Movement in English).
[ Prior to founding the AWB, Terre'Blanche served as a ]South African Police
The South African Police (SAP) was the national police force and law enforcement agency in South Africa from 1913 to 1994; it was the ''de facto'' police force in the territory of South West Africa (Namibia) from 1939 to 1981. After South Af ...
officer, was a farmer, and was an unsuccessful Herstigte Nasionale Party (Reconstituted National Party) candidate for local office in the Transvaal. He was a major figure in the right-wing backlash against the collapse of apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
. His beliefs and philosophy have continued to be influential amongst white supremacists in South Africa and across the world.
Under Terre'Blanche, the AWB swore to use violence to preserve minority rule, opposing any concessions offered to the African National Congress
The African National Congress (ANC) is a social-democratic political party in South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when the first post-apartheid election install ...
– an organisation AWB supporters repeatedly branded as Marxist terrorist
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...
s – and gaining notoriety for storming the Kempton Park Trade Centre during bilateral negotiations in 1993. AWB loyalists also clashed with South African security forces at the Battle of Ventersdorp, a bloody skirmish in 1991 where police opened fire on a white crowd for the first time since the Rand Rebellion
The Rand Rebellion ( af, Rand-rebellie; also known as the 1922 strike) was an armed uprising of white miners in the Witwatersrand region of South Africa, in March 1922. Jimmy Green, a prominent politician in the Labour Party, was one of ...
, leaving three Afrikaners dead. Immediately prior to South Africa's first multiracial election, Terre'Blanche's followers were linked to a number of bombings and assassinations targeting the South African Communist Party
The South African Communist Party (SACP) is a communist party in South Africa. It was founded in 1921 as the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA), tactically dissolved itself in 1950 in the face of being declared illegal by the governing Na ...
; armed AWB commandos participated in the crisis in Bophuthatswana in 1994.
Terre'Blanche spent three years in a Rooigrond prison for assaulting a petrol station attendant and for the attempted murder of a black security guard around 1996. He was released in June 2004. On 3 April 2010, he was hacked and beaten to death on his Ventersdorp farm, allegedly by two of his employees in a dispute over unpaid wages.
Background
Terre'Blanche's grandfather fought as a Cape Rebel for the Boer
Boers ( ; af, Boere ()) are the descendants of the Dutch-speaking Free Burghers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. From 1652 to 1795, the Dutch East India Company controlled this are ...
cause in the Second Boer War
The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the South ...
, while his father was a lieutenant colonel in the South African Defence Force
The South African Defence Force (SADF) (Afrikaans: ''Suid-Afrikaanse Weermag'') comprised the armed forces of South Africa from 1957 until 1994. Shortly before the state reconstituted itself as a republic in 1961, the former Union Defence F ...
and a leader of the local Commando
Royal Marines from 40 Commando on patrol in the Sangin">40_Commando.html" ;"title="Royal Marines from 40 Commando">Royal Marines from 40 Commando on patrol in the Sangin area of Afghanistan are pictured
A commando is a combatant, or operativ ...
.[
The progenitor of the Terre'Blanche name (translatable as either 'white land' or 'white earth' in French) in the region was a French ]Huguenot
The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...
refugee, Estienne Terreblanche from Toulon
Toulon (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Tolon , , ) is a city on the French Riviera and a large port on the Mediterranean coast, with a major naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, and the Provence province, Toulon is th ...
(Provence
Provence (, , , , ; oc, Provença or ''Prouvènço'' , ) is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which extends from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the Italian border to the east; it is bor ...
), who arrived at the Cape in 1704, fleeing anti-Protestant
Anti-Protestantism is bias, hatred or distrust against some or all branches of Protestantism and/or its followers.
Anti-Protestantism dates back to before the Protestant Reformation itself, as various pre-Protestant groups such as Arnoldist ...
persecution in France. The Terreblanche name has generally retained its original spelling though other spellings include Terre'Blanche, Terre Blanche, Terblanche and Terblans.
Born on a farm in the Transvaal town of Ventersdorp on 31 January 1941, Terre'Blanche attended Laerskool Ventersdorp and Hoër Volkskool in Potchefstroom, matriculating
Matriculation is the formal process of entering a university, or of becoming eligible to enter by fulfilling certain academic requirements such as a matriculation examination.
Australia
In Australia, the term "matriculation" is seldom used now. ...
in 1962. While in school, he gave early expression to his political leanings by founding the cultural organisation ''Jong Afrikanerharte'' (Young Afrikaner Hearts).[Russell, Alec, ''Big men, little people: the leaders who defined Africa''. Macmillan, 1999.]
He joined the South African Police
The South African Police (SAP) was the national police force and law enforcement agency in South Africa from 1913 to 1994; it was the ''de facto'' police force in the territory of South West Africa (Namibia) from 1939 to 1981. After South Af ...
, and was initially deployed in South West Africa
South West Africa ( af, Suidwes-Afrika; german: Südwestafrika; nl, Zuidwest-Afrika) was a territory under South African administration from 1915 to 1990, after which it became modern-day Namibia. It bordered Angola (Portuguese colony before 1 ...
(now Namibia
Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...
),[ which had been given to South Africa under a ]League of Nations
The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...
Trust mandate after World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. Upon returning to South Africa, he became a Warrant Officer in the Special Guard Unit, which was assigned to members of the Cabinet.[
]
Political career
Herstigte Nasionale Party
During the late 1960s, Terre'Blanche increasingly opposed what he called the "liberal policies" of B. J. Vorster, then Prime Minister of South Africa. After four years of service in the South African Police
The South African Police (SAP) was the national police force and law enforcement agency in South Africa from 1913 to 1994; it was the ''de facto'' police force in the territory of South West Africa (Namibia) from 1939 to 1981. After South Af ...
, he resigned to pursue a career in politics, running unsuccessfully for local office in Heidelberg
Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...
as a member of the far-right Herstigte Nasionale Party.[Eugene Terre'Blanche (1941–2010)]
. Retrieved 4 April 2010.
Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging
Disillusioned with the established avenues for political participation, Terre'Blanche founded the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging
The Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (), meaning "Afrikaner Resistance Movement", commonly known by its abbreviation AWB, is an Afrikaner nationalist paramilitary organisation in South Africa. Since its founding in 1973 by Eugène Terre'Blanche and ...
(AWB) in Heidelberg with six other individuals in 1973. Initially a secret society, the AWB first appeared on the public scene after its members were charged and fined in connection with the tarring and feathering
Tarring and feathering is a form of public torture and punishment used to enforce unofficial justice or revenge. It was used in feudal Europe and its colonies in the early modern period, as well as the early American frontier, mostly as a ty ...
of Floors van Jaarsveld, a professor of history who had publicly voiced the opinion that the Day of the Vow, a religious public holiday in remembrance of the Battle of Blood River
The Battle of Blood River (16 December 1838) was fought on the bank of the Ncome River, in what is today KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa between 464 Voortrekkers ("Pioneers"), led by Andries Pretorius, and an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 Zulu. E ...
, was nothing more than a secular event with hardly any real reference point in history.[ Although Terre'Blanche would later express his regrets regarding the incident when testifying before the ]Truth and Reconciliation Commission
A truth commission, also known as a truth and reconciliation commission or truth and justice commission, is an official body tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing by a government (or, depending on the circumstances, non-state act ...
, he suggested that his convictions relating to the sanctity of the Day of the Vow might make his actions more understandable. In the years that followed, Terre'Blanche's speeches at public gatherings often evoked the Battle of Blood River,[ and his oratorical skills earned him much support among the white right wing in South Africa; the AWB claimed 70,000 members at its height.] In September 1977, Johannesburg newspaper '' The World'' reported that Terre'Blanche had been investigated on charges of bestiality involving a number of African bushpig
:''"Bush pig" may also refer to the red river hog.
The bushpig (''Potamochoerus larvatus'') is a member of the pig family that inhabits forests, woodland, riverine vegetation and cultivated areas in East and Southern Africa. Probably introduce ...
s.
Throughout the 1980s, Terre'Blanche continued to present himself and the AWB as an alternative to both the National Party-led government and the Conservative Party, and he remained staunchly opposed to the reform policies of P. W. Botha
Pieter Willem Botha, (; 12 January 1916 – 31 October 2006), commonly known as P. W. and af, Die Groot Krokodil (The Big Crocodile), was a South African politician. He served as the last prime minister of South Africa from 1978 to 1984 and ...
to establish additional, albeit still separate, parliamentary chambers for non-whites, and to grant suffrage to Coloureds
Coloureds ( af, Kleurlinge or , ) refers to members of multiracial ethnic communities in Southern Africa who may have ancestry from more than one of the various populations inhabiting the region, including African, European, and Asian. South ...
and South Africans of Indian origin.["Obituary: Eugene Terreblanche"]
BBC News. Retrieved 4 April 2010. The organisation's strongest support was found in the rural communities of South Africa's North, with comparably few supporters in urban areas where his following was largely limited to middle and lower-income Afrikaners.[
]
End of apartheid
Terre'Blanche viewed the end of apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
as a surrender to communism, and threatened full-scale civil war if President F. W. de Klerk handed power to Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress
The African National Congress (ANC) is a social-democratic political party in South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when the first post-apartheid election install ...
.["Eugene Terre'Blanche"]
(Obituary), ''Daily Telegraph''. Retrieved 4 April 2010. When De Klerk addressed a meeting in Terre'Blanche's hometown of Ventersdorp in 1991, Terre'Blanche led a protest, and the Battle of Ventersdorp ensued between the AWB and the police, with a number of people killed.[ Terre'Blanche claimed that it was only when he stood between the police and the AWB and demanded a ceasefire that the shooting ended. Terre'Blanche accused President de Klerk of instigating the riot for political gain.
In an attempt to disrupt the negotiation process in 1993, Terre'Blanche led an armed invasion of the World Trade Centre in Kempton Park while negotiations to end apartheid were in progress. After a memorandum of grievances was presented to National Party minister ]Roelf Meyer
Roelof Petrus Meyer (born 16 July 1947) is a South African politician and businessman. Originally a member of the National Party, he is known for his prominent role in the negotiations to end the apartheid system in South Africa. He later co-f ...
and Dawie de Villiers and after an agreement that no arrests would be made, the AWB withdrew from the premises. That evening several identified AWB leaders were arrested and their wives were incarcerated in Soweto, separately from their husbands. Vlakplaas General Krappies Engelbrecht was appointed to launch an investigation.
Terre'Blanche claimed he and President Lucas Mangope
Kgosi Lucas Manyane Mangope (27 December 1923 – 18 January 2018) was the leader of the Bantustan (homeland) of Bophuthatswana. The territory he ruled over was distributed between the Orange Free State – what is now Free State – and North W ...
of the predominantly ethnic Tswana Homeland of Bophuthatswana
Bophuthatswana (, meaning "gathering of the Tswana people"), officially the Republic of Bophuthatswana ( tn, Riphaboliki ya Bophuthatswana; af, Republiek van Bophuthatswana), was a Bantustan (also known as "Homeland"; an area set aside for mem ...
came to a "mutual agreement" on 17 February 1992 to aid each other in the "event of a communist threat". On 4 March 1994 Mangope announced that Bophutatswana would not participate in the South African general election in an effort to maintain Bophutatswana's independence from the Republic of South Africa. Bophuthatswana's minister of justice, Godfrey Mothibe tried in vain to convince Mangope to participate in the election, but then accused the ANC of orchestrating the revolt, which was helped by the stance taken by South Africa's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Pik Botha
Roelof Frederik "Pik" Botha, (27 April 1932 – 12 October 2018) was a South African politician who served as the country's foreign minister in the last years of the apartheid era, the longest-serving in South African history. Known as a libe ...
. Thousands of ANC supporters were bussed in from outside Bophuthatswana to support the popular uprising. Terre'Blanche claimed a conspiracy by citing a "three-step plan" by the ANC in an effort to destabilise Bophuthatswana, which included ANC infiltration of the Bophuthatswana police and military. However, ANC candidate for the North West Province
North West is a province of South Africa. Its capital is Mahikeng. The province is located to the west of the major population centre of Gauteng and south of Botswana.
History
North West was incorporated after the end of Apartheid in 1994, an ...
, Popo Molefe
Popo Simon Molefe (born 26 April 1952 in Sophiatown, Johannesburg) is a businessman and former politician from South Africa.
Early life
One of eight children, Molefe was the son of a laborer and a domestic worker, though he was raised largely by ...
claimed the ANC was merely supporting the people of Bophuthatswana after it became clear that their political freedoms were limited.
The AWB were subsequently defeated while invading Bophuthatswana to prop up the autocratic leader of the Bantustan
A Bantustan (also known as Bantu homeland, black homeland, black state or simply homeland; ) was a territory that the National Party administration of South Africa set aside for black inhabitants of South Africa and South West Africa (now ...
in 1994 and Terre'Blanche did not follow up on his earlier threats of war.
Terre'Blanche claimed he had personally communicated with Mangope on 10 March 1994, prior to mobilising his men to protect the capital Mmabatho against looting and unrest. Officers of the Bophuthatswana Defence Force initially received the AWB militia with "great joy and surprise".(Vuur en Verraad, Arthur Kemp) The AWB militia assembled in an airport hangar in Mmabatho
Mmabatho ( Tswana for "Mother of the People") is the former capital of the North-West Province of South Africa. During the apartheid era, it was the capital of the former "Bantustan" of Bophuthatswana. Following the end of apartheid in 1994, Boph ...
, where they were to be provided with rations and firearms. Terre'Blanche ordered his men to remove their AWB badges upon the request of the Bophuthatswana Defence Force. While contained at the hangar, an unidentified and independent faction carrying the AWB emblems started shooting indiscriminately at the public. Terre'Blanche concluded that the South African intelligence services may have set up the shooting in order to discredit the AWB, since the media broadcast footage of the individuals' emblems, but did not publicise their identity. The Bophuthatswana police systematically began to remove the media from strategic locations, and the initial hospitality shown to the AWB militia was replaced by contempt. When Bophuthatswana fell into complete anarchy, the AWB withdrew.
1991 documentary and libel case
Terre'Blanche was the subject of the television documentary ''The Leader, His Driver and the Driver's Wife
''The Leader, His Driver and the Driver's Wife'' is a 1991 British feature-length documentary film set during the final days of the apartheid in South Africa, particularly centring on Eugène Terre'Blanche, founder and leader of the far-right A ...
'' (1991), directed by British filmmaker Nick Broomfield
Nicholas Broomfield (born 1948) is an English documentary film director. His self-reflective style has been regarded as influential to many later filmmakers. In the early 21st century, he began to use non-actors in scripted works, which he cal ...
. Broomfield's documentary claimed Terre'Blanche had an affair with Jani Allan
Jani Allan (born 11 September 1952) is a South African journalist, columnist, writer and broadcaster. She became one of the country's first media celebrities in the 1980s and 1990s.
In 1980, Allan became a columnist for the centrist newspaper, ...
, the journalist who had interviewed him for South Africa's '' Sunday Times''; an assertion she disputed as well as her portrayal in the documentary. This provoked a scandal in the AWB. In July 1989, Cornelius Lottering, a member of the breakaway Orde van die Dood group, orchestrated a failed assassination attempt on Allan's life by placing a bomb outside her Sandton
Sandton is an upscale commercial and residential district north of the city of Johannesburg, South Africa. It forms part of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality. The name of the city came from the combination of two of its suburbs ...
apartment.
This led to Allan taking libel proceedings against the documentary broadcaster Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...
in 1992 in the London's High Court. During the court hearings, several transcripts of their alleged sexual relationship appeared in the South African and British press. Terre'Blanche submitted a sworn statement to the London court denying he had had an affair with Allan. In a rare interview with the Afrikaans Sunday newspaper ''Die Rapport'', his wife Martie Terre'Blanche denounced the rumours. Although the judge found that Channel 4's allegations had not defamed Allan, he did not rule on whether or not there had been an affair. The South African business newspaper ''Financial Mail
''Financial Mail'' (or the ''FM'', as it is also known), is a South African business publication focused on reaching the country's leading business people. This weekly publication, which was launched in 1959, underwent a major "look and feel" ch ...
'' published a lead story on 6 August detailing the theory that F.W. de Klerk had orchestrated the libel case to discredit Terre'Blanche and the far right movement in South Africa. Allan has continued to dismiss the claims.
Amnesty
Following the end of apartheid, Terre'Blanche and his supporters sought amnesty for the storming of the World Trade Centre, the 'Battle of Ventersdorp', and other acts.
Amnesty was granted by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
A truth commission, also known as a truth and reconciliation commission or truth and justice commission, is an official body tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing by a government (or, depending on the circumstances, non-state act ...
.
Later years
In 2004, he was voted No. 25 in SABC3's ''Great South Africans
''Great South Africans'' was a South African television series that aired on SABC3 and hosted by Noeleen Maholwana Sangqu and Denis Beckett. In September 2004, thousands of South Africans took part in an informal nationwide poll to determine ...
'', a list of 100 South African personalities. Controversy over the list led the SABC
The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is the public broadcaster in South Africa, and provides 19 radio stations ( AM/ FM) as well as six television broadcasts to the general public. It is one of the largest of South Africa's stat ...
to cancel the television series.
Terre'Blanche was much ridiculed after he was filmed falling off his horse during a parade in Pretoria
Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa.
Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends eastward into the foot ...
. After his murder, the state-owned SABC
The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is the public broadcaster in South Africa, and provides 19 radio stations ( AM/ FM) as well as six television broadcasts to the general public. It is one of the largest of South Africa's stat ...
said on the evening news that he would be remembered "as a failed horseman". Terre'Blanche claimed the media only showed part of the fall and explained that unedited footage of the incident would show that the horse had slipped. He accused the media of double standards in reporting when praising Mbhazima Shilowa
Mbhazima Samuel (Sam) Shilowa, correct Tsonga spelling "Xilowa" (born 30 April 1958) is a South African politician. A former Premier of Gauteng province while a member of the African National Congress, Shilowa left the party to help form the o ...
when he fell from, but immediately remounted his horse.
Broomsfield's sequel to his 1991 documentary, '' His Big White Self'', was first broadcast in February 2006. Terre'Blanche was also interviewed by Louis Theroux
Louis Sebastian Theroux (; born 20 May 1970) is a British-American documentarian, journalist, broadcaster, and author. He has received two British Academy Television Awards and a Royal Television Society Television Award.
After graduating fro ...
in episode 3.3 "Boer Separatists" of the BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
'', and was characterized during the episode by Theroux speaking to a former follower of Terre'Blanche as "very hostile, deeply racist".
In March 2008, the AWB announced the re-activation of the political party for 'populist' reasons, citing the encouragement of the public. Reasons for the return have been attributed principally to attacks on commercial farmers and ethnic Boers, the electricity crisis, corruption across government departments and rampant crime. Throughout April 2008, Terre'Blanche was to be the speaker at several AWB rallies, encompassing
.