Afrikaner Broederbond

Afrikaner Broederbond   (South Africa/Deep state)
Formation	1918
Founder	Milner Group/Society of the Elect
Headquarters	South Africa
Membership	•  D. F. Malan •  H. F. Verwoerd •  J. G. Strijdom •  B. J. Vorster •  J. S. Gericke •  Pik Botha •  H. B. Thom •  G.L.P. Moerdijk •  Tienie Groenewald •  Barend Johannes van der Walt •  Pieter Johannes Potgieter Stofberg •  P. W. Botha •  Anton Rupert •  Marthinus van Schalkwyk •  Tom de Beer •  Nico Smith •  F. W. De Klerk •  "Lang" Hendrik van den Bergh •  Theunis Willem de Jongh •  Robert du Plooy •  Connie Mulder
Deep state organization. Many prominent figures of South African life, including all leaders of the government, were members of the Afrikaner Broederbond.

The Afrikaner Broederbond (AB) (meaning Afrikaner Brotherhood) or Broederbond was a secret, exclusively Afrikaner (i.e. not English-speaking) Calvinist male organisation in South Africa dedicated to the advancement of Afrikaner interests. Its large influence within South African political and social life came to a climax with the rise of apartheid, which was largely designed and implemented by Broederbond members.

In the years between 1948 and 1994, many prominent figures of South African political life, including all all Prime Minsters and State Presidents, and as well as influential government ministers, church leaders, academics, professionals, military, intelligence and police officers, were members of the Broederbond.

“Do you realize what a powerful force is gathered here between these four walls?..Show me a greater power in Africa. Show me a greater power anywhere, even in your so-called civilized world."”
H. J. Klopper (1968) 
Klopper was president of the deep state Afrikaner Broederbond in secret speech

Origins

Afrikaner Broederbond leadership in 1918

It was founded by H. J. Klopper, H. W. van der Merwe, D. H. C. du Plessis and Rev. Jozua Naudé in 1918 and was known as Jong Zuid Afrika (Young South Africa) until 1920, when it became the Broederbond.

Described later as an "inner sanctum", "an immense informal network of influence", and by Jan Smuts as a "dangerous, cunning, political fascist organization", in 1920 Jong Zuid Afrika, now restyled as the Afrikaner Broederbond, was a grouping of 37 white men of Afrikaner ethnicity, Afrikaans language, and the Calvinist faith, who shared cultural, semi-religious, and deeply political objectives based on traditions and experiences dating back to the arrival of Dutch white settlers, French Huguenots, and German at the Cape in the 17th and 18th centuries and including the dramatic events of the Great Trek in the 1830s and 1840s. Ivor Wilkins and Hans Strydom recount how, on the occasion of its 50th anniversary, a leading broeder (brother or member) said:

for understandable reasons it was difficult to explain [our] aims…[I]n the beginning people were allowed in…who thought it was just another cultural society.

The precise intentions of the founders are not clear. Was the group intended to counter the dominance of the British and the English language, or to redeem the Afrikaners after their defeat in the Second Anglo-Boer War? Perhaps it sought to protect a culture, build an economy and seize control of a government. The remarks of the organisation's chairman in 1944 offer a slightly different, and possibly more accurate interpretation in the context of the post-Boer War and post- World War I era, when Afrikaners were suffering through a maelstrom of social and political changes: The Afrikaner Broederbond was born out of the deep conviction that the Afrikaner volk has been planted in this country by the Hand of God, destined to survive as a separate volk with its own calling.

In other words, the traditional, deeply pious Calvinism of the Afrikaners, a pastoral people with a difficult history in South Africa since the mid-17th century, supplied an element of Christian predestination that led to a determination to wrest the country from the English-speaking British and place its future in the hands of the Afrikaans-speaking Afrikaners, whatever that might mean for the large black and mixed-race population. To the old thirst for sovereignty that had prompted the Great Trek into the interior from 1838 on, would be added a new thirst for total independence and Nationalism. These two threads merged to form a "Christian National" civil religion that would dominate South African life from 1948 to 1994.

This was the historical context in which the Broederbond emerged. The scorched earth policy of the British during the second Boer War devastated Boer (that is, rural Afrikaner farmer) lands. In British concentration camps, 27 000 Boer women and children had died. The Boer surrender at Vereeniging, though pragmatic, was deeply humiliating. Lord Milner's inflammatory policy of Anglicisation simply rubbed salt into Afrikaner wounds, and a backlash was inevitable. The National Party and ultimately the Broederbond were the long-term and powerful results.

The National Party had been established in 1914 by Afrikaner nationalists. It first came to power in 1924. Ten years later, its leader J. B. M. Hertzog and Jan Smuts of the South African Party merged their parties to form the United Party. This angered a contingent of hardline nationalists under D. F. Malan, who broke away to form the ’’Purified National Party’’. By the time World War II broke out, resentment of the British had not subsided. Malan's party opposed South Africa's entry into the war on the side of the British; some of its members wanted to support Nazi Germany. Jan Smuts had commanded the British Army in East Africa in World War I and was amenable to backing the Allies a second time. This was the spark Afrikaner nationalism needed. Hertzog, who was in favour of neutrality, quit the United Party when a narrow majority in his cabinet backed Smuts. He started the Afrikaner Party which would amalgamate later with D. F. Malan's ’’Purified National Party’’ to become the force that would take over South African politics for the next 46 years, until majority rule and Nelson Mandela's election in 1994.

Exposure

Although the press had maintained a steady trickle of unsourced exposés of the inner workings and membership of the Broederbond since the 1960s, the first comprehensive exposé of the organisation was a book written by Ivor Wilkins and Hans Strydom, The Super-Afrikaners. Inside the Afrikaner Broederbond, first published in 1978. The most notable and discussed section of the book was the last section which consisted of a near-comprehensive list of 7500 Broederbond members. The Broederbond was portrayed as Die Stigting Adriaan Delport (The Adriaan Delport Foundation) in the 1968 South African feature film Die Kandidaat (The Candidate), directed by Jans Rautenbach and produced by Emil Nofal.

Leaders

Most of the chairmen were academics and university leaders. The chairmen of the Broederbond were:

Name	Title	From	To
Klopper, H. J.		1918	1924	Left the organization
Nicol, W.	Rev.	1924	1925
Greijbe, J. H.		1925	1928
Potgieter, J. W.		1928	1930
du Plessis, L. J.	Prof.	1930	1932	Left the organization
van Rooy, J. C.	Prof.	1932	1938
Diederichs, N.	Dr	1938	1942
van Rooy, J. C.	Prof.	1942	1952
Thom, H. B.	Prof.	1952	1960
Meyer, P. J.	Dr	1960	1972
Treurnicht, A. P.	Dr	1972	1974	Left the organization
Viljoen, G.	Prof.	1974	1980
Boshoff, C. W. H.	Prof.	1980	1983	Left the organization
de Lange, J. P.	Prof.	1983	1993
de Beer, T. L.		1993	1994

The Broederbond and Apartheid

Every Prime Minister and State President in South Africa from 1948 to the end of Apartheid in 1994 was a member of the Afrikaner Broederbond.

Once the Herenigde Nasionale Party was in power...English-speaking bureaucrats, soldiers, and state employees were sidelined by reliable Afrikaners, with key posts going to Broederbond members (with their ideological commitment to separatism). The electoral system itself was manipulated to reduce the impact of immigrant English speakers and eliminate that of Coloureds.

The Afrikaner Broederbond continued to act in secret, infiltrating and gaining control of the few organisations, such as the South African Agricultural Union (SAAU), which had political power and were opposed to a further escalation of Apartheid policies.

Members of political parties right of the National party were not welcome and 200 members were expelled by 1972.

In 1983 when the Conservative Party was founded with Andries Treurnicht as leader, all Broederbond members who belonged to the newly formed party were no longer welcome in the Bond. Treurnicht, C.W.H. Boshoff and HJ Klopper previous chairmen left the organization. Other members like van den Bergh, H.J. left too.

In 1985 the Afrikaner Broederbond realised that change needed to take place in South Africans Politics. Although the government did not talk openly with the banned ANC, it was decided by the organization they should start negotiating. On 8 June 1986 JP de Lange, the then chairman met Thabo Mbeki in New York for a five-hour meeting. It was a meeting held at a conference organised by the Ford Foundation. The meeting was just between de Lange and Mbeki, but at the conference other ANC members Mac Maharaj, Seretse Choabi, Charles Villa-Vicencio, and Peggy Dulany were present.

P. W. Botha also left the Broederbond after his retirement.

Companies with Broederbond credentials

• ABSA, formed by amalgamation of United, Allied, Trust and Volkskas banks, the latter of which was established by the Broederbond in 1934 and whose chairman was also the Broederbond chairman at the time.
• ADS, formerly Altech Defence Systems
• Remgro, formerly Rembrandt Ltd., former holding company of Volkskas.

Notable members

This is a small part of their membership.

• Prof. Theunis Roux Botha, Former and last Rector of the Randse Afrikaanse Universiteit.
• D. F. Malan, Former Prime Minister.
• H. F. Verwoerd, Former Prime Minister.
• J. G. Strijdom, Former Prime Minister.
• B. J. Vorster, Former Prime Minister and State President.
• Dr J. S. Gericke, Vice-Chancellor Stellenbosch University
• Pik Botha, former Minister of Foreign Affairs
• H. B. Thom, historian and former Rector of Stellenbosch University.
• G.L.P. Moerdijk, Afrikaans architect best known for designing the Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria.
• Tienie Groenewald, retired Defence Force general.
• Barend Johannes van der Walt, former ambassador to Canada.
• Dr. Pieter Johannes Potgieter Stofberg, former politician, billionaire businessman and famous doctor.
• P. W. Botha, former Minister of Defence and Prime Minister. He left the Broederbond.
• Anton Rupert, billionaire entrepreneur and businessman; a member in the 1940s, but eventually dismissed it as an "absurdity", and left the organization.
• Marthinus van Schalkwyk, former member of the youth wing of the Broederbond, the last leader of the National Party and former minister of tourism in the ANC government of Jacob Zuma.
• Tom de Beer, recruited 30 years ago, now chairman of new Afrikanerbond.
• Nico Smith, Dutch Reformed Church missionary who, as a former insider, wrote retrospectively about the Afrikaner Broederbond in a book
• F. W. De Klerk, Former South African State President and leader of the National Party
• "Lang" Hendrik van den Bergh, The South African head of state security apparatus during the Apartheid regime, and close friend of former South African Prime Minister B. J. Vorster. He left the Bond.

 

Known members

10 of the 21 of the members already have pages here:

Member	Description
Hendrik van den Bergh	South African police official
P. W. Botha	South African politician
Pik Botha	South African deep state operative
Theunis Willem de Jongh	Internationally well connected South African banker in Apartheid era
F. W. de Klerk	last state president of apartheid-era South Africa.
D. F. Malan	Started South Africa's system of apartheid
Connie Mulder	A South African politician brought down by Muldergate.
Robert du Plooy	South African deep state operative/diplomat who attended Le Cercle in South Africa in 1984.
Anton Rupert	South African billionaire businessman with a multitude of deep political connections
John Vorster	South African politician, Le Cercle

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References

This page imported content from Wikipedia on 13.05.2021.
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