White violence erupts

Press, 16 January 1988, Page 8

White violence erupts

By DAVID ROGERS of Reuters in Johannesburg White-against-white violence has erupted as South Africa enters a series of elections with pro-apartheid Rightwingers battling for greater power.

Neo-Fascists fired the first salvo on Thursday evening when they disrupted a political meeting organised by the ruling National Party at Standerton, south-east of Johannesburg. Tear gas and stink bombs were thrown into the hall after fighting broke out between National Party supporters and members of the white

supremacist Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (Afrikaner Resistance Movement, A.W.B). The A.W.8., modelled on Hitler’s Nazi Party, is backing the extreme Right Conservative Party in a parliamentary byelection in Standerton.

Divisions among South Africa’s white minority over apartheid race segregation have deepened with the Conservatives, a break-away movement from the National Party, mounting a serious challenge. The Conservatives, campaigning for a return to total apartheid, won 23

seats in last year’s whitesonly general election. Political commentators predict they may well strengthen their power base in forthcoming municipal polls and three parliamentary by-elec-tions.

The A.W.B. hit the headlines in 1986 when its members, some in Nazistyle regalia, staged violent protests at National Party meetings. It has since attracted large crowds to its rallies.

The Education Minister, Mr F. W. de Klerk, the main speaker at the Standerton meeting, challenged the leader of the

Conservatives, Mr Andries Treurnicht, to say whether he rejected “the political thuggery” of the A.W.B. The A.W.B. members, more than a third of the 600-strong audience, demanded that Mr de Klerk meet their leader, the charismatic Mr Eugene Terre’Blanche, in a political debate. Mr de Klerk, one of the favourites to succeed the President, Mr P. W. Botha, yesterday rejected the demand. He told reporters that because the A.W.B. did not enter candidates in elections, it was not part of the political process.