SUBVERSIVE ELEMENTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24834, 6 February 1942, Page 5

SUBVERSIVE ELEMENTS

SOUTH AFRICAN ORGANISATION DISCLOSURES IN THE ASSEMBLY . CAPETOWN, Feb. 4. Irritated by accusations that he was responsible for the internment of leading members of the subversive organisation, Ossewa Brandwag, Dr Malan, Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, read an affidavit made by an escaped internee, Van der Walt, a champion wrestler, who is still untraced. The Minister of Justice, Mr Colin Steyn. undertook to lay the affidavit on the table. Van der Walt claimed that he witnessed the signatures of Dr Van Rensburg, commandant-general of the Ossewa Brandwag, and his assistant, Jerling, to an oath, affirmed in blood signatures, that they would undertake not to deliver any Afrikander to the enemy, meaning the Government, notwithstanding which they were, responsible for disclosing the presence of Herr Liebrandt, who landed from Germany. Van der Walt warned his compatriots not to trust the leaders of the Ossewa Brandwag, and also alleged that Jerling ordered him to kill an advocate who had incurred the displeasure of Dr Malan. He passionately accused members of the Ossewa Brandwag of being traitors in an unholy alliance with the Government to send Afrikanders to their doom.

The Ossewa Brandwag (Ox-wagon Sentinel) advocates a “ new order ” for South Africa, based on the Nazi system, with an autocratic fuhrer or president. Its leaders, states the Round Table, would allow only one political party and could cut all connection with the British Commonwealth. They would give preference in every possible way to the “ true Afrikaner,” that is to say, the anti-British element in the population, relegating all other elements to a position of inferiority, if not actually of subjection.