Modern Afrikaner Militias
The Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) - "Afrikaner Resistance Movement" - was formed in 1970 in Heidelberg, Transvaal, a town southeast of Johannesburg. It is a political and paramilitary group in South Africa and was under the leadership of Eugène Terre'Blanche. They are committed to the restoration of an independent Afrikaner republic or "Boerestaat" within South Africa. In their heyday, the period of transition in the early 1990s, they received much publicity both in South Africa and abroad as an extremist white supremacist group.
During the Negotiations to end apartheid in south africa, the AWB stormed the venue, the Kempton Park World Trade Centre, breaking through the glass front of the building with an armoured car. The invaders took over the main conference hall, threatening delegates and painting slogans on the walls and left again after a short period. In 1994, before the advent of majority rule, the AWB again gained international notoriety in its attempt to defend the dictatorial government of Lucas Mangope in the homeland of Bophuthatswana, who opposed the upcoming elections and the dissolution of "his" homeland. The AWB, along with a contingent of about 90 Afrikanervolksfront militiamen entered the capital of Mmabatho on 10 March and 11 March. Terre'Blanche was sentenced for the attempted murder of security guard, Paul Motshabi, but he only served three years. In June 2004, he was released from prison. Terre'blanche claimed that while in prison, he re-discovered God and has dropped some of his more violent and racist policies. He preached reconciliation as 'prescribed by God' in his later years. Terre'Blanche was murdered on his farm on 3 April 2010.
Read more about this topic: Military History Of South Africa
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