Eugène Terre'Blanche

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Lore & Background

Eugène Terre'Blanche, a former police officer, called a meeting of several men in Heidelberg, Gauteng, on 7 July 1973. Disillusioned by what he thought were Prime Minister B. J. Vorster's 'liberal views' of racial issues and worried about communist influences, he formed the AWB with six other like-minded persons. His associates elected him as head of the group, a position he held until he was killed on his farm in April 2010. The AWB advocated for the establishment of an independent Boer-Afrikaner republic, the 'Volkstaat' or 'Boerestaat', and was strongly antisemitic, advocating for the extermination of South Africa's Jewish population. During the 1970s and 1980s, Terre'Blanche used his flamboyant oratorial skills and forceful personality to win converts, railing against the lifting of 'petty apartheid' laws. In the early 1990s, the organisation was estimated to have 70,000 members. During the negotiations to end apartheid, the AWB engaged in violence and murder, including storming the Kempton Park World Trade Centre with an armoured car and committing a series of four bombings in Johannesburg, Pretoria and Germiston between 24 and 27 April 1994 that killed 20 people and injured 46.

Reader's Guide

Terre'Blanche's significance lies in his role as the founder and leader of the AWB during its most violent period. Under his leadership, the AWB confronted police at the Battle of Ventersdorp in August 1991, where 'a number of people were killed or injured'. In 1993, the AWB signed a solidarity pact with the Inkatha Freedom Party, providing military training. In March 1994, the AWB gained international notoriety when it entered Bophuthatswana to defend the government of Lucas Mangope; three AWB members were summarily killed after being wounded, recorded by photojournalists and television news crews, which proved a public relations disaster. On 17 June 2001, Terre'Blanche was sentenced to six years in prison for assaulting a petrol station employee, John Ndzima, causing permanent brain damage, and the attempted murder of a security guard. He was released in June 2004 after serving three years, during which he became a born-again Christian and claimed to have moderated his views. He was killed on his farm in April 2010.

Did You Know?

• Terre'Blanche was a former police officer who served as a Warrant Officer in the Special Guard Unit assigned to Cabinet members before resigning to pursue politics.
• He was sentenced to six years in prison for assaulting a petrol station employee, John Ndzima, causing permanent brain damage, and the attempted murder of a security guard.
• During his time in prison, Terre'Blanche became a born-again Christian and claimed he had moderated many of his ethno-nationalist views.
• The AWB stormed the Kempton Park World Trade Centre during apartheid negotiations, breaking through the glass front with an armoured car.
• Three AWB members were summarily killed by a rogue Bophuthatswana Defence Force member during the Bophuthatswana crisis in March 1994, an incident recorded by photojournalists.