Kommandokorps is an Afrikaner survivalist group active in South Africa.[3] The leader is Colonel Franz Jooste, who served with the South African Defence Force during the apartheid era.[4]
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The group organises paramilitary camps, which are attended by youths between the ages of 13 and 19.[3] The teenagers are taught self-defence and how to combat a perceived black enemy.[4] Following an infantry-style curriculum, they are lectured on racial differences, such as a claim that black people had a smaller cerebral cortex than whites, and are made to use a modern South African flag as a doormat.[3] The camp is located in the veld outside the town of Carolina, Mpumalanga, about 230 km east of Johannesburg.[5]
Kommandokorps has been criticised by the Afrikaner lobby group AfriForum.[3] The Democratic Alliance called for the group to be closed, and its activities investigated by the Human Rights Commission.[6] A group of Kommandokorps volunteers attended the funeral of the former Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging leader Eugene Terreblanche.[7] In 2011, the group signed a saamstaanverdrag (unity pact) with the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging and the Suidlanders, a large group which advocates for white rights in post-apartheid South Africa and publicizes its belief that there is an ongoing genocide against whites, in particular farmers, in the country.[5]
“Fatherland” is a full-length documentary produced and directed by Tarryn Lee Crossman that explores the experiences of young men in the Kommandokorps camps.[8]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Kommandokorps: Racism Breeding Camp
- ^ South Africa's DA wants Kommandokorps "hate camp" closed
- ^ a b c d "Kommandokorps denies racism". News24. Retrieved 22 August 2013.
- ^ a b "Afrikaner Blood". World Press Photo. Archived from the original on 27 July 2013. Retrieved 22 August 2013.
- ^ a b "Inside the kommando camp that turns boys' doubts to hate". Mail & Guardian. 24 February 2012. Retrieved 22 August 2013.
- ^ "Kommandokorps: Should racist thought be criminalised?". Daily Maverick. 5 March 2012. Retrieved 22 August 2013.
- ^ "South Africa: a separate homeland for Afrikaners?". Telegraph. 10 April 2010. Retrieved 22 August 2013.
- ^ "Controversial documentary explores South Africa's KK camps". Euronews. Archived from the original on 9 September 2017. Retrieved 8 December 2013.
External links
edit- Official website (in Afrikaans)