THE IRON GUARD.
This is not a discourse on political views and policies but a profile of a late political leader. Eugene Terre‘blanche. The news media will also be placed under scrutiny. During the late 1980’s Eugene was in his heyday as the leader of the AWB. He had a relatively large following from Afrikaners and the English, to a lesser extent. In most cases he and his “Yster Garde’ was welcome in most towns. In this particular case he was in Welkom.. This particular day was some or other public holiday and my family and myself decided to visit Welkom. We resided in Virginia about 20 km from Welkom and had little to do with the place. On entering Welkom we were forced to stop due to barricades over the entries to the main roads: Stateway was barricaded off at all the entries and the side entries. We managed to find a parking in the Horse-shoe. The place was teeming with thousands of people, Eugene Terre’blanche and the Yster Garde We did not get out of the car as we had an excellent view and relatively close to the main road. We noticed a black guy passing in white clothing and walking with crutches. The Yster Garde was retreating to the northern end of the road up to a circle where they started to form a squadron.. The black guy was coming closed until he was told to go elsewhere because he was appearing on some people’s cameras. He turned around and retraced his steps to where we were sitting in the car. On his approach a white guy carrying a camera and stand met up with him. They stopped and seemed to be talking to each other. He was wearing a shirt with a news logo attached to it. Money passed hands and the black guy placed his crutches under his arm and walked away. The registration of the car was MJ****T. After the Yster Garde completed their march past the City Hall the people started to disperse. I walked about half the length of the park when I passed a parked caravan.Somebody called “Meneer” and I turned to see Eugene beckoning me We spoke for a few minutes about this and that, the mining industry, .Welkom and the area. Politics was never mentioned. I was really amazed at the mans mien and bearing, had never met a person who was so articulate yet humble at the same time. His manners were perfect and always on topic. He asked me to attend a meeting he was giving at 7 that evening in the City Hall. I spoke to my wife and we agreed to attend the meeting despite the fact that we did not belong to a rightwing political party. We attended the meeting that evening and again his eloquence was perfect. He had the ability to mesmerise the audience and turn them to his bidding and control was stunning. After the meeting he organised tea for my wife and myself and spoke to us for some minutes. He was aware of the newspaper man and his tricks. This guy’s knowledge of SA and Namibian history was phenomenal
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