AWB claims 3 000 new members
2010-04-06 09:31
Ventersdorp - The AWB claims to have had at least 3 000 applications from new members since its leader Eugene Terre'Blanche was murdered, spokesperson Pieter Steyn said on Tuesday.
"People say they are gatvol (fed up)," said Steyn outside the Ventersdorp Magistrate's Court, where two people were due to appear in connection with the murder of the leader of the far right wing group on Saturday.
Steyn said people had contacted them by telephone, via the internet, and had arrived at their offices, asking to become members.
Two newly joined AWB members, Shaun Labuschagne from Brakpan and his friend Dirkie Cronwright from Boksburg, were among the hundreds of people waiting for the court to open.
"We do not want to be excluded with whatever’s going to happen,” said Labuschagne, 31.
Both joined the AWB at the movement’s Ventersdorp head office on Monday night.
“The gun has been loaded a long time ago. They just pulled the trigger now,” said Cronwright, 26, who owns a cash loans and labour firm in Boksburg.
Situation extremely explosive
Labuschagne, who has two young daughters, said: “If you see what is happening around you, you need to make preparations.”
Gerhardus Brits, 35, from Mookgopong (formerly Naboomspruit), came to show solidarity to “my people”.
Brits, who is not an AWB member, came through alone on Tuesday morning, but said he expected about 15 to 20 friends to join him later in the day.
“I am here for the survival of our volk (people). To show we live. To show we are not going to be trampled on. If they bite we are going to bite back.”
He said the situation was extremely “explosive”.
“What happens here can have extremely serious repercussions.”
He said some people had to die for others to live.
“If you or I die there will only be a small article in the newspaper, but when a man like this dies, the world will see it," said Brits, who added that he had lost friends and family in farm attacks.
The AWB is linking Terre'Blanche's murder to ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema's singing of a song that contains the lyrics "shoot the boer".
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- SAPA
