New AWB leader announced

2010-04-06 16:29

Ventersdorp - A farmer from the southern Free State was announced as the AWB's new leader on Tuesday.

Steyn van Ronge, a member of the movement for over 20 years, vowed to pursue the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging's goal of returning to God and uniting the "volk".

His election followed the murder of AWB leader Eugene Terre'Blanche at his Ventersdorp farm on Saturday and the charging of two people for the killing.

Thousands of new members

He said that since Terre'Blanche's murder they had received "thousands" of new membership applications.

"We will not allow an incident of this nature to occur again," he said.

The organisation was implementing a security plan which entailed protecting "our people", he said, without disclosing any further details.

Van Ronge said Terre'Blanche's wife Martie was with her family and "holding up well under the circumstances".

'Fall within the law'

He said any action taken by the AWB in implementing its security plan would fall within the laws of the country.

The organisation would, however, not take responsibility for individual members deciding to avenge Terre'Blanche's death, nor their reaction to inflammatory statements by ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema, or the government's "slow response to crime".
"Thousands" of people countrywide were expected at Terre'Blanche's funeral service at the Afrikaans Protestant church in the town on Friday morning.

He would be buried on his farm outside the town afterwards.

Van Ronge was speaking outside Terre'Blanche's Ventersdorp house in front of an ox wagon on the stoep, while three German shepherds played on the lawn.

- SAPA