SPRINGBOK CYBER NEWSLETTER
April 2000 editionSince our March edition events in "Zimbabwe" have taken a most dramatic turn. Inter alia we have recently witnessed:-
1) A blatent disregard for the referendum result by the Mugabe regime.
2) A brutal attack on a peaceful protest march through "Harare".
3) The demonising of the opposition "Movement for Democratic Change" and the murder of many of their supporters by agents of the Mugabe regime.
4) The seizure and opening of a diplomatic bag bound for the British High Commission by the "Zimbabwe" authorities, in total disregard to all accepted rules of diplomacy.
5) The illegal invasion, occupation and ransacking of White-owned farms around the country.
6) The terrorising of White farmers, resulting in the deaths [at the time of writing] of two innocent farmers.
These events have proven beyond all shadow of doubt that the appropriately-nicknamed Zimbongoland is now in a complete state of primeval chaos, and that the current administration is nothing more than a savage despotic regime of the type which was once the rule throughout Africa, prior to the arrival of White civilisation.
This however should not surprise us. In the late 1970's those of us active in the "Save Rhodesia Campaign" warned of the inevitable disasters which would occur if Rhodesians voted for Black rule on 30th January 1979. Indeed in the first ever edition of "S.A.Patriot" we stated that "...sooner or later the 'Roosters' [the symbol of Mugabe's ZANU/PF] would come home to roost.". Our only surprise is that is has taken 21 years for this sorry state of affairs to come about.
Some have argued that those farmers and other Whites who have remained in Zimbongoland have been de facto collaborators with the Mugabe regime, and therefore only have themselves to blame when things go wrong, and moreover that they were mainly the sell-outs who voted for Black rule back in 1979 and therefore have brought these present disasters upon themselves. There may be a lot of truth in this argument (indeed it is reported that several of the leading White supporters of the "Movement for Democratic Change" had formerly sucked-up to the wretched Mugabe during the early days of "Zimbabwe"), but this is not the attitude which we take. Those farmers and other Whites now under such savage attack from the forces of darkness are our kith and kin, and deserve our full support regardless of any past mistakes.
Some have also advocated full support for the "Movement for Democratic Change" of Morgan Tswangirai, but again we cannot agree. The whole history of Black rule in Africa has shown that, to a greater or lesser degree, successor Black leaders tend to be just as unacceptable once in power as the despots who they overthrew; was Idi Amin any better than Milton Obote? Whites who parade around in MDC t-shirts saying "Zimbabwe - time for change", or who proclaim "Save Zimbabwe" completely miss the point; it is the entire revolting concept of "Zimbabwe" which we must aim to DESTROY.
The only solution to the present anarchy and savagery in that piece of land between the Limpopo and the Zambezi is for a return of civilised White rule - and this means in the short term intervention by the formal colonial power. We should not forget, however, that there is still a vibrant Rhodesian diaspora around the world who were NOT prepared to surrender principle by remaining in Zimbongoland. In the long term Rhodesia must be reborn.
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MARCH SPRINGBOK CLUB MEETING
The Springbok Club held one of its most important ever meetings in March, when we welcomed Mr. Chris Cocks, author of the acclaimed book "Fireforce", as our guest speaker. Chris Cocks gave a rivetting speech, in which he outlined his Rhodesian background and his experiences during the Bush War. He also gave his opinions about the mistakes which were made in the conduct of the War, particularly the fact that for far too long it was regarded merely as a policing operation. Most importantly, however, he left no-one in any doubt about the bravery and skills of the Rhodesian forces who fought for so long in defence of civilisation on the African continent.
Another most encouraging outcome from this meeting was the presence of several new faces in the audience, many of whom were connected with the Rhodesian Army Association and the British Commonwealth and Empire Museum. Indeed we are now planning to stage a Springbok Club trip to this museum early in 2001.
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FUTURE SPRINGBOK CLUB EVENTS
In view of the fact that we anticipate having a busy June we have decided not to hold any specific event during April, but rather to combine our planned Spring braai and video-showing of the film "Africa Addio". This will therefore be held in mid-May, but although we can still use our previous venue in Swanley for this event, this has alas proved to be geographically difficult for supporters to reach in the past, and numbers have consequently proved disappointingly poor. We are therefore looking for an alternative venue nearer to the centre of London (or near to a convenient tube station). We need a location both with braaing and video-showing facilities of course, so if can help in any way please contact us at: springbk@netcomuk.co.uk
On June 12th the Springbok Club will be joining with a number of other organisations to provide a platform for Mr. Bill Cooke from the United States, who will be visiting the UK at the time. Mr. Cooke is the founder and chairman of the "Falklands Society", an Internet-based movement which aims to foster good relations between the United States and the United Kingdom (and indeed all of the British Commonwealth). Precise details for this meeting have still to be finalised, but will be given in the May edition of the SCN. The Springbok Club itself anticipates welcoming a Norwegian supporter as our guest speaker towards the end of June, and again more details will be given next month.
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BRANCH NEWS
The Kent Branch of the Springbok Club held a small but happy "pub evening" on the North Kent coast last month, and it is hoped to make this a regular event.
We now have keen supporters actively trying to form branches in all of the following areas of the UK:-
Wiltshire, Lancashire/Cheshire, Glasgow, Co.Down, East Anglia, Sussex, Hampshire, London, Jersey and the Chilterns.
If you live in any of these areas and would like to be put into contact with other supporters then please let us know at the usual address.
Alas we were rather premature last month when we announced that our Australian co-ordinator, Nick Maine, had recently re-married - as now we hear that he has only become engaged! Our very best wishes to him even so! (Nick has intimated that in view of his new domestic situation and the fact that he is heavily involved with a number of indigenous Australian movements it might be a good idea if he was to relinquish his position as our Australasian co-ordinator. If there is any other supporter in Australasia who would like to take over this position then please let us know).
Ferdi Fourie, our North American co-ordinator, is steadily building up support, so again if you live in North America and would like to become more active please contact Ferdi direct at: ffourie@cse.unl.edu
We have also been receiving extra Scandinavian support recently, particularly from Norway. Our Scandinavian co-ordinator, Lars Karnestam, is alas still not fully on-line to the Internet, but any Scandinavian supporters can always contact him via us.
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ANTI-MUGABE FARM SEIZURE DEMONSTRATION
An ad hoc group of ex-Rhodesians organised a protest march from Trafalgar Square to the Zimbabwe High Commission in London on April 9th, in order to protest against the occupation and seizure of White-owned farms in Zimbongoland, and the fact that the Mugabe regime was encouraging these illegal acts. Several Springbok Club supports were involved with this demonstration, with estimates varying from about 500 to over 1000 people present. As well as ex-Rhodesians, South Africans and Britons taking part, it was also most encouraging to learn that that were a good sprinkling of Australians, New Zealanders and even Kenyans present, which made it a fully united-Commonwealth protest.
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SAVE OUR SOVEREIGNTY MARCH & RALLY
Our friends from the Western Goals Institute have recently told us about another important demonstration march to be held in London shortly. This will take place under the "Save Our Sovereignty" banner in order to protest against the growing encroachment of the EU on all aspects of national life. This event will take place on Sunday 23rd April, and the march will begin at Hungerford Bridge at 2.00 p.m., proceeding via Parliament Square to Trafalgar Square, where a rally will take place featuring some notable guest speakers at approximately 3.00 p.m.
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LONDON SWINTON CIRCLE MEETING
Our friends from the London Swinton Circle recently held a most interesting meeting at the Houses of Parliament, where their guest speaker was the Rev. Martin Smyth, the Ulster Unionist MP for Belfast South. The Rev. Martin Smyth, of course, subsequently challenged David Trimble for the leadership of the Ulster Unionist Party, obtaining a very creditable 43.3% of the vote, thus demonstrating the extremely high calibre of speakers that the London Swinton Circle is now able to attract. It was also most encouraging to note the great interest which Martin Smyth displayed when the forthcoming Springbok Club meeting featuring Chris Cocks as guest speaker was announced.
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REAL SOUTH AFRICAN FLAGS
We are happy to be able to announce that a small stock of full-sized real South African flags has just reached us. We can assure all those who have already placed orders that we will be contacting them in this regard during the next few days, but if anyone else would like to purchase one whilst stocks last they should send £12.00 (made payable to "Patriotic Press") to: BCM SAPAT, London WC1N 3XX, UK. (The price will only be £10.00 if you want to collect the flag personally at a future Springbok Club meeting, but of course overseas purchasers should add on an appropriate extra amount to cover overseas postage costs). Purchasers from North America, however, should contact Ferdi Fourie direct. E-mail him at:
ffourie@cse.unl.edu to find precise details about supply.
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BOOK OFFER
COVOS BOOKS of South Africa are specialist publishers of Africana, and offer a range of most interesting and illuminating books which will appeal to many of our supporters. Amongst the titles they stock are:-
FIREFORCE - One man's war in the Rhodesian Light Infantry, by Chris Cocks. Hard cover with dust jacket, 228 x 155 mm., 368 pages, 120 black and white and colour photos, plus maps and sketches. Widely acclaimed as the classic account of counter-insurgency warfare in Africa. Includes the RLI roll of honour, citations and operational orders. Price R185.00.
HOW WE KEPT THE FLAG FLYING, by Donald MacDonald. Hard cover, 213 x 137 mm., 303 pages, with frontispiece and 7 illustrations and various diagrams. This enduring story of the Siege of Ladysmith is the first in a series of Anglo-Boer War reprints. Price R169.95.
PAMWE CHETE - The Legend of the Selous Scouts, by Lt.Col. Ron Reid-Daly. The revamped, rewritten version of the best-selling "Top Secret War". With new, previously unpublished material, including the roll of honour and full schedules of citations and wings. New photo sections. The definitive account of this exceptional unit's short but distinguished service in the field of counter-insurgency operations during the Rhodesian Bush War. Price R225.00.
COVOS BOOKS can be contacted at : P.O.Box 6996, Weltevredenpark, Transvaal, 1715, South Africa. Tel.: +2711-4769926, fax.: +2711-4769927, e-mail : covos@global.co.za
We are happy to be able to confirm that the Springbok Club can now supply copies of all these books, prices being £20.00 (Fireforce), £15.00 (How We Kept the Flag Flying) and £27.50 (Pamwe Chete). All payments should be made payable to "Patriotic Press", and sent to: BCM SAPAT, London WC1N 3XX, UK. (Please add 10% for p.& p.).
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A CORNERED RAT SQUEAKS
In the March edition of the SCN we carried what we then thought was a "scoop" about the close links of a former colleague, Mr. Arthur Kemp, with two recently exposed agents working for the "new" South African security services - Cliff Saunders and Jani Allen.
As many supporters will know, this revelation resulted in a quite hysterical reaction from young Mr. Kemp, in which he not only denied these facts, but also listed a catalogue of quite bizarre lies about us, which looked as if they had come straight from a badly-researched security services dossier. Unbeknown to him, however, one of our supporters had managed to access an article from the "Mail & Guardian" web-site, which, although it meant that our original revelation wasn't such a "scoop" after all, fully confirmed that young Mr. Kemp had indeed been working for the South African security services.
Perhaps unsurprisingly this subsequent revelation which we brought to light resulted in an even more hysterical circular from young Mr. Kemp, in which he claimed that this report had been proven untrue because - wait for it - he had written a letter denying it himself! Wow! It was significant to note, however, that although young Mr. Kemp denied that he was working for the "new" South African authorities he did not deny what we would regard as a far more damning revelation, namely that he had turned "state's evidence" in the show-trial against Clive Derby-Lewis.
Now another supporter has contacted us to tell us more details about how young Mr. Kemp first came to work for the Security Police. This supporter was evidently at a braai in Pretoria in 1988 or 1989 where young Arthur Kemp was also present. Almost everyone at this braai seemed to be very wary of the young man, and warned our supporter to be careful of him as he was evidently a member of the Security Police. One person, furthermore, told him how he originally came to be recruited. A few years earlier, when young Mr. Kemp was serving his national service in the SAP, he was arrested, together with Prof. Johan Schabort of the BBB, after a public meeting in Jo'burg (it is believed, though it is not certain, that this related to an interview with Prof. Schabort which young Arthur Kemp published in his short-live magazine "Kommando"). Young Mr. Kemp practically fainted [the exact words used] when he was arrested, and subsequently, although no charges were eventually laid, was given the choice of either completing the rest of his national service in SWA on the Angola border, or else becoming an undercover security policeman with the task of "spying" on parties opposed to the NP government's sell-out policies. He chose the latter.
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WHERE ARE THEY NOW ?
A regular feature in which we ask whether anyone knows the current whereabouts of a friend or colleague who has lost contact.
No.20 : Mrs. GERARD GULSTON
Gerard Gulston worked for the Durban Corporation, and was a very quiet, though dedicated, supporter of several patriotic organisations in the Durban area. He was also a very keen - and highly respected - member of the Durban Parliamentary Debating Society ("The Durban Parliament").
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RECOMMENDED WEB-SITE
Anthony C. LoBaido is a renowned international journalist working for the Internet news service "WorldNetDaily". He has taken a particular interest in events unfolding in Southern Africa, and has written a number of profound articles concerning developments in the sub-continent, all of which are well worth reading. Perhaps one of his best and most revealing articles was recently filed from Angola. It can be accessed at:-
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/bluesky_exnews/20000117_xex_a_tragedy_br.shtml
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OBITUARY
It was with great sadness that we recently learned of the death of Mrs. Betsie Verwoerd. Our sadness is only tempered by the knowledge that she died within months of her 99th birthday, and left 7 children, 28 grandchildren and 27 great-grandchildren.
Best known as the wife of that great South African Prime Minister Hendrick F. Verwoerd, Betsie Verwoerd was no less of an intellectual giant herself. Born as Elizabeth Schoombee on 17th May 1901, she attended the University of Stellenbosch, where she gained a Master's degree in Afrikaans-Nederlands. She married Hendrick Verwoerd in 1927, and for the rest of his life was a devoted wife, mother, confidant and soulmate to him. After his tragic assassination in 1966 she maintained a keen interest in national affairs, and of course became increasingly unhappy at the betrayal of her husband's work by subsequent NP governments. She joined the Conservative Party of South Africa at its formation, and attended the mass CP rally at the Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria in 1990, although by then 89. She ended her life at the would-be self-sufficient Orania community on the banks of the Orange River, a project which was keenly supported by several of her children.
Betsie Verwoerd was also a subscriber to "S.A.Patriot". Her support for an English-language patriotic magazine should not be surprising however, for, in spite of groundless allegations by political opponents, Henrick Verwoerd himself was in no anti-British, being in reality an advocate of White unity. One of the last organisations which Dr. Verwoerd address was the "Sons of England", when he told them that just as he wanted to protect and defend his Afrikaans culture and identity, so they too had the right to defend their British traditions and identity - whilst at the same time still giving first loyalty to the South African nation as a whole.
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