SA government “sleeping” on rising threat of domestic right-wing extremists – Dr Siphiwe Dube
The South African government is under scrutiny for allegedly underestimating the growing threat posed by domestic right-wing extremist groups. Dr. Siphiwe Dube warns that these groups, though perceived as fringe, are increasingly linked to international radical networks. A recent police raid on a training camp near Modimole highlights the potential danger, yet authorities remain tight-lipped. Dr. Dube cautions that the global connections of these groups should not be ignored.
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The South African government has been accused of ignoring the rising threat posed by domestic extreme right-wing groups across the country, National Security News can reveal. Dr Siphiwe Dube, a senior lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand said he believes that President Cyril Ramaphosa's government may be "sleeping a little" on the threat posed by right wing South African groups which are believed to be linked to other international extremist organisations.
These remarks come in the wake of a police raid on a training camp of right-wing activists near Modimole in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa located on the farm of Louis Steytler. Authorities suspect the camp was providing military training. Arms including rifles and pistols were confiscated. The Hawks, South Africa's Directorate for Priority Crime Investigations have refrained from discussing the investigation stating that they have been advised to allow the investigation to proceed without media engagement.
Dr Dube said that while Ramaphosa's government may perceive them as a "small enclave," they are overlooking their links to international radical right-wing movements.
In an interview with the BRICS Global Television Network (BGTN), Steytler, a self-described self-defence and survival instructor denied that the firearms that were found were illegal.
Steytler is the chairman of the South African Anglo Boer War Historical Society and a founding member of the Russophile movement, an international pro-Russian group. In a 2023 BGTN interview, he spoke on the shared historical ties between Russians and Afrikaners.
Dr. Dube suspects that Steytler is linked to the Suidlanders, "a prominent right-wing group here in South Africa," whose leader, Simon Roche, has been very active in American right-wing populism. Roche has toured with right-wing populists in the U.S. during former President Donald Trump's presidency and was central to the narrative around white genocide in South Africa, which Trump discussed on Twitter. Roche has been very much at the forefront of American right-wing populism, he said.
"They have been around since the fall of apartheid and are probably not going anywhere," Dr. Dube noted, adding that globally, these groups are forming networks of like-minded white nationalist organisations. "They believe they are a shrinking group and need to assert and revive their identity as a white nation."
The Suidlanders are part of this larger global network, he explained. They exploit South Africa's high crime rates and farm killings to propagate the idea that only white people are victims. "Actually, statistically, more black farm workers die than white farm owners," Dr. Dube said, calling their claims a facade for self-defence.
He contrasted this with another right-wing group, the Kommando Korps, which is "basically waiting for civil war," stockpiling fuel and food and training young men in traditional Afrikaans fighting styles reminiscent of the Anglo-Boer War.
Dr. Dube said that there is a general perception of these groups as fringe movements that do not pose a real risk. However, he warns that their interconnected nature presents a threat.
What is concerning, he said, is that these groups are gaining global resonance with similar factions in the United Kingdom, the United States, and parts of Europe. "I think our government is sleeping a bit on this… but what they are forgetting he said, is the transnational nature of the threat."
Leaders such as former President Trump and Hungary's Prime Minister Orbán support these narratives and adopt anti-immigration policies, which contradict the idea of a globalised world. These right-wing groups, which view migrants, Black people, and other "undesirables" as threats to society, are finding spaces to cultivate their views safely, he explained.
Dr. Dube cautioned that groups like the Proud Boys in the U.S. and the Suidlanders "are all singing the same tune, and this voice will only get larger and larger."
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This article was first published by National Security News and is republished with permission