Ossewabrandwag

Ossewabrandwag (Oxwaggon Sentinels), organization officially launched in South Africa in 1939 to preserve the culture and traditions of the Afrikaners, which quickly developed into a neo-Nazi, paramilitary force. At its peak it had 400,000 members and posed a considerable threat to the South African government. Some of its members became stormjaers (storm troops) and during the war it committed various acts of sabotage and subversion, and also helped German internees escape. In April 1941 the Abwehr sent to South Africa a South African Olympic boxer, Robey Liebrandt, in the hope that he would help the Ossewabrandwag start a rebellion, and by the spring of 1943 four other Abwehr agents and radio equipment had been introduced into the country. This enabled the organization to send information to Germany via the German consulate general who had escaped to Lourenço Marques in Portuguese East Africa, but nothing of any consequence was ever transmitted. The South African prime minister, Smuts, who always tried to give his opponents sufficient rope with which to hang themselves, refused to allow the organization's Commandant General, J. F. J. van Rensburg, to be arrested, though some of the agents, including Liebrandt, were, and about 2,000 Ossewabrandwag members were interned. In June 1944 the Ossewabrandwag's strength was estimated at 30,000 but by then its political influence was virtually nil.

Bibliography

Visser, G. , OB: Traitors or Patriots? (Cape Town, 1976).