Kommandokorps: Human Rights Commission must investigate racist paramilitary unit

The Democratic Alliance will today request the Human Rights Commission to investigate Kommandokorps, an AWB-aligned group operating in Carolina, Mpumalanga where teenage boys are trained to carry out hate crimes (see video below). This training includes fire arm handling and political indoctrination designed to foster racial hatred. Kommandokorps claims to have already trained over 1500 boys.

It is reported that teenage boys (aged between thirteen and nineteen) at these camps are taught that black people:

• Are the most underdeveloped, barbaric members of the human race
• Have a smaller cerebral cortex and therefore cannot take initiative or govern properly
• Are the enemy of South Africa
• Are responsible for 99% of crime committed in South Africa.

 A young boy is quoted in the article saying that: "The training has taught me that you should hate black people. They kill everyone who crosses their path."

It goes without saying that there should be no space for this in our constitutional dispensation.

The DA will therefore request the Human Rights Commission to investigate:

• Whether the activities of the Kommandokorps are illegal
• Whether any hate crimes have been perpetrated to date
• How the Kommandokorps acquired its weapons
• How these young boys are recruited, whether they have a choice in their recruitment and whether their human rights are infringed

We trust that the Human Rights Commission, with its mandate to promote respect for human rights will take this request seriously.

The tragic farm murders that have rocked parts of the country in recent weeks have understandably made people fearful and angry. But racist organisations such as this are not the solution to the legitimate concerns that rural South Africans have for their safety.

We need a SAPS Border and Rural Safety Division to help protect South Africans living outside urban areas. What we do not need are paramilitary units that advocate the hatred of other people based on their colour of their skin.

The DA will fight this abomination in our country. It can only take us further away from President Nelson Mandela's vision of a South Africa united in its diversity.

Statement issued by Mmusi Maimane, DA National Spokesperson, February 24 2012

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