Broederbond Ban

South Africa's Prime Minister had a tough fight on his hands. To a convention of his United Party in Bloemfontein, Field Marshal Jan Christian Smuts denounced the Broederbond (League of Brothers) as a "dangerous, cunning, Fascist organization." Smuts ordered South African civil servants and state schoolteachers to resign Broederbond membership at once. His stern alternative: resign their Government jobs.

Accountable "only to God" for its actions, the Broederbond has only 2,672 members after 26 years of existence. But all of them are handpicked, fanatical, British-hating Afrikaners. Most of them are professional people. Their slogan is "Weg met die Brit" (Down with the Briton). The Broederbond wants a strictly authoritarian republic run by a one-party Afrikaans Volksraad (People's Council), headed by an Afrikaner president. English would not be recognized as an official language nor would English-speaking South Africans be recognized as ware (true) Afrikaners.

Till Death. Every Broeder is an Afrikaner of some standing in business, education or politics who has been watched secretly for years before being offered membership in the Bond. He is sworn in at a spine-chilling ceremony. In sepulchral gloom a light plays fitfully on a blood-spattered bier, on which lies a lifelike "corpse" wrapped in a black shroud. Into the "corpse" a dagger has been plunged to the hilt. Letters of blood spell the word Verraad (treachery). A predikant (pastor) intones: "He who betrays the Bond will be destroyed by the Bond. The Bond never forgets." Membership lasts "till death." Broeders recognize one another by secret signs, handclasps, passwords.

The Bond is run by a Supreme Trinity, an executive council of twelve Apostles, and a general council of numerous Disciples. Lower divisions are subdivided into cells. Breeders, who hold key posts in Government service, work tirelessly for Afrikaner domination over the British. Through its secret members the Bond controls the Herenigde Nasionale Party (the official Parliamentary opposition) and the Ossewa Brandwag (a semi-Fascist civil militia).

In the first public statement in its history, the Broederbond struck back at its ancient enemy Smuts, announced that the Bond would fight Smuts in & out of Parliament. Said the Bond's statement, signed by two members, Christoffel Johannes van Rooy and Ivanhoe Makepeace Lombard: "The Broederbond was born of a deep conviction that the Afrikaner nation was planted here by God's hand. The Prime Minister is trying to stone us in his ignorance."

But Smuts's ban stands.

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