Western Cape High Court Judge Rosheni Allie has handed down a landmark ruling blocking a R40-million bequest to the Boerelegioen (BL) by a deceased man who believed that “white genocide” was imminent.
Quadriplegic Grantland Michael Bray, who died in 2022, had named the Boerelegieon as beneficiary of his estate and wanted the funds to be used for paramilitary training.
Bray’s two sisters and brothers, who are trustees and also beneficiaries of the estate, challenged the will on the grounds that the bequest was vague and contrary to public policy.
They requested the court to devolve assets bequeathed to the Boerelegioen into intestate succession. This order was granted by the court.
Allie had harsh words for the BL’s brand and notion of “white nationalism”, which she highlighted encompassed “the belief that national identity should be built around white ethnicity and that white people should maintain a superior dominance over the country’s culture and ethos”.
For this to gain traction, she added, it employed a “false narrative of an imagined threat to its cultural identity that it contends is being erased. That narrative enables it to frame its ideology as a just cause and a war for survival.”
Bray, prior to his death, had proclaimed that his wealth would “be used for an organisation that would exterminate every black person”.
He had given Lourens Steytler, “an activist and businessman” and sole director of Pathfinder Bushcraft and Survival, about R6-million in Krugerrands in 2020.
Steytler denied receiving the Krugerrands and has since resigned from the BL. Fellow members have accused him of theft.
He was also accused of giving Bray a fake membership of BL as only members with “boer blood” could join. This was done in order to con Bray into parting with his inheritance.
Only one army
The stated objectives of the BL, as well as the purpose for which Bray wished to have the funds used, fell foul of the law, Allie ruled on 18 February.
“This country is only legally entitled to have one army, that is, the South African National Defence Force. Therefore, paramilitary activities of the BL are unlawful,” the judge said.
She said the Prohibition of Mercenary Activities and Regulation of Certain Activities in Country of Armed Conflict Act and the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority (PSIRA) collectively operated “to make illegal, the training of persons in the use of arms for the purpose of participating with armed groups unless the trainers are registered under PSIRA and comply with certain regulations and protocols or have obtained the necessary authorisation from the National Conventional Arms Control Committee”.
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She added that the Boerelegioen’s use of these tactics to garner support for the organisation, “which is an admitted white supremacist organisation, has, at its core objective, activity such as the training of paramilitary and or a vigilante groups, in violation of the law”.
Obsessed with ‘white genocide’
The deceased became disabled at the age of 25 after a car accident while doing military service .
In a 2001 codicil to his will he wrote: “I appoint as heir to the whole of the balance of my estate the Boerelegioen with specific instruction that the bulk a portion of the inheritance be utilised for the Pathfinder Bushcraft and Survival Training Camps or any other training by the Boerelegioen”.
His four siblings told the court that from 2012 until 2022, their brother “had became obsessed with the idea of an impending genocide of white people in South Africa. That idea was further fuelled by his already present racism and the online content that he was exposed to,” they told the court.
Their brother had viewed “far-right YouTube channels constantly” and became paranoid, believing that a day of impending genocide of white people would soon arrive.
Beneficiaries and respondents in the matter included Boerelegioen RSA (Pty) Ltd, Boerelegioen NPA, Pathfinder Bushcraft & Survival (Pty) Ltd as well as the ministers of Justice, Police and State Security. The respondents were not legally represented.
In her judgement – which has made international headlines in the slipstream of US President Donald Trump’s offer of refugee status to Afrikaner farmers – Allie noted South Africa’s “own oppression and exploitation of the majority was sold to the more privileged sectors of society as being based on the alleged need to suppress, the so-called ‘swart gevaar’”.
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The judge said that while the words “swart gevaar” were no longer prevalent, the fear-mongering now takes the form of persuading white people that farm murders are the start of a white genocide, which “is allegedly, imminent”. DM