It’s weird, I went through the documents of the ECC found at SAHA who listed objectors, including the pre-ECC objectors like Anton Ebehard and found no mention of Johan van Wyk.

Some more observations about the Afrikaans English thing – When I interviewed Anton Kannemeyer of Bitterkomix fame he said:

“O.K., vanmiddag is daar ‘n E.C.C. Meeting in ‘Die Gat’ en dan kom een of ander persoon praat van U. C. T. of what ever, en hulle probeer mense soveel moontlik inlig oor wat hulle te doen staan, wat kan gebeur, wat jou ‘legal rights’ is, ensovoorts. So, dikwels het daar Lawyers for Human Rights se mense kom praat en so. En ek onthou dan, wat gebeur is: dan het ons nou hierdie Meeting’ en dan sit ons nou daar, en Jesis, die volgende oomblik, hier kom ouens van Wilgenhof en van Helderberg koshuise, en dan begin hulle die mense tart in Die Gat, en hulle bring eiers en tamaties, dan begin hulle die mense gooi met hierdie eiers en tamaties en, jy weet, Victor Honey en die mense wat ek geken het, wat aan die E C C behoort het, was verskiklik soort van, ons gaan nie terug veg nie, ons gaan nie iets doen nie, ons is te swak vir passiewe aksie, en ek moet se my gemoedstoestand en manier hoe ek is, is nie eintlik so nie, en ek onthou eendag het hierdie ou , so ‘n reuse ou, het ‘n klip opgetel en hy’t hom net so terug gegooi, en hy het een van hierdie Wilgehof ouens tussen die oe gegooi. Die ou het net so gaan sit daar , en ek het gedink: ‘ Weldone,’ jy weet, want ten spyte van die feit dat ek saam met hierdie mense is, dat ek ook nie saamstem met, of dat ek saam stem met wat die E.C.C. te se het , en so, ek is nie Gandi nie; ek wens ek was, maar ek is nie; ek voel ek is een van daai mense wat voel ek moet iets doen; en dis waarskynlik waarom ek Commics geteken het oor die goed wat ek oor sterk voel. En die ding is, jy weet ek moet absoluut glo in ‘resistance’. En dit is een van die dinge van die E.C.C.. wat my ‘n bietjie onder gekry het; hierdie soort van ding van O.K.,: kom ons word maar gegooi met tamaties – dan sit ons daar en ons gesels en ons ‘inform’ en ons probeer uitbrei en so, jy weet, ek het daarmee ongemaklik gesit.”

Laurie Nathan told me:

“When we tried, in later years, to set up a branch on Stellenbosch University campus, we were told by many students that we were worse than the enemy because we were traitors. ”

and -

“Look. There was big division between the English and the Afrikaans speaking, white, communities then, and probably still is, but much more so then. And there was a lot of prejudice, English speaking whites saw Afrikaaners as conservative and culturally inferior. I mean I grew up with that subliminal notion that Afrikaaners were not as refined or sophisticated. Never mind, that was just part of the prejudice we grew up with and there’s also no doubt that English people tended to be more liberal, they tended to vote for the liberal opposition in a white parliament, whereas Afrikaaners tended to vote for the National Party. I don’t even know now if that’s (importantly) true, but we certainly grew up with that belief. And, I suppose, it was just, it was easy for English speaking whites who were benefiting from Apartheid to not accept any blame. So we blame Afrikaaners. In any event, Afrikaans-speaking communities were very conservative and there was a lot of real fury directed at the ECC. So, in fact because of the prejudice there was some debate within our own ranks about whether we wanted to set up branches, or attempt to work in the Afrikaans community. There was a lot of stereotyping and the feeling that, well you know, all Afrikaaners are racist or reactionary, why are we wasting our time. We don’t want to be contaminated. There was that debate. I thought it was a stupid debate, frankly. This was a question of strategy, not principle, and the strategy was make inroads into conservative communities. And if our agenda is to undermine the State – if our agenda is to undermine the State by being subversive within the white community around so sensitive an issue as the military, then obviously we have to work in the Afrikaans-speaking community. Obviously. And we’re not going to have an easy time of it. But the symbolism counts more than the quantity, so it doesn’t matter with the argument, whether we have small numbers of Afrikaaners joining our ranks, what matters is that we have some. We also want to counteract the counter-steering coming from the State and the right wing groups that say “Are you just a bunch of English liberals, or English radicals or English moffies or whatever the pejorative term thrown at us was. We wanted to demonstrate that that wasn’t the case. And, as national organiser of the end conscription campaign I worked in Pretoria and Stellenbosch with relish. I loved it. I loved the challenge, I liked the confrontational politics, I loved working with Afrikaans students who were radicals, because they were completely different from us, they were way more confrontationalist than their politics. They thought we were mealie-mouthed. They thought that we always beat around the bush. They would tell us that we never spoke honestly and frankly. It was part of the English syndrome that we prevaricated, whereas they grew up with confrontational politics, where a good fight at the end of the meeting was a good thing, not a bad thing. And I found it fascinating. I spoke to Afrikaans student leaders at Stellenbosch who had, I think this must be now, 1985/’86, who’d taken a delegation of young Afrikaans student leaders to meet the ANC in exile, but would not get involved in the end conscription campaign, and I said, “Why? Surely you’re willing to take this risk meeting the ANC in exile, why would you not be associated with the ECC?” And their response was, “The difference is that they are the enemy and sooner or later we will have to talk to the enemy. But you’re traitors and we’re never going to talk to you.””

What I find interesting as well is that some Afrikaners went even further and joined the ANC, but that the number that joined the ECC were low?

I was a member of 31 Batallion at the time. I resigned after what happened to him. He was detained, severely beaten, given shock treatment and pumped full of mind control pills.
I left SA in January 1993, after having completed a BA Degree at WITS, 4 days before a camp call up, and spent the time between 1983 and January 1992 in Harare, Zimbabwe. Where I was involved with Kallie Hanekom in securing safe houses for MK operatives in transit.

By the way Johan was and still is a close friend of Marcel van Heerden, the narrator of your program, “Grensoorlog”. Johan and many of his friends, including Breyten Breytenbach, Chris Pretorius, Niel Goedhals and numerous other Afrikaners were opposed to Apartheid and the war in Namibia and Angola, but were not members of the ECC. Niel committed suicide (perhaps to avoid conscription?).

Johan was the first and perhaps only South African and Afrikaner Punk Poet, and together with Marcel and Niel produced Sloper and Koos.

Firstly, I felt honoured to attend the event. And the people there were what I expected. Courageous people that took difficult decisions at a difficult time.

People I have utmost respect for.

As I alluded to, I myself often struggle with the fact that I am not in South Africa. I matriculated in 1990, and where not as involved in politics like you were, but I did a little bit in student politics at Tukkies and then later at the TRC. In fact it was my whole world at the time. And as this blog can attest to, I still cant let go.

Perhaps its unreasonable, but its fair to say I experience some guilt as to not still being directly involved in trying to make South Africa a better place. Koos Kombuis sang in Ver van die ou Kalahari, that we know the ‘chicken run’ is foul play. That resonates with me.

What is definitely unreasonable is to project that on others.

South Africans are self obsessed, its where their world often starts and ends. But I think there is a reason for that. The country has so much promise. It’s a remarkable place, with a remarkable story. But everyday seems like a fight for its future. It’s still not at peace. Its future is not settled. It’s like with being parents of a very sick child. How not to be obsessed with it?

I think that what you read as being lost outside of South Africa is actually the caution with which we now approach the world. And a lot of this comes from being fucked over then and today being highly protective of what we have been able to create and salvage.

I went back in 1990 and left again in 1998 for Sydney Australia before once again arriving in London five years ago. In the past two years I have been back to South Africa on business and whilst I always feel very alive when I’m there I also find it insular, myopic and self-obsessed.

I’m very happy to be living in London again and involved in South Africa on a cultural lever (reissuing the classic back catelogue of Rashid Vally’s AsShams label). And this goes back to my formative years at University where for me the jol was more important than the endless meetings and political hard-line… Immediately after the 1982 Culture and Resistance festival in Gabarone I was drawn to cultural activities, starting my own band and organising concerts in support of the cultural boycott, indigenous artists and the UDF. …

enough for now…