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The Super-Afrikaners: Inside the Afrikaner Broederbond

Literature › Works

Ivor Wilkins; Hans Strydom (1978). The Super-Afrikaners: Inside the Afrikaner Broederbond. Jonathan Ball Publishers, Johannesburg.
Type book
Scope Wider apartheid literature
Method archival narrative
Period studied 1902–1978
Regions South Africa, Transvaal, Orange Free State, Cape, Natal, South West Africa
Themes origins segregation, politics ideology elections, business and state, bantustans removals influx, unions strikes, demography urbanisation, education human capital
Citation key wilkins1978

Argument

The authors, two Sunday Times journalists working from leaked Broederbond circulars and documents, argue that a secret, exclusively Afrikaans elite society of about 12,000 members effectively governs South Africa. They trace its founding in 1918, its political ascent against Hertzog and Smuts, its role in the 1938 oxwagon trek and the 1948 Nationalist victory, and its subsequent placement of members in the cabinet, civil service, SABC, railways, universities, and parastatals. Chapters on apartheid, coloured, Indian and immigration policy show the Bond's secret papers anticipating and shaping government policy. The argument rests on documentary quotation, press reports and Hansard rather than analysis. Economic matters appear only incidentally: Afrikaner economic emancipation, the Mineworkers' Union takeover, parastatal control, and the Bond's economic and homeland planning.

Evidence and method

Leaked Broederbond circulars, annual reports, study documents and Bondsraad minutes (1930s-1977); secondary works (De Klerk, Malherbe, O'Meara, Kruger, Vatcher, Friedman, Hancock); Hansard; contemporary press (Rand Daily Mail, Sunday Times, The Star); an anonymous informant; membership lists in appendices.

Place in the debates

Findings

  • The authors assert that the Bond and the National Party government are effectively one and the same, with membership at the apex of power. (p. 15)

  • The Bond saw the Mineworkers' Union takeover as pivotal to winning the 1948 election; Reef mineworkers' votes decided six seats. (p. 127)

    Where the Nationalists had only two Reef seats before the election, they now gained six. In all these constituencies the mineworkers' vote was decisive.

  • The Bond's secret 1967 agenda with Vorster flagged economic integration under non-apartheid businessmen and Afrikaner subordination as a danger. (p. 6)

    The dangers of increasing economic integration under the leadership of businessmen who do not subscribe to the policy of separate development, and the complementary problem of the Afrikaner continuing in the subordinate economic role

  • Bond leaders tied the survival of both Afrikaner identity and separate development to economic expansion and immigration. (p. 34)

    Without a powerful expansion of our national economy, our independent survival, as well as the execution of our policy of separate development, will come into serious jeopardy.

  • Meyer declared Afrikaner political consolidation of English-speakers must be coupled with control of the economy. (p. 134)

    The objective of nationalising the English-speakers politically will be of permanent value, ensuring the continued existence of the Afrikaner, only if it is coupled with the Afrikanerising of the economy.

  • Key parastatals and Afrikaner finance houses had Bond leadership, including Iscor, Escom, Sasol, the SA Railways and Sanlam. (p. 14)

    Iscor, the semi-State Iron and Steel Corporation, also has tremendous strategic importance for South Africa. Six of its board members are Broeders.

  • The Bond's Indian homeland proposal sought to channel Indian capital away from threatening national policy. (p. 158)

    it is urgently necessary that Indian capital be drawn to places where it will not be a danger to national policy.

Evidence ledger

Sources used

Source Kind Period How used
Broederbond circular letters (numbered monthly circulars, e.g. 7/77/78 of September 1 1977) union or movement records 1961-1977 Quoted to show instructions to members to capture influence in professional, public and cultural bodies and to cooperate with government and the National Party.
Broederbond membership lists compiled by the authors (Appendix 1 and Appendix 2) author survey or fieldwork c.1962-1978 Names, ages, occupations and branch data used to identify members in government, business, education and security services.
Broederbond annual reports, chairman's addresses and Bondsraad/national congress proceedings (e.g. 1968 50th anniversary, 1972 congress) union or movement records 1958-1976 Quoted for the Executive Council's relations with prime ministers, the republic referendum and policy discussion.
Sekretariele Verslag van die Uitvoerende Raad, 1 March 1963 to 28 February 1965 union or movement records 1963-1965 Source for Meyer's report on the organisation's influence and on white security.
Broederbond policy documents: Ons Taak Vorentoe; Masterplan for a White Country; Study Document on the Republic; Unity; Indian Education in South Africa; The Future of the Indian Population; The Coloureds - a view of their future; Comments in Connection with the Report of the Erika Theron Commission union or movement records 1960s-1977 Show Broederbond thinking on Bantustans, coloured economic areas, Indian homeland, and its input into the White Paper on the Theron report.
Addendum F to minutes of the 1965 annual meeting (Afrikaner-Orde) union or movement records 1965 Documents the absorption of the Afrikaner-Orde and its role in the HNP split.
Correspondence of Jooste, Beetge and the Executive (letters of 1971-1972) and circular of October 17 1972 union or movement records 1971-1973 Establishes the expulsions and the pledge of 8 859 of 9 027 members to reject the HNP.
Oelofse report (judicial commission on secret organisations) commission or official report c.1960s Cited for the date of the decision to make the Bond secret.
Hansard, House of Assembly debate, March 21 1945 (Broederbond and civil servants) parliamentary debates 1945 Quoted for Smuts's case against the Broederbond and the Nationalists' replies.
Hansard, January 25 1946 and Senate debate June 13 1950 parliamentary debates 1946-1950 Used for the Marshall Clark retirement affair and parliamentary criticism of Broederbond influence.
Proclamation No. 255 under the National Security Regulations, December 15 1944 legislation gazette 1944 Legal basis of Smuts's order that civil servants resign from the Broederbond.
Prohibition of Political Interference Act (No 51 of 1968) and Indian Education Act of 1965 legislation gazette 1965-1968 Context for the Broederbond's defiance of the law in coloured elections.
Military Intelligence report on the Afrikaner Broederbond, March 29 1944 state archives 1944 Quoted for wartime government assessment that the Broederbond must be destroyed.
Election returns and seat counts: 1948 general election; 1943 election; 1960 republic referendum; 1969 CRC election; 1970 HNP vote election returns 1943-1975 Used to show election and referendum outcomes and Broederbond failures in coloured politics.
Newspaper reports: Sunday Times, Rand Daily Mail, The Star, Die Transvaler, Die Vaderland, The Friend (1935-1978) newspapers periodicals 1935-1978 Used for Hertzog's Smithfield address, the Poole, Clark and Roos removals, Robertson's trek reports and Serfontein's coloured election exposé.
Sunday Times series on the Broederbond, January-February 1978 newspapers periodicals 1978 Earlier published exposé of the same leaked documents, including Serfontein's coloured election article.
Anonymous informant and other current and former members and non-members interviews oral history 1977-1978 Provided documents and guidance and confirmed claims about SABC and other infiltration.
Secondary works used as data sources: Malherbe, Education in South Africa Vol 2; De Klerk, The Puritans in Africa; Vatcher, White Laager; Naude, Dr Albert Hertzog; Van den Heever, Generaal J B M Hertzog; Du Plessis, Die Goue Draad; O'Meara 1977 secondary literature compilation 1930s-1970s Supply narrative evidence and figures (e.g. 1 094 civil servants quit the Bond, 807 returned) for the pre-1948 history.
Immigration figures and fertility study cited in Broederbond circulars (1960 census figures; immigrant statistics 1966-67; March 1974 immigration report) official statistical series 1951-1974 Show the Broederbond's demographic worries over Afrikaner/English ratios and Catholic immigration.

New data

Appendices 1 and 2 list roughly 4,000 Broederbond members (name, age, address or workplace, occupation, year of joining, previous branch), compiled from the leaked documents. The Preface says about 3,000 of 12,000 members had been identified by early 1978; a further 1,000 names were added in the second edition.

Inference

Quantification: Descriptive tables.

Investigative journalism: narrative and documentary exposition quoting leaked internal circulars, annual reports and congress speeches, combined with press reports, parliamentary debates and secondary histories. Influence is inferred from membership overlap between the Executive Council, Cabinet, state corporations and institutions, and from matching between Broederbond recommendations and subsequent government action. There is no systematic sampling, comparison or statistical testing.

Key claims

Claim Basis Strength
The Broederbond effectively controls the South African government; every Prime Minister since 1948 and nearly all Cabinet members were members. (p. 3) Membership numbers from leaked lists, Executive Council circulars, and Klopper's and Verwoerd's own statements. Partial data
The Broederbond engineered the 1938 symbolic oxwagon trek and the unity and mineworker takeover that made the 1948 National Party victory possible. (p. 108) Press reports, the Broederbond's own account in Our Task in the Constitutional Field, Naude's book on Hertzog and the mineworkers, and De Klerk. Illustrative or anecdotal
After 1948 the Broederbond removed officials such as General Poole, Marshall Clark and Gideon Roos to install its own members in the defence force, the railways and the SABC. (p. 119) Hansard, Rand Daily Mail, Sunday Times and Star reports, and a Senate debate of June 1950. Illustrative or anecdotal
The Broederbond was decisive in the 1960 republic referendum, which it financed and canvassed for, after Verwoerd consulted it in 1959. (p. 137) Meyer's 1968 chairman's address, Verwoerd's letter read to the 1960 Bondsraad, and the referendum results. Partial data
The government's White Paper on the Theron Commission closely followed the Broederbond's secret comments, and the new constitutional plan bears its stamp. (p. 168) Comparison of the leaked Broederbond comment document with the White Paper, and circulars 5/76/77 and 7/77/78. Partial data
Broederbond backing for the Federal Coloured Peoples' Party in 1969 and 1975 breached the 1968 non-interference law and failed electorally. (p. 165) Serfontein's Sunday Times exposé, special circulars of 1968-69, and published election returns. Partial data
The Broederbond helped hold the Afrikaner camp behind Vorster during the HNP split; 8 859 of 9 027 members signed the anti-HNP pledge. (p. 190) Circulars, correspondence of dissidents, Executive report of April 1973 and the 1970 election result. Partial data

The author's caveats

The authors say the secret documents are only partly disclosed in the newspaper series and that this book completes the picture. They admit some members cannot be verified (e.g. 'There is every likelihood that Dr L A P A Munnik... is a member, although this has not been established beyond all doubt'). The evidence behind some claims cannot be revealed because it 'would lead straight back to one of our confidential sources'. Their copy of the Broederbond response to the Theron report is 'an abridged version'. Laws restrict disclosure on BOSS.

Gaps in the evidence

The central causal claim, that the Broederbond governs South Africa, rests on membership overlap and the Bond's own boastful rhetoric, with no test of whether members acted as a bloc or whether policy would differ without it. Missing are systematic membership data for the whole organisation, minutes of Cabinet or party caucuses, and independent archival confirmation. The economic dimension (Afrikaner capital, state corporations) is asserted rather than quantified; ownership, employment and appointment records could now be matched against the lists. Some of this was inaccessible in 1978 but can now be checked in state and party archives.

Replicability: Data poorly documented.