Torch Commando

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The Torch Commando was a South African anti-apartheid organisation,

born out of the work of the Springbok Legion, a South African organisation
of World War II veterans,[1] founded in 1941 during the Second World War,
and the War Veterans Action Committee established with the involvement of
Springbok Legionnaires to appeal to a broader base of ex-servicemen.

Torch Commando

Formation 1951

Origins Springbok Legion

President Sailor Malan

It was underwritten by Harry Oppenheimer, through an opaque trust fund.[2]

The Springbok Legion was initially formed by members of the 9th Recce
Battalion of the South African Tank Corps, the Soldiers Interests Committee
formed by members of the First South African Brigade in Addis Ababa, and
the Union of Soldiers formed by the same brigade in Egypt.

The aims and objectives of the Springbok Legion were enunciated in its
'Soldiers Manifesto'. The Springbok Legion was open to all servicemen
regardless of race or gender and was avowedly anti-fascist and anti-racist.
Amongst its leading members were servicemen such as Joe Slovo, Lionel
Bernstein, Wolfie Kodesh, Jack Hodgson and Fred Carneson who all later
joined the African National Congress and its military wing Umkhonto we
Sizwe under the command of Nelson Mandela. Others such as Harry
Schwarz, a later well-known anti-apartheid political leader, lawyer and
ambassador to the United States during the government of national unity
was one of the organisation's founders. Another member was General
Kenneth van der Spuy, one of the founding members of the South African
Air Force who fought in both World War I and World War II and was captured
and imprisoned in the Kremlin by the Russians after fighting alongside the
White Russian forces against the communists and held until 1920.

The Torch Commando was founded in 1951 during the Coloured vote
constitutional crisis, in protest against the South African government's plan
to remove Coloureds from the voters roll in the Cape Province. At a time
when the Springbok Legion's numbers were diminishing, the Torch
Commando strategy gave a new lease of life to the aims and objectives of
the Springbok Legion, perceived as being too left wing by some, and gave a
home to whites in other liberal formations including liberals in the United
Party, who identified with black grievances.

The wartime RAF fighter ace Group Captain Adolph Sailor Malan became the
president of the 'Torch Commando'. The commando's main activities were
torchlight marches, from which they took their name. The largest march
attracted 75,000 protesters.

The Torch Commando existed for more than five years, and at its height
claimed to have had 250,000 members. The government was alarmed by
the number of judges, public servants and military officers joining the
organisation, and a new law was passed to ban anyone in public service or
the military from joining. Subsequently the National Party did everything to
purge the memory of the Springbok Legion, Torch Commando and men
such as 'Sailor' Malan, who had appeal with white Afrikaner youth.

References

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Last edited 23 days ago by Thumperward

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