Kommandos of the Ku Klux Klan

This article is about the far-right terrorist organization, and should not be confused with the SADF's commando (Afrikaans: "kommando") units.

The Kommandos of the Ku Klux Klan (known locally as the Kommandos and less often as the Klan or KKK) is a ultra-right racist secret society and terrorist organization operating mainly throughout the Union of South African States and more particularly in South Africa. Founded in 1992 in opposition to the National Party's watering-down of Apartheid, the Kommandos have engaged in political assassinations and terror activities not only aimed at anti-Apartheid black South Africans, but also against white South Africans deemed to be traitors to the cause of a fully-white South Africa. It is one of the most active, prominent, and extremist members of the Klan International.

The Kommandos were formed as a result of a merger between the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging, the Kommandokorps, and the remnants of the South African National Front. The merger was brokered by representatives of the KKK from the United States, who were dismayed at the inevitably of South Africa abandoning its Apartheid policy. To the remnants of the once-powerful American KKK, Apartheid South Africa was the last remaining hope of white supremacy. As a result, the Kommandos' American benefactors provided handsome financial assistance that propelled the fledgling far-right South African movement to prominence.

The Kommandos often claim credit for being instrumental in 1994 coup d'etat that saw the Conservative Party taking over the South African government and averting the end of Apartheid. The Conservatives, however, have consistently denied any involvement of the Klan, and have gone as far as to classify the organization as domestic terrorists. The official Conservative position on the Klan, according to an official party spokesman, is that "[the Klan] have a perverse conception of our race relations policy. They wish for whites to govern all of Southern Africa; we wish for each ethnic group to have independence within their own territory and on their own affairs. We want peaceful cooperation and engagement between races while retaining the identity and rights of each group. The Kommandos want constant strife between the races with a view to eventual white domination over all." The Volkswag has similarly distanced itself from the Kommandos, describing them as "fundamentally anti-Christian, anti-Afrikaner, and, morally, anti-white". The Volkswag has asserted that the Klan is fundamentally at odds with the Western civilization that whites had brought to Africa, and that their actions can only hope to discredit the idea of white custodianship in Southern Africa. The South African Family Council has referred to the Klan as "genocidal maniacs" who should "not claim to speak for the white way of life."

Unlike the Volkswag, the Kommandos are not necessarily an Afrikaner or Afrikaans nationalist group, but claims to represent all white South Africans.

As a result of its classification as a domestic terror group, the Kommandos operate mostly in secret, although it is often said to be an open secret that some prominent South Africans are members of the Klan. Klan gatherings are also often featured in the media, with often-lackluster responses from the government. Leftist and liberal South African groups like the Suzman Institute and the Progressive Party have, as a result, labeled the government as complicit in the activities of the Klan. More moderate analysts, on the other hand, have speculated that the government might fear that taking a too heavy-handed approach to the Kommandos might lead to an intra-white civil war in South Africa.

The New National Party has cautiously and mutely indicated its support for the Klan, and it is suspected that many NNP members play leadership roles in the Klan. The precursor to the NNP, the Reconstituted National Party, had maintained a close relationship with the National Front before the latter's demise in the early 1980s.

The success of the Kommandos provided direct impetus for the international revival of the Ku Klux Klan movement, especially in the United States. But whereas the United States was once seen as the traditional home of the KKK, Southern Africa is increasingly starting to take over that position. As such, the Kommandos was a founding member of the Klan International in 2006.