Eugene Terreblanche - my storie

Eugene Terre'Blanche - My Storie

by Amos van der Merwe, ISBN:9781920424107, R220.00

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Shortly after the recent murder of Eugene Terre’Blanche comes a book that presents, among other things, Terre’Blanche’s own version of the then much publicised and often disastrous events which he instigated as leader of the AWB. These included the Battle of Ventersdorp, the invasion of Mmabatho and the storming of the World Trade Centre during the constitutional negotiations.
Terre’Blanche believed himself to have been the victim of forces greater than himself and the AWB. Contemplating these – and other – events in prison, he came to the conclusion that, time and time again, he had fallen into the trap laid by the then NP government. He repeatedly explains these theories in some detail and with a fair amount of logic. Terre’Blanche also maintained that he had been jailed unfairly for assaulting a petrol attendant and intimated that he knew the identity of the actual culprit.
Dr Amos van der Merwe wrote the book with Terre’Blanche’s full co-operation in an autobiographical style: Terre’Blanche tells his story in his own ‘voice’, in the first person. For the first time he also lifts the lid on his life in prison – he tells of the fear, but also of the good relations with his fellow inmates, all of them black.
In addition to many of Terre’Blanche’s poems, the book also contains an abbreviated description of his childhood years, his service in the police force and his marriage, as well as a detailed perspective on his political convictions – far more moderate than what South Africans have come to expect of the militant resistance leader over the course of three decades. Much space is also devoted to his deepened Christian faith.
This book gives an unusual insight into the psyche of this controversial figure. It succeeds in exploring Terre’Blanche’s deeper motives and provides a fascinating perspective on one of South Africa’s most prominent figures.
Readers will be able to decide for themselves who Eugene Terre’Blanche really was and what he really stood for. Did he in the end fall foul of what he was warning us about? It remains an open question whether his new-found moderate views in some way actually led to his violent death. In his own words: “Do I have an opportunity to pave the way where others have failed?”
Eugene Terre’Blanche was ready for the press when the AWB leader was killed.