Barend Hendrik Strydom was born on July 15, 1965, in Weenen, Natal, South Africa to Nic (Nicolaas) Strydom, an ex-policeman and an unknown mother.
His father, Nic Strydom was a former regional leader for the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB).
Strydom practiced karate during his childhood. When Strydom was around 18 months old, his mother committed suicide. Strydom, who was alone with his mother, was found with blue strangulation marks on his neck and witnessed his mother raising the gun to her head and pulling the trigger. Strydom was told she died in a revolver accident, so that was what he believed until after the shooting.
From his mid-teens, when he was around 16, Strydom became active in the white nationalist scene (Herstigte Nasionale Party, Conservative Party, AWB, etc.), envisioning an all-white Afrikaner nation (Volkstaat.) These views were encouraged by his father.
As a result of his political involvement and dedication to these groups, his school work had suffered and his marks became deteriorated.
Strydom joined the South African Police. During his time in the Police, Strydom was stationed at Nigel. On one occasion he saw the corpse of a white nurse who had been killed during a riot. This made a marked impression on him and heightened his militant views.
By November of 1988 he saw himself as a soldier for the cause. He pushed himself as the leader of the so called Wit Wolwe ("White Wolves") and claimed membership in the AWB, although police later suggested the "White Wolves" might have been largely his own fictious, not real creation.
"Blacks are not human beings according to the Bible, and many books I have read, and in my eyes they are animals."
His father would later claim proudly in court that he had "planted the seeds" of right wing political views in his son's heart.
He did not have a history of mental illness.
1 week before the attack, Strydom visited the Voortrekker Monument to pray and reenact the Blood River vow.
The same night, he drove to Wheelers Farm squatter camp at De Deur near Vereeniging, where he pounded on a shack belonging to Lizabeth Tsotetsi and demanded to know who lived there. Then he forced Tsotetsi and her friend, Martha Motsekili, to lie down on their stomachs and shot them. He killed Motsekili, but Tsotetsi managed to escape, jumped over a barbed wire fence and hid in a dog kennel until Strydom left.
He said it was a practice run, to see if he was mentally and physically capable of shooting people. After the crime, he camped on a farm at Heidelberg where he prayed and meditated for two days. He did this, he said, to see if God was happy with his plan or not. "I got no sign to indicate I must not carry on", he added.
I won't SPECIFICALLY go into the shooting itself, because I'm scared. But here's something I found interesting.
"At this point, Simon Mukondoleli, a 32 year old Taxi driver, who had followed Strydom into the shop pretending to be a customer, walked up and tapped him on the shoulder. Excuse me baas, but that baas is calling you, he said. (Baas, meaning "boss″ in Afrikaans, was used by blacks as an obedient way of referring to whites.)
When Strydom looked around, Mr Mukondoleli snatched the gun from the counter and pointed it at him. Strydom raised his hands. "You've got me", he said. The two men then walked out into the street together where several policemen arrested Strydom."
During his trial Strydom joked, laughed and justified his actions in court, for example, he told the court "I see what I did as totally correct" and said that "If I had to do it again I would do the same thing."
He did not cooperate with the proceedings of the Pretoria Magistrate's Court when he was first brought to face charges "until all the kaffirs are removed" from the room. On 17 May 1989, Judge Louis Harms found Strydom guilty on all counts.
On 25 May 1989 Justice Harms sentenced Strydom to death, eight death sentences (one for each murder count). South Africa never executed Strydom. In February 1990 the apartheid government imposed a moratorium on all capital punishment, so his sentence was basically commuted to life in prison.
A few years later, as apartheid fell, Strydom was released. The new president F.W. de Klerk freed many political prisoners in 1992, Strydom was included as one of about 150 such prisoners
After the democratic 1994 elections he applied for and was granted a political amnesty for the massacre.
On leaving prison, he was already married to another rightwinger Karin Rautenbach.
He remained connected with far-right circles. In 2004 he appeared as a defense witness in the Pretoria "Boeremag" treason trial.
A photo of him in his youth.
Another photo of Barend in court.
Misc. photos.
My personal favorite. Shown at the front.
Thank you for reading. I do not condone or support ANYTHING mentioned in post. This is simply an archival effort of mine, and I take interest in this topic. Love all.
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