South African Patriot

South African Patriot was a far-right apartheid supporting journal founded in 1980 by the Durban-based 'White Rhino Club'. Its initial nominal editor was an expatriate Ulster Loyalist by the name of John Hiddleston, but he disappeared from the scene in 1981, allegedly taking all of the magazine's financial assets with him. Financial support was then forthcoming from the far-right Herstigte Nasionale Party (HNP) and the magazine was quickly re-established under an editorial triumvirate consisting of Michiel Falck, a leading Afrikaner official of the HNP in Durban, Alan Harvey, an expatriate former member of the British National Front and former leading member of the National Party of the UK (NPUK) and John Samuel (aka Leon van Wyk), another expatriate Ulster Loyalist and former member of the NPUK.

Allegations of Extremism

"Independent" journalist Johann Hari [http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=w070416&s=hariroberts041707]has publicly condemned SA Patriot editor Alan Harvey in The New Republic Online as "a former member of the neo-fascist National Front" who "claims nonwhite people in apartheid South Africa were 'very happy, and not in the slightest oppressed.' Hari observed that the Springbok Club. a group associated with SA Patriot and of which Harvey is organiser, has been accused by the British High Commission in South Africa of spreading "hate literature."

Policy stance

Although By Nature far-right in outlook, the fact that it had became financially beholden to the HNP severely damaged the magazine's standing, and it lost significant support (particularly among English-speaking South Africans) upon the foundation of the Conservative Party of South Africa (CP) in 1982. The magazine was forced to push the line of the HNP, which caused particular problems regarding the matter of White unity, which the magazine instinctively advocated strongly. It took a non-compromising stance on the policy of racial segregation (apartheid) and maintained a global outlook, establishing a network of contacts with other patriotic organisations around the Western world. Through SA Patriot Harvey sold some copies of the magazines of the League of St. George and the UK National Front. He was also for many years a distributor in South Africa of the journals of the Holocaust-denying Institute for Historical Review.

Harvey also used to write regularly for the National Front newspapers under the pseudonym John Humphries.

Discontinuation

Following the 1987 South African General Election the HNP ceased all financial support for the magazine, and it was not able to be published again in South Africa (although a desk-top published replacement publication, 'Patriotic Press's South African Newsletter', briefly appeared to take its place).

Re-launch

Following the handover of power in South Africa to the ANC most of those involved with the magazine (1) returned to the UK where, with the aid of financial backing from several of its British subscribers, it was relaunched during the early 1990s in the form of South African Patriot in Exile under the sole editorship of Alan Harvey. It is still published to this day, although publication has recently only taken place on an annual basis (i.e: one 'magazine' per annum).

Connections

Shortly after its re-launch S.A.Patriot-in-Exile was instrumental in re-founding the 'White Rhino Club' in the UK, an organisation which subsequently merged with the 'Rhodesian Forum' to form the Springbok Club, a tiny private group run by Alan Harvey who remains the only editor it has ever had in its present form.

Sources

Web-site : http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~springbk/patriot.html

South African Patriot, editions 1 to 29

South African Patriot-in-Exile, editions 30 to 36

Patriotic Press's South African Newsletter, editions 1 to 8

The New Republic Online "Rule Britannia by Johann Hari & Andrew Roberts post date 04.17.07