Leader Coen Vermaak Founded 30 September 1986 | Founder Robert van Tonder | |
The Boerstaat Party (English: Boer State Party) is a right wing South African political party founded on 30 September 1986 by the late Robert van Tonder. It was never officially registered as a political party because it was unable to rally 500 persons under one roof, a requirement under South African electoral law for official political party status. It was never represented in the South African Parliament, neither in the apartheid era nor after democratization. In 1989, it joined the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) in declaring support for Jaap Marais, the leader of the Herstigte Nasionale Party and has worked with the HNP on occasion since. The party was a charter member of the Afrikaner Volksfront coalition group. It has also operated with the paramilitary group, the Boere Weerstandsbeweging (Boer Resistance Movement) led by Andrew Ford.
The BSP were the third group in South Africa to openly advocate the restoration of the South African Republic and the Orange Free State and call for the secession of these territories from the Union of South Africa. Other groups advocated this notion in the past, with the Maritz Rebellion of 1914 and the Ossewa Brandwag of the 1940s being the most notable . This policy was later taken on board by the AWB and other rightist movements. The BSP further argued that the Boer citizens of these nineteenth century republics should be considered as a distinct nation from the Afrikaners, known as a Boerestaat.
The BSP has been noted for adopting controversial views on AIDS and came out in support of the views on the subject expressed by Thabo Mbeki. The party has also taken an active role in ensuring that the Voortrekker Monument is cared for, with current leader Coen Vermaak a leading advocate in this campaign.
Coen Vermaak has become noted for his controversial statements, arguing that it is official policy to drive white people to extinction through the widespread availability of contraceptives whilst he has further argued that 'I am convinced the abortion law is aimed at getting rid of white babies'. Vermaak has also claimed that AIDS was a hoax designed to promote the use of condoms among whites, claiming that 'no Boer [Afrikaner] ever had Aids. It doesn't exist. It's the biggest scam that can take place'.
Whilst the party does not actively call for voting rights to be restricted to whites only, it firmly rejects the post-apartheid doctrine of universal suffrage. For Vermaak, it is ridiculous that a doctor and a vagrant should have an equal say in how the country is governed. He has argued that 'any logical person should understand [that] some people's votes should count more than others'.