He was severely emaciated and dehydrated, had brain damage, a broken arm and bruises, and cigarette burns all over his body. His mother was told that the chances of him surviving were �virtually zero�. He died two weeks later.
�I sent my son on this course to make him a better man, to give him a better future,� Wilma Buys told The Daily Telegraph. �I trusted Alex de Koker with his life.�
Stamp bearing the symbol of the "Iron Guard" over a green cross that stood for one of its humanitarian ventures
Historian
Stanley G. Payne writes in his study of Fascism, "The Legion was arguably the most unusual mass movement of interwar Europe."
[4] The Legion contrasted with most other European fascist movements of the period in its overt religiosity (in the form of an embrace of the
Romanian Orthodox religion). According to Ioanid, the Legion "willingly inserted strong elements of Orthodox Christianity into its political doctrine to the point of becoming one of the rare modern European political movements with a religious ideological structure." The movement's leader, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, was a religious mystic who aimed at a spiritual resurrection for the nation.
[4] According to Codreanu's heterodox philosophy, human life was a sinful, violent political war, which would ultimately be transcended by the spiritual nation. In this schema, the Legionnaire might have to perform fanatical and violent actions that would condemn him to
damnation, which was considered the ultimate sacrifice for the nation.
[4] Like many other fascist movements, the Legion called for a revolutionary "new man". As for economics, there was no straightforward program, but the Legion generally promoted the idea of a communal or national economy, rejecting capitalism as overly
materialistic.
[4] The movement considered its main enemies to be present political leaders and the Jews.
Two other boys also died at the camp four years earlier. One of them, 18-year-old Eric Calitz, tried to leave the camp. De Koker told him that he wasn’t “a moffie [gay] and he would make a man out of him.” Calitz died, and his family was told it was due to a heart attack. But “doctors said the cause of death was from a seizure, dehydration and found bleeding from the brain,” according to the Gay Star News.
The teen’s death is alleged to have been the third among the Afrikaans children who attended the R22,000 ($2,400, €1,900) courses, which have been advertized since 2006.
In 2009, De Koker was handed a suspended sentence over Calitz but escaped charges for the death of Van Der Walt, and the camp was allowed to continue.
Both De Koker and Erasmus have pleaded not guilty to the charges. The case continues.
...Ronge wants to sue Alex de Koker (left), who runs the controversial ‘game-warden training camp’ where 15-year-old Raymond Buys emerged in such emaciated, abused condition that he died in a Vereeniging hospital on Wednesday, April 21 2011.
Apr 20, 2011 – In 2007, Eric Calitz, 18, and Nicolaas van der Walt, 19, also died. Alex de Koker and two assistants were arrested for these days, and released ...
"Alex (de Koker) told him (Calitz) that he wasn't a moffie (gay) and he would make a man out of him."
Groenewald said her brother was a "miracle baby" who was born three months premature, died in the incubator and was brought back to life. This, unfortunately, had left him brain damaged and he never finished school. She recalled that the only jobs her brother could keep were basic security guard ones where he would earn about R1,500 a month. According to Groenewald, Van der Walt could afford the camp entrance fee of R10,000 -- but her brother could not. He arranged to work off the debt and signed a two-year contract. He had been lured in by their brother Brian Calitz, 31, who was working as an instructor in the camp. Brian is now co-operating with the police. "When they went to the camp, their cellphones were confiscated. He just disappeared," Groenewald said.
Calitz is among the three deceased teens. Another deceased teen, Van Der Walt, was initially reported to have died from a heart attack, but doctors later said that the teen had appeared to have been choked with a seatbelt and yet, in 2009, De Koker was only handed a suspended sentence over Calitz but escaped charges for the death of Van Der Walt, and the camp was allowed to continue operating.
Reparative therapy, also known as Conversion therapy has been reported to have devastating affects on ‘patients.’
This week, during the trial of the two men at Vereeneging District Court, a boy who shared a tent with Mr Buys sobbed as he recalled how recruits carried out manual labour including cutting grass with machetes and stacking stones to build a dam.
Gerhard Oosthuizen, 19, said Mr Buys was chained to his bed after he tried to escape and, forbidden from going to the bathroom, repeatedly soiled himself, according to a report in Beeld newspaper.
He was said to have told the court that on one occasion, when Mr Buys went to the toilet in a field while the recruits worked, he was forced to eat his own faeces.
On another, Mr Oosthuizen said, after Mr Buys tipped over a container of washing powder, he was forced to eat what he had spilled and vomited foam.
He said Mr Buys was beaten with planks, sticks and plastic pipes when he failed to work, the paper reported.
He was said to have claimed that he had once seen Mr Buys in a hut at the camp with a pillowcase over his head, being shocked with a stun gun by Mr de Koker and Mr Erasmus.
"He screamed ... I was scared and ran away,"
His death is alleged to have been the third among the mainly Afrikaans children who attended the R22,000 (£1,500) courses run by Mr de Koker, who was reportedly a member of murdered white supremacist Eugene Terreblanche's Iron Guards movement.
In 2007, 25-year-old Erich Calitz died from severe brain injuries, according to Afrikaans newspaper Rapport. The same year, 19-year-old Nicholas van der Walt died at the same training camp being run in Swartruggens in the Northwest province.
Mr Calitz's sister Mathilda Groenwald told Johannesburg's Star newspaper that her brother was slightly brain-damaged and struggled to hold down jobs. She told the paper he was beaten when he asked to quit the camp, adding: "Alex (de Koker) told him that he wasn't gay and he would make a man out of him".
Mr de Koker was handed a suspended sentence in 2009 over Mr Calitz's death but escaped charges for Mr van der Walt's death, which was ruled to have been caused by a heart attack.
Mrs Buys said her son had been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and was struggling at school. The course had been recommended to her by a friend. When she went to see Mr de Koker, he told her he could help her son find a job in the wildlife trade.
She said that her son started the course on January 12, 2011. Over the next two months, she said, she spoke to Mr Buys just three times - and was told by Mr de Koker that he was self-harming.
"Raymond was only allowed to speak to me on speakerphone," she said. "When I asked him why he was hurting himself, he told me 'Mum, I'm not doing it to myself'."
Mr de Koker rang Mrs Buys on March 23 to say her son had been admitted to hospital for tests. When she arrived, she found that he was dying.
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