The leader of the youth wing of the Bittereinders, Francois van der Merwe, has been arrested for aiding and abetting a foreigner to flee South Africa illegally.

Van der Merwe had allegedly tried to assist a Beninese man and his son to flee South Africa illegally. The trio appeared in court earlier this week, having been arrested in Pretoria last week.

The Bittereinders are a right-wing Afrikaner separatist movement named for the Boer guerillas who fought on to the bitter end in the 1899-1902 Anglo-Boer War, even after the British Empire had captured the Boer Republics’ major cities and won the conventional phase of the war.

Van der Merwe had allegedly been involved in a plot to smuggle Kémi Séba, a 45-year-old Beninese man, and his son out of South Africa. Séba is wanted in Benin for his alleged involvement in an attempted coup. He is something of an agent provocateur in his home country, with Séba’s attorney saying he is the “Julius Malema of Benin”.

Séba has links to the ruling Nigerien military junta and has gained prominence for his support of Russian activities in Africa and opposition to the West, in particular France. He also has links to antisemitic organisations and “black power” groups in the United States, including the New Black Panther Party and the Nation of Islam. He was funded by the former leader of the Russian Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, whose plane was brought down over Russia in 2023. Although Séba was born in France he was stripped of his French citizenship in 2024, because of his anti-French actions and rhetoric.

According to their attorney, Séba and his son are in South Africa legally, having travelled on legitimately issued Nigerien diplomatic passports. However, South African state prosecutors say that this is not the case, with the two Beninese being charged for being in South Africa illegally and Van der Merwe being charged for assisting them.

Van der Merwe was allegedly given R250 000 by the Russian security agency, the Federal Security Service (FSB), to smuggle Séba and his son into Zimbabwe, where they would be taken to Niger. Van der Merwe could face charges of money laundering due to the payment.

Marius Roodt, deputy editor of The Common Sense, said that the collaboration between Séba and Van der Merwe, two people who are ostensibly on opposite side of the ideological spectrum, showed that extremist organisations are often not organic, but arise because nefarious global elements are attempting to sow discord.

“Van der Merwe, who is ostensibly an Afrikaner nationalist and presumably someone who would push for Western interests in Africa, is helping Séba, a person whose life’s work seems to be the exact opposite and who has links to black supremacist groups, who presumably dislike white people. However, Séba and Van der Merwe have worked together to break the law in South Africa, with the assistance of foreign intelligence agencies,” Roodt said.

“It stretches credulity that Van der Merwe and Séba would in any normal situation be allies, or even acquaintances. Why would an Afrikaner nationalist give assistance to a black nationalist who hates the West? It seems more likely that the two are simply pawns in a bigger game, a game which neither fully understands.”

“Van der Merwe’s actions must also raise eyebrows about his organisation, the Bittereinders. Are they truly an organic movement that has arisen because there is a push by ordinary Afrikaners for such a movement, or is it a movement that exists to sow division and discord? There is considerable reason to believe that extremist groups on the left and the right are artificial constructs designed to undermine the internal stability of the countries in which they operate,” Roodt concluded.