User talk:105.228.30.65

Kobus Jonker's task force was both very real and very necessary at the time. Certainly one of the world's most unique police units, its existence, however, was not merely based on a response to the country's spiritual, psychological and emotional upheaval during - and after - the transitional De Klerk/Mandela era.

The unit had a place that was not just focused on Christian paranoia. Post-'94, South Africans were free to practice any belief. Belonging to the Church of Satan was/is no longer a crime - and yet, atrocities were - and still are being perpetrated by believers/practitioners. The Post-Apartheid dispensation recognised the right (but not necessarily what transpires during the 'rite') to practice any religion.

As a journalist and TV producer, I interviewed the very charismatic 'God's Detective', Kobus Jonker, in the late '90s, and, after considerable research into South African hot-beds of Satanism, spent some time with him. What he shared with me and my cameraman over just a few days was repulsive ... and disturbingly real. (In his office were unspeakable Satantic 'souvenirs' he had been sent: a sealed child's coffin, filled with semen and menstrual blood, inter alia!) I could tell you about desecrated gravestones, mutilated live animals, and so much more...

Many years before I met Jonker, I first became aware (in fact, it was common knowledge amongst the occult cognoscenti) that there were several Church of Satan cells/covens in South Africa. The three most significant ones were in Port Elizabeth, Bloemfontein and Pretoria, but the seemingly benign, middle-class seaside suburb of Fish Hoek in the Cape Peninsula was another little cauldron. Needless to say, all these areas are (and were) known to be populated by strongly right wing, staunchly Christian, Afrikaners, or, in the case of Fish Hoek, expat Rhodesians.

We were given to believe, via excellent sources, that 'Head Office' had moved to Pretoria by the time we did the story in the late '90s.

One of the things I will never forget about my time investigating this was the realisation (an epiphany) that, in order to believe in Satan as one's deity, one has to first be a hardcore Christian. It's obvious on reflection. To believe in the power of 'Satan', one must invert one's Christian belief to worship the opposite, which is a religion that celebrates the 'Anti-Christ'. After all, only if you invest the notion of 'Christ' with power, can you invoke the power of the 'Other'.

Old-Testament-based, ultra-conservative Afrikaans culture is often characterised by racism, patriarchy and misogyny, inter alia. For disillusioned young people/misfits raised in this culture, who have been taught that their "Lord" is a stern and angry Father-God, sinners go to Hell, and the (blue-eyed) Christ is their Saviour, Satanism is the ultimate form of rebellion.

However, these gauche, destructive, maladjusted and ignorant children (who are, most often, the ones caught perpetrating hideous things), are not the main players.

In truth, real practicing Satanists are usually highly intellectual, productive and sophisticated members of society. They could be your bank managers, IT specialists, realtors and politicians... (One very significant Parliamentarian and Diplomat during the Apartheid era was alleged to be a prominent member of 'The Brotherhood Of The Ram'. Footage exists.)

In closing, it's crucial to understand that there is a very clear difference between Paganism and Satanism. This can be easily confused, because of the horned goat image that has been used for centuries to represent evil/'The Devil'. So-called 'Paganism', from which this visual image originates, is a pre-Christian belief and therefore has no possible connection with Satanism.

The now-frightening visage (with its negative associations perpetrated by the media) is/was an attempt by the early Church, in its striving for converts, to abolish ancient beliefs influenced by elemental nature (e.g. Pan/The Green Man/God of the Hunt), which were previously revered as nature deities.

In closing, there will always be those who, for whatever reason, prefer to channel the darker forces, but remember that 'Satanism', per se, never existed before Christianity.

The Church of Satan was formed by Anton LaVey in California, in 1966. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_LaVey.