Umhlali school stabbing: Teen’s Vryburger Beweging links raise questions over radicalisation

The teenager accused of stabbing a six-year-old girl at a local school on October 13, in an attack he allegedly intended to escalate into a mass shooting, had applied to join the far-right Vryburger Beweging in December 2025.

His application was rejected two months later because of ideological differences, according to the organisation.

Former classmates described the 16-year-old as a staunch supporter of Nazism and Adolf Hitler. A manifesto attributed to him, obtained by the Courier, describes Hitler as a hero, while photographs from his social media accounts show him wearing a Nazi-style cap bearing Nazi insignia.

Two manifestos published on Telegram and attributed to the teenager outline plans for violence linked to the alleged Ballito mall bomb plot in March and the October 13 school attack.

The second, titled “Mass school shooting ig lol”, suggests he intended to emulate the 2022 Uvalde school shooting in Texas, in which 19 children and two teachers were killed.

In it, he refers to his involvement with the Vryburger Beweging.

“I want to also mention my service I did back in 2025. Die Vryburger Beweging, a neo-Nazi Afrikaans militia I served in,” he wrote.

The teenager also claimed to have attended a December 16 demonstration in Pretoria, where he was photographed holding the movement’s flag.

The organisation confirmed his attendance but said the demonstration lasted less than an hour. It denied that he received any training or participated in other activities during his probationary period.

“There are also no physical or ideological training programmes to become a Vryburger. The teen did not undergo any training or attend any programmes during his probationary period,” it said.

The organisation condemned the alleged crimes and said his application was rejected after members discovered his interest in Satanism, which conflicted with its Christian values.

Questions over radicalisation
Retired Colonel Tollie Vreugdenburg, former national head of counter-terrorism at the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, questioned the organisation’s account.

He doubted the teenager would have travelled from Durban to Pretoria solely for a one-hour demonstration.

“How did they monitor him to find out that he follows other religions and groups? All of this can only happen if they are in close proximity to each other on a regular basis, like at a camp or something similar,” he said.

Vreugdenburg warned that there were multiple extremist movements in the country that exploit fears of racial conflict to recruit young people. For example, “Night of the Long Knives”, sometimes referred to as “Uhuru” in extremist conspiracy narratives, which predicts widespread racial violence against white South Africans.

He said some groups invoked these conspiracy narratives and used paramilitary-style youth camps to prepare recruits for violence, drawing comparisons with Nazi Germany’s Hitler Youth.

Vreugdenburg also drew parallels between extremist groups invoking Afrikaner nationalism and organisations such as ISIS and al-Qaeda, arguing that they exploit religious and cultural identities to promote radical ideologies