Jeugkrag

Jeugkrag (or "Youth for South Africa") was a short-lived South African youth group, surreptitiously funded by the apartheid government's department of Military Intelligence in an operation known as Project Essay. Led by Marthinus van Schalkwyk (ironically now member of parliament for the ANC) it operated exclusively on Afrikaans university campuses and sought to influence the political views of Afrikaans-speaking students. [Citation |title=Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa Report, Volume 2, |pages=256 |year=2003 |accessdate=2007-05-21] [Citation
title = FW's heir was MI agent
newspaper =Mail & Guardian
pages =
year =1997
date =29 August 1997
url =http://www.mg.co.za/articledirect.aspx?articleid=212507&area=%2farchives%2farchives__online_edition%2f] [Citation
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title = NP `moet Van Schalkwyk se Jeugkrag-dae ondersoek
newspaper =Beeld
pages =12
year =1997
date =19 September 1997
url = http://152.111.1.251/argief/berigte/beeld/1997/09/19/12/15.html]

Van Schalkwyk was the national chairman. He was supported between 1987 and July 1988 by Cedric de Coning who was both Director of Fund Raising and Publicity Secretary.

Putatively aimed at bringing together youth from different ethnic and ideological backgrounds, [Citation | title =Jeugkrag ontbind oor 'n paar maande | newspaper = Beeld | pages =11 | year =1991 | date =23 Julie 1991 | url =http://152.111.1.251/argief/berigte/beeld/1991/07/23/11/1.html ] Jeugkrag was a transparent effort to supplant the process of youth dialogue originally started by the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA), an NGO founded at the end of 1986 by the liberal ex-parliamentarians Frederik van Zyl Slabbert and Alex Boraine [cite web | title = How did Idasa start | url =http://www.idasa.org.za | format =html| accessdate =2007-05-29 ] with funding from donors such as the Open Society Foundation [cite web | title =Donors | url =http://www.idasa.org.za | format =html| accessdate =2007-05-29] and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). [cite web | title =Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA) | date = | url =http://www.sdc.org.za/en/Home/Completed_Projects/Governance_Archives/Institute_for_Democracy_in_South_Africa_IDASA | format =html| accessdate =2007-05-29] Slabbert and Boraine, who had decamped in frustration from the tricameral parliament, [Citation | last = Walker | first =Julie | title = Slabbert gets down to some real business | newspaper =Sunday Times | year =1998 | url =http://www.btimes.co.za/98/1108/newsm/newsm.htm ] were part of the white group that held ground breaking discussions with ANC delegates at the historical Dakar meeting. [Citation | last =Uys | first =Gerhard | title = Waansin in woestyn | newspaper =Beeld | pages =17 | year =2005 | date =15 December 2005 | url = http://152.111.1.251/argief/berigte/beeld/2005/12/15/B1/17/01.html] They were vilified by PW Botha who called them ‘political terrorists’. [Citation | last =Morris | first =Michael | title =Every step of the way: The journey to freedom in South Africa | place=Pretoria | publisher =HSRC PRESS | year =2004 | url =http://www.hsrcpress.ac.za/download.asp?filename=1967_11_Every_Step_of_the_Way~29112004121510PM.pdf] . Peter Mokaba, an ANC leader that Jeugkrag had engaged, would later comment: At the time although we knew that Jeugkrag was not an independent organization, but part of the heart and soul of the National Party, it was our policy to discuss matters with both progressive and reactionary organizations [Citation | last = Kruger | first = Peet | title = Van Schalkwyk `te jonk', maar dalk juis 'n bate, glo hy | newspaper =Beeld | year =1997 | date =13 September 1997 | url = http://152.111.1.251/argief/berigte/beeld/1997/09/13/7/4.html ] .

In 1990 en route to a meeting in Botswana, a 12-person Jeugkrag delegation was detained by police at the Monomotapa Hotel in Harare, Zimbabwe. They were questioned about a meeting that they had attended with members of the Zimbabwe Unity Movement (ZUM), a marginal political group opposed to Robert Mugabe’s government. [Citation
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title = Jeugkrag se 12 nóg in duister
newspaper =Beeld
pages =
year =1990
date =10 July 1990
url =http://152.111.1.251/argief/berigte/beeld/1990/07/10/12/6.html ] The delegation consisted exclusively of representatives from Afrikaans-language universities including the Rand Afrikaans University, Stellenbosch University, and the University of Pretoria.

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