The South African teenager was 15 when he was enrolled in a training camp that claimed to ‘make men out of boys’. Was the resurgence of the far right to blame for his death?

In their final family photograph, Raymond Buys looks as awkward as any 15-year-old boy standing next to his mother. He’s nearly 6ft tall and the harsh South African sun glints off his newly cropped blond hair. Despite the heat, he wears teen regulation black. Soon he’ll be in khaki.

Wilna Buys pulls her son close, knowing there are only minutes before she must send him through the gates behind them into Echo Wild Game Rangers camp. An electric fence almost seems to buzz in the background. Giant fake tusks guard the gates, giving the impression of a mouth. Raymond narrows his eyes, maybe at the sun, maybe at the man taking the picture – Gys Nezar, his mother’s boyfriend. Nobody smiles for the camera.

It is 12 January 2011. This place is supposed to be a fresh start. Raymond, who was diagnosed with learning difficulties, aged nine, has been removed from yet another school. Wilna can’t cope, the family is fracturing. Gys found the camp, run by Alex de Koker, a former soldier known as “the General” who promises to “make men out of boys”. Gys trusts him. Wilna just wants everyone to get along. Raymond has no choice.

Three months later, on 20 April, Raymond will be pronounced dead by doctors so traumatised by his injuries they require counselling. When he is admitted to hospital, Wilna does not recognise her son: he is skeletal and has more than 60 separate injuries including a broken arm, broken ribs and chemical and electrical burns. The tips of his ears are missing and his hair has been scoured off. His kidneys are failing and his brain is damaged. He never regains consciousness. During the subsequent trial, which runs from 2012 to 2015, Wilna is vilified on social media and forced to relocate.

This is the story of how Raymond ended up at those gates and what happened inside Echo Wild Game Rangers camp. Of the General, and a network of secret training camps linked to the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) – a white, neo-Nazi paramilitary group arming itself for war in South Africa. And of how Britain’s actions in South Africa over a century ago – sparking the Boer wars, then “concentrating” a whole nation into hellish camps – sowed the seeds of hate greedily harvested by far-right groups today. These are the camps Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Conservative MP, recently defended on BBC Question Time, trumpeting: “You’ve got to understand the history.” Indeed, you have. Especially if you want to stop it repeating itself.

***

I first read about Raymond in a British newspaper article; other coverage suggested he was gay and that Echo was a conversion therapy camp. In the picture at the gates he looks just like a long-lost pal of mine, a boy who came to my primary school in Scotland in 1985 from South Africa. My pal went back after a year and we lost touch. It wasn’t him in the picture, of course. But I couldn’t stop thinking about what had happened to this boy who looked so much like him.

As I followed the case, it threw up more questions than answers. Was Raymond a normal teenager or a lawless reprobate, as some claimed? Was Echo a conversion therapy camp, a paramilitary training facility or a legitimate business? Who was the General? And what mother sends her son to a place like that? Most coverage was in Afrikaans, and in a country besieged by violence even a case as appalling as Raymond’s soon stopped being reported. The search for answers would eventually take me to South Africa, to Wilna, and to those gates.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Raymond Buys was born in the mining town of Boksburg. Photograph: Courtesy of Wilna Buys

Raymond Buys was born in the mining town of Boksburg, not far from Johannesburg, on 2 June 1995 – the year after Mandela was elected president. “Ray was always a good boy,” says Wilna, unable to look up from the baby picture she holds. “His father wasn’t around. But we did OK. I know I wasn’t always a good mother but I did my best. I should never have sent him there. I have to live with that.”

Her thoughts tumble out with her tears. Now 43, she has a soft, almost girlish voice. I spent three days talking to her and Gys, mainly at their home, a modest bungalow in a gated development in Johannesburg. Wilna is an administrator in a steelworks. She never really knew her father and her mother married four times. “I wanted a more stable life for me and my boy,” she says. “For the first nine years, it was just us.” Then she met Gys, 49, a car salesman who, like all Afrikaner men his age, had done national service. Afrikaans is the couple’s first language. They chatter back and forth in it but answer me in English. Yes is always “ja”.

“It was hard for Ray at first,” says Wilna, tears getting the better of her mascara. “But eventually they got along.” The arrival of a brother, Little Gys, helped. “Gys spoiled us. We used to struggle but he got Ray cricket stuff, rugby kit, all these expensive things. But Ray always lost interest.”

“We couldn’t keep him in school,” says Gys. “He kept running away or not turning up. We tried everything.”

I knew it would be tough but the army made a man out of me. That’s what I wanted for Raymond

At one stage Raymond was given Ritalin, but Wilna says he woudn’t take the pills. Just before secondary school, they sent him for private treatment. “Doctors attached electrodes to his brain and it worked for a while,” says Wilna.

Raymond attended at least three different schools and was often bullied. “One time someone held a knife to him. He soiled himself when he was stressed,” says Wilna. Just before his last school could expel him, Wilna took him out. “Then he was disruptive at home,” says Gys. “Disrespectful to me and his mother – smoking, swearing, always on his phone. We had to do something. It’s not like it used to be here [in South Africa], you can’t just walk into a job. It’s tough. Then I heard about this place, a buddy said it fixed his cousin’s boy. It was 22,000R (£1,200) for three months, so we had to get a loan, but at the end he gets a job.”

Gys passes me the contract from Echo Wild Game Rangers camp. “X Military Leaders” is emblazoned on the front and beneath a set of cross-hairs: “STRENG VERTROULIK – HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL”. It claims: “We instil: faith, discipline, rules and regulations, respect, hard work, hard education, tough physical exercise, bearing, literacy, numeracy, efficiency, reliability, team work, animal care and conservation and community defence.” After three months, the idea was that Raymond would go off to a safari job and start his new life.

Raymond with Alex de Koker in 2011. Photograph: Courtesy of Wilna Buys

Gys and Wilna visited the camp. It’s barely an hour from Johannesburg in Mooilande, which means Beautiful Land. It was beautiful once. Now it’s struggling smallholdings and former farms. “In the General’s study he had all these photos of himself,” says Wilna. “He was a big man, handsome, same age as Gys. He said he had trained over 300 boys and they had all got jobs, out in the country.” What jobs? “Like safari guides,” says Wilna, hopefully. “Now, I think maybe they were to be guards, for the farms,” admits Gys. “You know, all the farmers are being murdered.”

The “large-scale killing of farmers” in South Africa was highlighted by Donald Trump in an August 2018 tweet – his first since taking office to mention Africa at all. The contrarian former reality TV contestant, Katie Hopkins, hurried to South Africa later the same year to report on “anti-white racism” and was temporarily detained by police for “spreading racial hatred”. In 2017, Pieter Groenewald, leader of the Afrikaner party Freedom Front Plus, claimed the murder rate on white farms was 133 per 100,000 (the national average is 34.1). Africa Check, a non-profit that scrutinises such figures, disputes this. Their calculation, including all family members and smallholdings like the General’s, is 0.4 per 100,000. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate crimes, identifies the claim of a “genocide” of white farmers as “a lodestar for white supremacist groups at home and abroad”. De Koker sought to profit from these fears by turning vulnerable boys into armed guards employed by alarmed farmers.

Born in 1964, De Koker had done at least his two years’ compulsory national service in the apartheid-era South African Defence Force, but there is no record of him attaining a rank anywhere near general; afterwards he continued to wear the SADF uniform. Wilna says she did not recognise the black, white and red flag of the AWB in his study but Gys did. The AWB was founded by Eugène Terre’Blanche in 1973, to resurrect the lost Boer Republics as a whites-only homeland. Its logo resembles the swastika. The group, once disbanded, is resurfacing as part of a wider revival of the South African right. Gys also identified the man smiling in photos with the General as Terre’Blanche. “It didn’t trigger any alarms as such,” says Gys. “So what? He knew the man. It was well set up. I knew it would be tough but the army made a man out of me. That’s what I wanted for Raymond.”

More visible and vocal than the AWB, but avowedly “non-aggressive”, are the Suidlanders. Their spokesman, Simon Roche, says the group is now more than 130,000 strong and represents “the white people of South Africa who are presently being told that they can expect to see a genocide against them”. He portrays Afrikaners as victims-in-waiting and their trump card is a chapter of colonial history many in Britain remain ashamed to acknowledge.

The second Boer war (1899-1902) was the last fought on horseback, and made household names of Arthur Conan Doyle and Rudyard Kipling. Britain deployed nearly 500,000 soldiers against 50,000 fighters from the two Boer states, almost all farmers (“Boer” means farmer in Dutch). But Britain was losing, outwitted by new “commando” tactics. Faced with defeat, Lord Kitchener enforced “scorched earth”, torching 30,000 farms, ostensibly to cut off supplies. Salt was ploughed into the soil. Britain created a nation of refugees, mostly women and children, and then “concentrated” them into camps.

Bloemfontein was the first, and is now home to the Anglo-Boer War Museum. A wall inlaid with black marble slabs greets visitors. It’s inscribed with the 26,370 women and children who died in the 42 official white camps – there were at least as many official black camps, about which we know pitifully little. Nearly 80% of victims were children, so British propaganda portrayed Boer women as bad mothers. In an attempt to besmirch them, Conan Doyle published a photograph of a seven-year-old girl called Lizzie van Zyl. Even now it hurts to look at her. She appears ancient, her eyes sunk grave-deep in her skull. She holds her doll close. Lizzie died of typhoid on 9 May 1901, shortly after her picture was taken. She has no headstone; most bodies were buried in mass graves. Yet her face still stares out from Afrikaner nationalist sites, her suffering hijacked in a bid to portray Afrikaners as noble victims. The last Boers to surrender, the bittereinders, helped to form the government of the new Union of South Africa in 1910; they were the bedrock of the National Party on which apartheid was built. This bitterness has only grown in the post-apartheid era as stability and growth have collapsed. The Suidlanders say civil war is inevitable; men like the General believe they must prevent another Boer genocide. Raymond was to be an unwitting soldier in this war.

***

Wilna says Raymond was excited about attending the camp: “He loved animals and was going to learn scuba.” Bass Lake is less than an hour from the camp. On 12 January 2011, they dropped him at the gates. “They took our money and I think they already knew they were going to kill my boy.”

Warrant officer Cornell Fitzell, the detective who later built the case against the General, says the plot covered five acres and was built around a single-storey family home. “De Koker lived there with his wife and several children, including his oldest son, Anthony, who sometimes helped in the camp,” says Fitzell. “There were usually around six boys. No electricity, running water or toilets.”

The other boys picked on him and De Koker encouraged them and joined in – he was arrogant, a psychopath, but not stupid

The General did not tell Wilna and Gys about the two boys who had already died under his care at another camp in Swartruggens, a two-and-a-half hour drive north-west of Johannesburg. In 2007, 25-year-old Erich Calitz suffered brain injuries; Vereeniging regional court heard that he was “hit, burned and wounded”. Months later, 19-year-old Nicholas van der Walt collapsed there. According to Fitzell, De Koker reportedly told Calitz he wasn’t a “moffie – a faggot” and promised to “make a man out of him”. De Koker got a suspended sentence for Calitz but escaped charges for Van der Walt, whose death was attributed to a heart attack. He continued to raise his own children and was not banned from working with minors. Yet police concluded “the paramilitary-style training on this course was not normal ranger training”.

We can never know if Raymond or either of the other dead boys were gay, but they were clearly victims of homophobic violence. De Koker didn’t make men out of boys; he made corpses. “Raymond was the weakest in the pack,” says Fitzell. “He was shy and vulnerable. The other boys picked on him and De Koker encouraged them and joined in – he was arrogant, a psychopath, but not stupid. He could be charming.”

Days after dropping Raymond off, Wilna rang his mobile. There was no reply. No one answered at the camp either. “After a week I drove out there but the place was empty,” says Gys. “I thought they were on field exercises.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The former Echo Wild Game Rangers camp. ‘We closed that down,’ says the detective who built the case against De Koker, ‘but there are others.’ Photograph: Courtesy of Damian Barr

Around this time, Raymond escaped. One of De Koker’s neighbours returned him. On Valentine’s Day, the General appeared at Wilna’s home unannounced and told her Raymond was causing trouble and not eating. “I asked if we could stop the programme but he told me not to worry – he said he would ‘win’ Raymond,” she says. On 4 March, the General emailed Wilna pictures of Raymond in a wetsuit. “He looked so thin but I thought it was just the training,” says Wilna.

“Training is hard,” says Gys. “You lose weight and put on muscle. It’s not supposed to be easy.” Did Wilna know what she was sending her son to? “No,” she cries. “I love my son. I didn’t know what they would do to him. I have to live with this pain every day.”

After Wilna threatened to call the police, the General finally agreed to a conference call on 12 March. Wilna says: “De Koker told me Ray was hurting himself and Ray said, ‘Mum, I’m not.’” De Koker hung up. That was the last time Wilna heard her son’s voice.

***

Every general has his soldiers. Michael Casper Erasmus, born in 1993, was the General’s sergeant. Erasmus left school at 13 and ran away before being enrolled at Echo in 2010 by his parents at the age of 17. Vereeniging regional court heard that he escaped several times after De Koker physically assaulted him. Each time his parents brought him back. Erasmus lived rough for a month, becoming so desperate that he returned to the camp, where he was given food, shelter and a uniform. He said he was only following orders because he had nowhere else to go.

The court heard from other boys that Erasmus routinely beat Raymond for neglecting his duties. He reportedly forced Raymond to eat his own faeces, followed by soap powder. Three weeks in, Raymond tried to hang himself. After that, Erasmus chained him to his camp bed every night, supposedly to stop him trying again. On the morning of 24 March, Erasmus stripped Raymond then plunged him into a plastic barrel of water. The barrel’s edges were sharp and it’s likely these broke Raymond’s ribs. After this, he placed a pillowcase over Raymond’s head and the General, who had been standing by, kicked and Tasered him repeatedly. Erasmus then chained Raymond, unconscious, to the flagpole. When Erasmus couldn’t revive him, they drove him 20 minutes to the Mediclinic in Vereeniging. De Koker phoned Wilna telling her Raymond had been admitted “for tests and she shouldn’t worry”. She immediately drove to the hospital: “At first they wouldn’t let me see my son because De Koker told them I hurt him.”

Raymond Buys near the end of his life in the Mediclinic in Vereeniging, April 2011. Photograph: Courtesy of Wilna Buys

Hospital social workers contacted police, who raided the camp. De Koker went on the run for a week before turning himself in. The trial of De Koker and Erasmus started in 2012 and their case was heard by magistrate Retha Willemse. De Koker did all he could to delay proceedings, repeatedly changing lawyers and even, bizarrely, marrying his second wife in the courtroom. He denied hurting Raymond or ordering Erasmus to do so. He claimed Raymond burned himself with boiling water, cut himself with wires and refused food. He said Erasmus was a bully and that Raymond was mentally ill.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Alex de Koker in Vereeniging regional court, Johannesburg, 16 April 2015. He was sentenced to 20 years for murder and five for child abuse. Photograph: Foto24/Getty Images

After his arrest, De Koker released a statement on stormfront.org, one of the far-right forums highlighted by the charity Hope not Hate in the aftermath of the recent attack in New Zealand. De Koker claimed he provided “crucial services to protect the farmers’ community”. He claimed Raymond had been “cast away due to his rebellious nature, by his mother and her boyfriend, they dropped him off at the gate… They were willing to pay thousands of rand just to be rid of him. The young man’s behavioural deviations were noticed immediately.” What these “deviations” were was never made clear. At one point in the trial, De Koker even blamed his eldest son, Anthony, for Raymond’s death. Perhaps it was this that convinced Anthony, who along with his mother and sisters never faced any action by the court, to change his testimony and ultimately help to convict his father. On 16 April 2015, Willemse sentenced De Koker to 20 years for murder and five years for child abuse. Erasmus received a 12-year suspended sentence for murder. “He’s out now,” says Wilna. “That boy is walking about and my son is ashes.” De Koker maintains his innocence and continues to appeal, insisting his only crime was trusting Erasmus. “We maintain it’s in the public interest for De Koker to serve his full sentence,” says Fitzell.

***

I turned to see white trucks hurrying from either end of the dirt road. Clouds of red dust billowed round their tyres

I was determined to visit the place where Raymond was murdered. In October 2015, I set out with an experienced local media producer called Thula “Zee” Cube. Zee was nervous about driving me to such a deeply Afrikaner area. We got lost. None of the white people we stopped to ask for directions would speak to Zee because he is black. Everyone sent us the wrong way. By the time we got there, they knew we were coming.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The gates of Echo Wild Game Rangers camp in 2015. Photograph: Courtesy of Damian Barr

The gates looked the same as they do in the picture: the giant fake tusks and the electric fence. Eventually a truck appeared, surrounded by barking dogs. Two boys of about Raymond’s age got out, dressed in regular clothes. At first, they denied knowing De Koker; then they said he wasn’t there any more. Zee called me and I turned to see white trucks hurrying from either end of the dirt road. Clouds of red dust billowed round their tyres.

Each truck contained a man and a boy. All were white and wore khaki. They all carried guns – handguns and semi-automatics. I asked them the same questions: is this Alex de Koker’s house? What do you know about the boys who died here? “Alex is in a cell,” the oldest man said, his voice as flat as the veldt stretching to the horizon. “He’s painting the walls to look like this view. We’re keeping his place safe till he gets back.”

All the while, they tried to get between Zee and me. I kept moving so they couldn’t separate us. We got into our car, Zee’s hands shaking as he steered us back to the highway. We were followed all the way.

“We closed that camp down,” says Fitzell. “But there are others. De Koker has plenty of friends.”

On 8 May, South Africa goes to the polls and the ultra-left Economic Freedom Fighters look set to make gains. Land expropriation is their key policy. This perceived additional threat to white farmers and their land drives official parties like Freedom Front Plus, as well as groups like the Suidlanders and the AWB, who remain determined to take South Africa back to the time before the Boer wars were lost.

Wilna and Gys are no longer together. “We were getting married,” says Wilna. “It was going to be a surprise for Ray – he was going to give me away. Instead of a wedding we had a funeral. I don’t blame Gys for any of it. None of us knew.”

On 5 June, Raymond Buys would have been 24. “I’m going to scatter his ashes,” says Wilna. “It’s time. I want my boy to be free.”

• You Will Be Safe Here by Damian Barr (Bloomsbury Publishing, £16.99) is dedicated to Raymond Buys. To order a copy for £12.99, go to guardianbookshop.com. Free UK p&p on all online orders over £15.

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• This article was amended on 2 April 2019. An earlier version incorrectly stated that the Boer wars were no longer taught in British schools.