In the local grapevine (don’t believe everything they say; best is to believe nothing 😉 ) we picked up the rumour that there are quite a few free masons in the village and that those are fore-standing members of the Dutch Reformed Church. The different symbols on the tombstones in the local cemetery would proof that. So I went to the three cemeteries and checked these out thoroughly. Most free masonry symbols are based on biblical ones like the Jacobs Ladder but the ‘compass and square’ is THE ‘brand’ of the free masons. I could not discover these on any of the stones. But another much used symbol drew my attention; the handshake. There are about 20 tombstones on graves of man or on graves with couples but of which the man passed away first (Free Masonry is ‘for males only’). And that is all?

Looking into Wikipedia it seems that the ‘Afrikaner Broederbond’ has some similarities with the ‘free masons’:

“The Afrikaner Broederbond (AB) (meaning Afrikaner Brotherhood) or Broederbond was a secret, exclusively male and Afrikaner Calvinist organisation in South Africa dedicated to the advancement of Afrikaner interests. It was founded by H. J. Klopper, H. W. van der Merwe, D. H. C. du Plessis and Rev. Jozua Naudé^[1] in 1918 and was known as Jong Zuid Afrika (Young South Africa) until 1920, when it became the Broederbond.^[2][3] Its large influence within South African political and social life, sometimes compared to that of Masons in Freemason conspiracy theories, came to a climax with the rise of apartheid, which was largely designed and implemented by Broederbond members. Between 1948 and 1994, many prominent figures of South African political life, including all leaders of the government, were members of the Afrikaner Broederbond.^[2]“

There is no substantial proof that members of the Broederbond also were free masons. Officially the Dutch Reformed Church has condemned free masonry as has the Roman Catholic Church but than the Vatican also had ties with the Italian mafia …