Boeremag link to 'Suidlanders'?

2007-03-02 09:16

Johannesburg - Police are investigating possible links between the Boeremag, 23 of whose members are standing trial in Pretoria, and a far right-wing group called the "Suidlanders" (South landers), the Mail & Guardian Online reported on Friday.

The Suidlanders shot to public notice last week as the organisation behind the Nelson Mandela "hoax emails" feverishly circulated on the internet.

Claiming the authorities had covered up Mandela's death to avoid "mass hysteria", it called on Afrikaners to stockpile fuel and food and to assemble at certain points for their safety.

Police investigators working on the Boeremag treason trial said this week that the Soweto bombers currently on trial in Pretoria - Herman van Rooyen, the three Pretorius brothers and Rudi Gouws - referred to themselves as Suidlanders.

Documents found on Boeremag murder and treason accused Wilhelm Pretorius's computer link the name Suidlanders with the Boeremag. Among them was a Suidlander oath. And Nelson Mandela's death was central to the Boeremag apocalypse, which predicted a massacre of whites after his funeral and a right-wing coup.

State witnesses in the Boeremag trial have described the organisation's plans to stockpile fuel, weapons, ammunition, food and medicine and to create meeting points as a prelude to an uprising.

The emblem adopted by the Suidlanders, which appeared on their internet statement last week, is the same as that used by the Boeremag.

A police investigator said last week's scaremongering was taken seriously by law enforcers and a possible Boeremag connection was being investigated.

The Suidlanders alleged leader is Gustav Muller, who is known to see himself as the Joshua of the Afrikaner volk, appointed by God to lead it to freedom.

The group's spokesperson is Tanya du Preez, who in messages posted on the internet forum Boerevryheid.co.za signs herself Racheltjie de Beer - a famous Afrikaans folk heroine.

- SAPA