Kritzinger: It's notwrong to kill blacks

2003-05-02 12:24

Pretoria - De Wet Kritzinger told the High Court here on Friday he did not believe it was wrong to kill black people.

He said his attack on a bus in January 2000 in which he shot dead three black people and wounded four more was partially motivated by the fact that his ex-wife wanted to remarry.

That would be a sin, according to him.

Prosecutor Helen van Jaarsveld asked him whether the Bible did not forbid the killing of people as well.

"According to the Bible, I may not kill my fellow men ("naaste" in Afrikaans). Black people are not my fellow men."

He said he did not regard the word "kaffir" as derogatory. When he grew up on a Free State farm, black people used it to describe themselves.

"I respect people's feelings. I have never told a black person: 'You are a kaffir.' "

He said he would never use the word if someone would regard it as an insult. According to Kritzinger, the word meant "heathen".

Quoted from the Bible

Israel had a fighter aircraft with that name, and nobody complained about that, he said.

Kritzinger was convicted on Wednesday of the murder of bus driver Mduduzi Graeme Nyembe and passengers Thembekile Constance Phasha and Gogo Connie Mathebula in Constantia Park on January 12, 2000.

He was also convicted on four attempted murder charges.

Kritzinger took the stand on Friday to testify in mitigation of sentence.

He carried a Bible - the old Afrikaans translation - from which he quoted frequently during his testimony.

This included a passage from Jesaiah, which he said was a message to his nation that they were also to blame for farm attacks, because they did not obey Father - the term he used to describe God.

Kritzinger said he would not use the Afrikaans word "Here" (Lord) because it was equivalent to "Baal" - the Hebrew name given to various deities in pre-Christian times.

The trial continues.

- SAPA