Sentence 'a warning to racists'

2003-05-02 20:21

Pretoria - The triple life sentence handed to Pretoria bus shooter De Wet Kritzinger should serve as a warning to all racists, the justice ministry said on Friday.

"The sentence will send a strong message to those who are still holding to the past, those with racist attitudes, that the criminal justice system will not tolerate their acts," spokesperson Paul Setsetse said.

He was reacting to the triple life sentence, plus 40 years' imprisonment, handed down in the Pretoria High Court to Kritzinger for the murder of three people on a bus in 2000 and the attempted murder of four more.

"Those who sympathise with him, who continue to support him, clearly demonstrated their racist attitude and the fact that despite the efforts of this government in reaching an amicable solution in as far as amnesty and reconciliation are concerned, they did not change."

'Wit Wolf' singled out

Setsetse specifically referred to Barend Strydom, who killed seven black people in 1989, after also murdering a black woman in 1988.

He was given the death sentence, but was freed from jail after four years under an agreement reached during the negotiations before 1994 about a new political order for the country.

Strydom, clad in khaki clothes, was in court every day since the start of Kritzinger's trial. After the sentence was handed down, he read from a statement of support for the man he called his "friend and comrade".

In his statement, on the letterhead of the Wit Wolwe, he said: "The Boer nation's enemies must realise that an attack on one Boer is experienced as an attack on the Boer nation."

The blame for retribution following farm attacks should be placed on the African National Congress government, the statement said.

"We believe there was a conscious effort by the State to efface the political and religious motive of De Wet Kritzinger's actions," it said.

"Every day in jail for De Wet and every other Boer prisoner of war is a day too many."

The sentence was a harsh, cruel and long one, Strydom said.

"The Vierkleur (the flag of the old Transvaal republic) will fly again! Then what happened here with our friend and comrade will be undone by means of an amnesty for all Boer prisoners of war through a legal Boer nation authority."

Wolf's support for Kritzinger 'disappointing'

Setsetse said: "We are actually disappointed by Barend Strydom who was released and who was granted amnesty in the name of reconciliation and nation-building that he could still follow around and support someone who has committed such a heinous crime, a crime of racism, such as Kritzinger."

Strydom's support for Kritzinger had shocked many people who felt that after having been granted amnesty, he would work towards peace and reconciliation, Setsetse said.

"His support for Kritzinger's satanic beliefs has clearly left many people shocked and the families of his (Strydom's) victims clearly disappointed in him."

Setsetse said Kritzinger was purely motivated by racism when he shot indiscriminately at the bus passengers, some of them women and some old enough to have been his grandmother.

"The sentence is to be welcomed indeed and the ministry wishes to congratulate the court, the prosecuting authority as well as the police for their sterling work in this case."

- SAPA