Blacks to be 'chased to Zim'
2003-10-29 15:00
Pretoria - All blacks were to have been chased out of South Africa via the N1 highway under a plan allegedly drawn up by members of the rightwing Boeremag grouping, Pretoria High Court heard on Wednesday.
Black people would have been chased to Zimbabwe as part of the organisation's alleged plot to overthrow the government, according to police informer Johannes Coenraad Smit.
He was the first State witness to testify in the treason trial of 22 Boeremag members.
Smit said the coup plan made provision for the country's Indians to be chased to the KwaZulu-Natal coast via the N3 highway, from where they were to have been shipped to India.
Blacks and Indians who resisted the Boeremag's repatriation efforts would have been summarily shot.
These details were all contained in a document Smit claims to have received from accused No 1, Mike du Toit, in June 2001.
The plan provided for the destruction of the SABC, seen by the plotters as a propaganda tool for the government, taking over several military bases, and altering the machinery of the SA Mint to produce weapons rather than coins.
Witness warned he, too, could be charged
Smit testified on Wednesday how he pretended to plot with some of the accused, while he was all the time a police informer.
He was warned by Judge Eben Jordaan at the start of his testimony that he could be charged with the same crimes if he did not tell the truth.
Before being recruited by police, he was a member of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging's (AWB) military wing, the Ystergarde. He was involved in the AWB's 1993 violent storming of the World Trade Centre in Kempton Park, where pre-democracy talks were taking place.
Smit told the court that convicted extremists Barend Strydom and De Wet Kritzinger were named to him as among those behind the planned coup d'etat.
He also testified how several defence force bases were identified to help carry out the plot.
Heists for coup cash
To this end, discussions were apparently held with several commando leaders and generals, including former police general Lothar Neethling, he said.
Smit said various discussions were held around forming supportive shadow commandos within existing defence force commandos.
About 8 000 members were needed countrywide to carry out the plan.
Cash-in-transit heists were identified as one possible source of funding for the coup, Smit told the court.
The men face 42 charges ranging from murder and attempted murder to terrorism, treason and the illegal possession of arms, ammunition and explosives.
The trial continues.
- SAPA