Boeremag made it official
2003-11-04 15:02
Pretoria - A group of men allegedly planning a rightwing take-over of the government were given noms de guerre and military ranks and had to take an oath of loyalty, the Pretoria High Court heard on Tuesday.
At meetings, the men recited a rewritten version of the Blood River Covenant - according to which the Voortrekkers promised in 1838 to honour God by building a church if they were victorious in their war against the Zulus.
These formalities all formed part of meetings held early last year to plan the military coup d'etat, police informer Johannes Coenraad Smit told the court.
He testified that the group planned to blow up ten power stations in the execution of the coup. Two-hundred-and-forty time switches were to be built for this purpose.
This number was calculated on the basis that each power station had six outgoing lines - and that at least four masts on every line had to be destroyed, Smit said.
He told the court that plans for taking over defence force bases made no provision for taking prisoners.
"Everyone would have been summarily shot."
He was testifying in the treason trial of 22 alleged members of the rightwing Boeremag organisation charged with plotting to overthrow the government. He took part in the planning while all the time being a police spy.
Oath of loyalty
Smit told the court how one time each man present at a planning meeting was given a 9mm round to symbolise that traitors would be eliminated.
A farmer also donated 40ha of sunflowers to the group, which they had to harvest themselves before they could sell it. Another well-wisher gave the group 200 sheep.
Smit also testified about a bundle of documents distributed at one meeting to all Boeremag "commanders". They were given orders to cut out the papers and paste them in a so-called war book.
Among the documents handed out were copies of the biblical Psalms 20 and 23.
Also included were two versions of the oath of loyalty - one for the leaders and one for ordinary "soldiers" - the original Blood River covenant and the rewritten version, as well as a document entitled "Principles of warfare".
Complaints continue
Rudi Lubbe, representing Tom Vorster, threatened in the morning to withdraw from the case if the Legal Aid Board did not settle his accounts by 14:00. He told the court he had not been paid since the start of the trial.
If he withdrew, Lubbe pointed out, Vorster would refuse to continue standing his trial.
Vorster at this point jumped up in the dock and told Judge Eben Jordaan that he felt victimised by the state of affairs. The judge agreed that the situation was unacceptable.
There were also complaints on behalf of another accused, Andre du Toit, of police maltreatment in the transportation of prisoners to and from the court.
Louiza van der Walt, for Du Toit, told the court he hurt his arm on Monday when foot shackles hampered his attempts to climb into the police vehicle, and he was shoved in.
The trial was postponed to Wednesday morning for Smit's evidence to be finalised. The matter was then expected to be postponed to next week for cross-examination.
- SAPA