Boeremag member tells of campaign to start revolution

Report by Sapa

Pretoria – A SERIES of bomb explosions at a bridge in Soweto and “heathen” mosques and temples were aimed at creating a climate for a Boeremag revolution, a self-confessed Boeremag coup plotter told the Pretoria High Court yesterday.

Former Bela-Bela farmer Deon Crous was testifying in the trial of 22 alleged Boeremag members – who have pleaded not guilty to charges including high treason, murder, sabotage, terrorism and manufacturing and possession of explosives and firearms.

Crous told the court that he and five of the Boeremag triallists – Herman van Rooyen, Rudi Gouws and the Pretorius brothers Johan, Kobus and Wilhelm – had planned to murder former president Nelson Mandela. There was also talk of hijacking vehicles and shooting people on the streets.

Crous said he had begun having doubts while they were planning the Soweto bombings, but alleged Boeremag commander Herman van Rooyen had told him he could not withdraw and said they were not doing it for themselves, but for the “Boer nation”.

He showed Crous a sketch of his plans for a revolution, which would be triggered by the bombings in Soweto which, Van Rooyen said, would cause blacks to murder whites and to rebel against the ANC government because they would not be able to catch the Boeremag bombers.

This in turn, Van Rooyen claimed, would result in white policemen and farmers supporting the Boeremag’s war against the government.

Crous testified that Kobus Pretorius and Van Rooyen had mapped out and planned the Soweto bombings in detail and had drawn up an hour-to-hour plan of their movements leading up to the bombings.

Pretorius had drawn a sketch to show him exactly where he had to plant a bomb on a bridge in Soweto. The actual moments when the bombs would go off early on November 30, 2002, were indicated with the word “POP” on their planning sheet.

He said the bombs had exploded later than planned because they had had transport problems and were waiting for rain – as they knew the police helicopters would not fly and there would be fewer people on the streets.

He said that in October 2002 two of the accused had taken a rubbish bag full of explosives to a Boeremag supporter known as “Oom Velle”, to blow up the Buddhist temple in Bronkhorstspruit, regarded as a “heathen” place.

A mosque in Soweto was also a “heathen” target.

Crous caused laughter in the court with testimony about a late-night conversation with Kobus Pretorius, who told him the apartheid government had once shot down a strange aircraft and found “small men” (seemingly space aliens) walking around when they went to investigate the crash site.

“He was quite serious and I rather believed him. He said he had read about it in Revelations in the Bible,” Crous said.

Pretorius also told Crous a “white woman” had been trained to murder Mandela and on the night of the funeral the Witwatersrand would be cordoned off and blacks in taxis would start murdering whites.

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