/ 7 August 2008

Barend Strydom testifies in Boeremag trial

Strijdom Square shooter Barend Strydom told the Boeremag treason trial on Thursday that he still believed black people were not human.

He was called to the stand in defence of one of the 22 treason-trial accused, Adriaan (At) van Wyk.

Strydom was sentenced to death in 1989 for killing eight black people and wounding several others in a shooting spree at Pretoria’s then Strijdom Square.

He was granted amnesty and freed from jail after the 1994 elections.

Strydom on Thursday said he did not have a “great love for black people”.

Asked by prosecutor Paul Fick if he still believed black people were not human, as he had testified during his own trial, the greying Strydom replied: “My view is the same.”

Strydom was also questioned on an alleged Boeremag coup-plot document outlining plans to drive all black people out of the country and to restore the old Boer republics.

He said black people did not form part of the envisioned Boer republics, upon which one of the accused loudly said: “Blacks are not Boers.”

Strydom told the court he had first heard about a coup plot from JC Smit, a police spy who claimed to have infiltrated the Boeremag and later testified for the state.

He said he thought of reporting the plot to the prosecution, but in the end never did.

Strydom denied ever attending any meetings at which a coup was planned.

The trial of the 22 treason accused — who have pleaded not guilty to 42 charges including sabotage, murder and attempted murder — is expected to continue for years. — Sapa