Black spectators gathered outside the Pretoria Supreme Court yesterday laughed, cheered and raised defiant fists when they learnt that mass murderer and self-styled “king of the Wit Wolwe” Barend Strydom had been sentenced to death. The atmosphere was electric as hundreds of people waited for the sentence, amid a heavy police presence.
Mr Justice Harms, sitting with two assessors, said the court found that there were no extenuating circumstances. He sentenced Strydom to death on eight counts of murder and imposed a further-effective 30-year jail sentence for additional offences of attempted murder and pointing a firearm. In a bloody rampage last November, Strydom shot dead seven people, including an 80-year-old woman. The previous week, he shot two women in the Weiler’s Farm squatter camp near De Deur, killing one of them. Strydom, who has appeared cheerful throughout the 11-day trial and who waved to relatives and friends from the dock before sentencing, blushed and looked grave-faced when the death sentence was passed.
“Mass murder or racial murder will not be tolerated by this court,” Justice Harms said before passing sentence. He said Strydom had planned the killings carefully. The judge said Strydom’s actions were “worse than those of terrorists”, in that he had been prepared to shoot people while laughing in their faces, rather than leaving bombs behind. The murders had been unfeeling and cold-blooded, and of such a nature that the judge said had not previously encountered. Strydom had been strongly influenced by his father, but had gone on to form his own opinions.
The judge said the Pretoria killings had been meant as a propaganda exercise, to frighten members of the African National Congress . Many crimes had been committed under the banner of Christianity, the judge said, but to use God as an accomplice to murder was not acceptable. As a “modem assassin”, Strydom was a danger to the community, Justice Harms added. He had testified that if he were released he would repeat his actions. A vengeful feeling pervaded the crowd outside the court.
Before the sentence was known, one of Strydom’s victims, John Sibiya, who was shot in both arms, said he still could not express his anger. “They should treat him like he treated us. Simply kill him and nothing else, “he said. A white woman bearing a placard with the slogan “murderers do it from the gallows” on one side and “exterminate the Kappie Kommando, the AWB, the Wit Wolwe” on the other, was hurriedly whisked by police into the court buildings, away from public view.
A close friend of the popular Indian trader, Satat Carrim, whom Strydom killed inside his shop, summed up the general reaction to the death sentence. “Perfect. Well judged. We are satisfied now,” he said. Another black spectator jokingly suggested hosting a huge braai at Strydom Square m central Pretoria, the scene of the killings. “Go and tell everyone that we black people are happy now. We’re going to celebrate tonight.” Few of those interviewed by the Weekly Mail outside the courtroom believe Strydom is mad – most perceived his actions as blatantly political.
Said a man known only as Solomon: “Strydom is in his right mind. He talks straight when he says he doesn’t like blacks. It is apartheid, not madness.” Some of the whites interviewed had a rather different perspective – they considered Strydom a volksheld (people’s hero) and martyr to the Afrikaner nationalist cause.
Trudie Rautenbach and her daughter ‘ Karen, who describe themselves as extreme right-wingers, see Strydom as a latter-day Jopie Fourie. “We will build a monument for him when we get our Boer Republic. We are in a state of war. Whites are being murdered daily by blacks; it is in their nature to do so. We will not allow the government to push blacks down our throats.”
This article originally appeared in the Weekly Mail.