OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday
EUGENE Terre’Blanche, the firebrand leader of the far-right Afrikaner Resistance Movement (AWB) who was jailed six months ago for assaulting a black man, is likely to be freed on bail as early as Monday.
Terre’Blanche was granted bail of R5000 rand by a Pretoria High Court judge on Thursday pending the outcome of his appeal gainst a separate conviction for attempted murder.
The neo-Nazi leader is presently serving a one-year prison sentence for assaulting a petrol attendant in 1996 at the town of Ventersdorp, the AWB’s headquarters in North-West province.
He is due to be released on parole on Monday.
In 1997 Terre’Blanche was sentenced to one year for the assault and to six years for the attempted murder of a former employee, Paul Motshabi, who sustained severe brain injuries after Terre’Blanche beat him repeatedly on the head with a lead pipe.
Both sentences were to run concurrently.
His appeal on the attempted murder charge is not expected to be heard in the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein until next year.
Terre’Blanche was a full-time farmer before he became the leader of the white-supremacist AWB, which was founded in 1973 and tried to destabilise South Africa’s first all-race elections in 1994.
The Chief Magistrate of Potchefstroom, Des Humpell, on Monday amended a warrant of detention as Terre’blanche could not be released on parole after his earlier bail of R20000 was returned to him.
The state did not oppose Thursday’s application.