Former State President PW Botha told a rightwing group planning a coup d’etat that elections were not the way of ensuring a future white government in South Africa, the Pretoria Regional Court heard on Thursday.
Testifying in the bail applications of three rightwingers facing charges of high treason and terrorism, Superintendent Louis Pretorius said one of them, Lourens du Plessis, was alleged to have quoted Botha at a meeting near Lichtenburg in July last year where the plot was discussed.
He allegedly told the gathering he had met Botha for advice as to whether a white government would ever return to South Africa.
”He explained that Botha said it was possible but definitely not through an election,” Pretorius told the court.
”He furthermore alleged that Botha said (his successor) FW de Klerk had more rightist leanings than himself but that he was bought during his term as president by, among others, America for several million rands, and that this was the reason why he sold out the country.”
Du Plessis is among 10 men arrested on suspicion of involvement in a rightwing plot to overthrow the government.
His bail application as well as those of Johan Herman Scheepers and Adriaan Jacobus van Wyk started on Wednesday.
The bail applications of Machiel Adriaan Burger, Pieter Gabriel van Deventer, Johannes Dion van den Heever and Jacques Olivier were postponed to Tuesday next week.
Three more — Michael and Andre du Toit and Jacobus Christoffel du Plessis – were expected to reapply for bail later on Tuesday. They were denied bail earlier this year. They were arrested in April and the other seven earlier this month.
Pretorius also testified that Du Plessis was alleged to have told the same meeting that the planned coup had the support of the Portuguese community in South Africa.
”He said he had a meeting with them, that they are supporting him, and that they would be prepared to mobilise people from within their ranks,” he told the court.
Du Plessis is furthermore alleged to have been involved in soliciting support for the coup from the Transvaal Agricultural Union, the court heard.
The plan was discussed openly with TAU representatives ”who allegedly said they were interested”, Pretorius testified.
He said he received information that the TAU said it had a problem with the part of the plan dealing with chasing blacks out of the country, as it believed this was not feasible.
”They (the TAU) said they wanted to study the document, whereafter another meeting would be held,” Pretorius told the court.
”They also indicated that they were lightyears behind the planning of Mike’s (du Toit) group.”
The men are alleged to have been involved in a plot to topple the government and help some high-profile prisoners escape.
They were allegedly planning to stage jailbreaks for former Vlakplaas commander Eugene de Kock, former Pretoria Boer Commando leader Willem Ratte as well as the killers of SA Communist Party leader Chris Hani –Clive Derby-Lewis and Janusz Walus.
The charges against them also relate to an alleged plan to destroy the state’s computer network and to plant viruses to cripple the government’s technology capacity.
The group allegedly planned to destroy military installations, ”take out” the Cabinet, and chase all blacks out of the country.
The court heard on Thursday that the plan, outlined in ”Document 12”, was divided into five phases. The first was organisational, while the second was aimed at ”creating chaos to ensure freedom of movement”
Phase three was described as ”D-Day”, while phase four comprised taking over ”secondary targets”, chasing blacks out of the country, and taking over the ”Northern Transvaal”.
The final phase would see the creation of a new government.
The court on Thursday heard evidence of several shady meetings where issues on the agenda included raising money for bomb parts and sabotaging the country’s electricity system. – Sapa