Two more men were arrested on Wednesday in connection with an alleged plot to overthrow the government, police reported. Detective services representative Phuti Setati said thus far 17 people had been arrested in connection with the coup plot by white extremists.
The two men arrested on Wednesday were a farmer from Bethal in Mpumalanga and a businessman from Bothaville in the northern Free State. They would appear in the Pretoria Regional Court on Friday.
Setati said the men were arrested after a lengthy, ongoing investigation and stressed they were not at this stage linked the Soweto bomb blasts which killed one woman and damaged a mosque and railway lines in the township early on Wednesday morning.
A detonator also exploded at a Buddhist temple outside Bronkhorstspruit, east of Pretoria. No arrests had yet been made in connection with those blasts by late Wednesday but the serious and violent crime unit and the crime intelligence unit were giving the investigation priority, Setati said.
Police are still searching for three men — Herman van Rooyen (28) from Bela Bela, Johann Pretorius (31)of Mogopane and a Pretoria man Thomas Vorster (51) — to question them in connection with the alleged rightwing plot.
Of the 15 who have already appeared court, four have been granted bail, while the others would remain in custody until their next appearance in May next year, Setati said. – Sapa