A terror campaign by white extremists has been seriously damaged after South African police arrested suspected ringleaders and foiled an attempt to detonate a car bomb, it was reported yesterday.
A pick-up truck packed with 384kg of explosives and two bags of nuts and bolts was allegedly intended for a crowd of mainly black people at a football match.
The shrapnel would have caused many casualties and provoked racial tension on the eve of this week’s African National Congress conference in Stellenbosch, an Afrikaner stronghold near Cape Town.
Security analysts had warned that a car bomb at a sporting event was the ”nightmare scenario” which would enable the Boeremag, a small group of rightwing militants, to destabilise the post-apartheid South Africa they despise.
The Rapport newspaper said the car bomb was intended to turn last Wednesday’s match between Kaizer Chiefs and Sundowns near Pretoria into an atrocity.
It was also reported that a second attack was planned for today, the anniversary of the Boers’ 1838 victory over the Zulus at Blood River.
The Boeremag launched its campaign with bombs in the township of Soweto in October, killing one woman, and promised to intensify attacks during the Christmas season. – Guardian Unlimited Â