An alleged rightwinger accused of planning to blow up the Vaal Dam testified on Tuesday in the Bloemfontein Regional Court with his Bible at hand.
Leon Peacock (42) and former assistant sheriff of Parys in the northern Free State, regularly quoted from the small Bible while testifying in his defence.
He told Regional Court President WA du Plessis, who was presiding, that the prophesies of the book of Revelations in the Bible were similar to those of 19th century Boer prophet Siener van Rensburg.
One of Van Rensburg’s prophesies is about the so-called Night of Terror, which some right-wing groups believe will precipitate a rightwing coup d’etat in South Africa.
Peacock, who described himself as right-wing, testified on Tuesday that, according to his study of Van Rensburg’s prophesies, the first Night of Terror was supposed to have occurred in 1960. This never happened, but ”planning for it never stopped”.
Police informants earlier told the court in camera that Peacock and his co-accused had planned to blow up the Vaal Dam as well as the Grootdraai Dam near Standerton to cause anarchy that was to expedite the Night of Terror.
Peacock said on Tuesday that the Night of Terror was to start in Johannesburg, where streets would be blocked off and masses of people would storm down the streets, committing mass murder.
Peacock said he tried, in the end, to persuade his accomplices not to blow up the Vaal Dam. He said he was from the so-called ”Action Committee”, a representative body of right-wing organisations that was formed shortly before the 1994 elections.
Peacock said his group, the so-called southern group, seceded from the northern group in a later meeting at the Gariep Dam. The northern group now included the Boeremag, he said.
Peacock appeared with co-accused Alan Rautenbach (21) from Murraysburg in the Northern Cape, and Hercules Viljoen (52) the former chief sheriff of Parys, charged with sabotage and illegal possession of firearms and ammunition.
They were arrested in March 2002 on a smallholding near Parys. Eleven firearms and more than 4 000 cartridges were confiscated on the smallholding. Two undercover police informants earlier testified against them.
The three, allegedly followers of the Israel Vision sect, are in custody in the Grootvlei prison outside Bloemfontein.
The trial was to continue on Wednesday. – Sapa