The Boeremag’s alleged plan to take over the country would have been financed by sheep, sunflowers, someone’s retirement package and the sale of bullets.
This is according to police spy Johan Smit, who claimed to have infiltrated the Boeremag’s inner circle while secretly reporting to the police.
Asked in cross-examination how on earth he thought one could carry out a wide-ranging plan to take over the country with so little money, Smit shrugged his shoulders and said one should ask alleged Boeremag leader Mike du Toit that question.
”Dirk Hanekom [one of the accused] told us about a certain Oom Jan from Bethlehem who said he would give us a field of sunflowers, but we had to harvest it ourselves. Another person in the Free State had offered to donate 200 sheep,” he said.
”There was also talk about how to generate funds by selling ammunition. Mike du Toit also generated funds through his retirement package. He gave certain persons R10 000 for planning and recruiting members.
”I did not do the planning. I did not draw up the plan. I don’t know how he [Mike du Toit] wanted to take over the country with sunflowers, sheep and his package. I can’t say what he was thinking,” Smit testified.
Counsel for Du Toit and Smit on Monday at times asked rather pointed questions about this so-called plan and even at one stage warned Smit not to become sarcastic or try to be ”funny”.
He said Du Toit would deny that a so-called coup plot had ever been discussed at any of the meetings testified about by Smit.
Smit conceded that the ”meetings” — many of them around braaivleis fires — were never formal and usually took the form of open discussions. But he remained adamant that a document setting out a detailed coup plan had been discussed at just about every one of those occasions, including a meeting at a striptease club in Pretoria.
Smit conceded that nothing concrete had ever been done and no absolute final acts of terror had been described in his presence.
He admitted that the meetings had just been ”a lot of talking”.
Smit said the visions of a number of seers had been discussed at various meetings, as had black-on-white attacks.
Different people had different explanations for the various prophesies; including a vision that blacks would attacks whites from the south. There were fears that the Americans or British could attack from Botswana after the coup to restore the government, he said.
The trial continues on Tuesday. — Sapa