Former state president PW Botha had advised a right-wing coup plotter to leave politics and ”get a movement with an iron fist”, the Boeremag treason trial heard on Thursday.
Botha told him that white South Africans faced obliteration, plotter turned State witness Lourens du Plessis told the Pretoria High Court.
”I asked him for advice on what we as young people can do to ensure our continued existence. He said to get out of politics and get a movement with an iron fist.”
Du Plessis was giving evidence in the trial of 22 alleged members of the right-wing Boeremag organisation charged with plotting to overthrow the African National Congress-led government.
He said he and a friend visited Botha at his home Die Anker at Wilderness in the Western Cape in June 2001 to test his views on the political situation in the country at the time, and to get advice.
The two-hour-long talks were also attended by Botha’s wife Barbara and the former stateman’s financial adviser.
”I asked him how he viewed the position of whites in South Africa. He answered that whites were staring annihilation in the face, Du Plessis testified.
Botha also told him that his successor, FW de Klerk, had sold out the country.
When he asked Botha to explain this statement, Botha said he had been offered $2-million by an organisation like the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to ease the transition to a new South Africa, Du Plessis said.
”I asked him, Oom PW what was your answer? He said he told them: ‘I will not sell out my volk or my country’.”
Du Plessis also named Transvaal Agricultural Union (TAU) general manager Bennie van Zyl and vice-president Willie Lewies in testimony about a range of meetings held to discuss the coup plot.
He told the court Van Zyl had organised a gathering in Limpopo in mid-2001 where he (Du Plessis) ”tested the waters” on a military coup. Also present were Lewies, a former defence force group commander Frans Gunther, and Boeremag accused ”Rooikoos” du Plessis.
Gunther shot down the idea as unworkable, and the discussions shifted to farm security and the situation white South Africans found themselves in.
At a subsequent meeting in Pretoria to discuss the ”coup idea”, he overheard Van Zyl telling alleged Boeremag leader Mike du Toit ”you have made much progress”, Du Plessis testified.
He also gave evidence about the printing of fake money to finance the coup d’etat. He had given Gunther a fake R100 note from a total stash of R100 000 at the Pretoria meeting for him to ”see what he can do with it”.
”The thinking was that if he was successful, half of the funds could be used for the TAU.”
Du Plessis said he had given a certain Roy Smith R130 000 for the production of fake money — of which he got back R100 000 in false notes.
He also testified that he had made contact with leaders of the Portuguese community in South Africa, and that they supported the plans.
Du Plessis was arrested in connection with the coup plot in August 2002 but charges were conditionally withdrawn in return for his testimony.
The 22 men in the dock face 42 charges ranging from treason and terrorism to murder, attempted murder and the illegal possession of arms, ammunition and explosives. – Sapa