The Boeremag wanted to throw poisoned oranges in the streets of Soweto as part of its strategy to create chaos in the country, the Pretoria High Court heard on Wednesday.
Free State potato farmer Henk van Zyl testified about events leading up to “Operation Popeye”, which would have served as a trigger for a Boeremag plan to take over the government and kill or chase the country’s black population into neighbouring countries.
He told the court the Boeremag’s “chaplain”, “Oom Vis” Visagie, had been tasked with distributing the poisoned oranges in Soweto in the hope that people would die or become ill, in the process creating chaos.
Although 21 men, an armoured truck, a mobile hospital, an ambulance and various vehicles were ready for the operation on September 13 2002, Popeye was abandoned when it became clear the police knew of it.
Van Zyl and several other Boeremag members, including Boeremag leaders Tom Vorster and Dirk Hanekom, were already on the run from police at that stage.
He is the third witness to testify for the state in the trial of 22 Boeremag members, who have denied guilt on 42 charges ranging from high treason to terrorism and murder.
Coup planned carefully
Van Zyl testified that Vorster had planned the coup carefully. Several buildings, including Parliament in Cape Town, the Johannesburg International airport and the JSE Securities Exchange had been identified as targets for bombs, which would have been built into rented cars.
This would have been followed by the Boeremag taking over various military bases and radio stations, declaring a military take-over and forming a new government after all blacks and Indians in the country had been chased out or killed.
The planning for the run-up to the coup included blowing up a fuel pipeline in the Drakensberg to leave Gauteng without fuel.
Vorster also wanted one of the men to burn down a kraal of Inkatha Freedom Party supporters in KwaZulu-Natal “so that the IFP and ANC [African National Congress] would tackle each other”.
Van Zyl painted a chilling picture of the small group of men who gathered at a farm near Marble Hall shortly before September 13.
He said they counted the thousands of rounds of ammunition and large number of weapons they had with them, fine-tuned detonators for bombs, filled cool-drink bottles with petrol to add to the explosives prepared in drums by one of the accused, Kobus Pretorius, and filled beer bottles with petrol and rags to make petrol bombs.
Vorster addressed the men, saying they were being sought by the police and there was no turning back. The group left in a convoy planning to drive to a rented warehouse in Alexandra, where the bombs would have been put into rented cars and driven to their destinations.
Van Zyl, who originally had to plant a bomb at Johannesburg International airport, was later told to drive a bomb to the Vereeniging taxi rank instead. He also had to take over a rural radio station, from where he would have announced the take-over. The others had not yet been assigned their targets.
Police lie in wait
Van Zyl said he prayed and asked God to let their plans succeed if it was His will, but to stop the whole operation immediately if it was not. Shortly thereafter Hanekom got a message that the police were already waiting for them.
The group then decided to stop the operation and drove to a nearby farm, where Vorster told them he would re-plan everything before leading them in prayer.
Van Zyl said he told the group he thought they were not doing God’s will and said it was not feasible to chase 40-million people out of the country.
After hiding the homemade bombs and some of the ammunition on the farm of one of the Boeremag members, the group split up.
According to Van Zyl, he and Dirk Hanekom at one stage decided that Vorster was a traitor and not a man of his word. They were unhappy because Vorster had declared himself “the general” before Operation Popeye started.
Van Zyl and Hanekom contacted an attorney after hearing that another of the accused, Dr Lets Pretorius, had been arrested. They had decided that it was “time to get out” and wanted to see if something could not be arranged with the state.
They were hiding on a farm and were still waiting for the outcome of their advocate’s negotiations with the state when they were arrested.
The trial continues. — Sapa
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