A self-confessed Boeremag coup plotter told the Pretoria High Court on Monday he felt ”uncomfortable” with plans to annihilate the ”enemy”, who had been identified as all blacks, coloureds and Indians.
Deon Crous was testifying about alleged Boeremag members’ run from the police after an aborted operation that would have served as a trigger to create chaos in the country and take over the government.
Crous and several of the accused — including the Pretorius brothers Kobus, Wilhelm and Johan, Rudi Gouws, Herman van Rooyen and Braam van Leeuwen — had hidden in the bush on farms in the Nelspruit area for several weeks after the aborted operation in September 2002.
The group was heavily armed with R4 rifles, pistols, shotguns and ammunition, and local farmers supplied them with food and water.
While they were in hiding, the accused Johan Pretorius talked about shooting holes into electricity transformers, causing them to blow up and leave people without electricity.
Crous was against the plan because he said it would leave farmers without much-needed electricity, but Pretorius promised they would only cut the electricity to black townships.
Wilhelm Pretorius talked about using a sort of landmine to blow their way open in case they were caught in a police roadblock. He and his brother Kobus also talked a lot about the Bible and a vow they had taken.
According to the vow, the group would kill their enemies and destroy their possessions once God had given the enemy into their hands.
Alleged Boeremag leader Tom Vorster joined the group after three of the men left to do further reconnaissance work.
Vorster told them he had given instructions that the three should do reconnaissance of air-force bases where helicopters were stored.
He said the task force used helicopters and would have to go on foot if they [the Boeremag] blew up the helicopters.
He said if they saw President Thabo Mbeki’s aircraft at the Waterkloof base in Pretoria, they ”should blow it up as well”.
Van Leeuwen and Crous were not impressed with the plans to bomb air-force bases and feared they would be shot.
However, when they told Vorster they wanted to get out of the organisation he told them they could not leave without first talking to their commander, Herman van Rooyen.
He also told Van Leeuwen he would not be able to stay in South Africa because he was of Dutch descent.
The trial continues. — Sapa