A series of bomb blasts at a bridge in Soweto and ”heathen” mosques and temples were aimed at creating a climate for a Boeremag revolution, a self-confessed Boeremag coup plotter told the Pretoria High Court on Wednesday.
Former Bela-Bela farmer Deon Crous was testifying in the trial of 22 alleged Boeremag members — who have pleaded not guilty to charges including high treason, murder, sabotage, terrorism and those relating the manufacturing and possession of explosives and firearms.
Crous told the court that he and five of the Boeremag trialists — Herman van Rooyen, Rudi Gouws and the Pretorius brothers Johan, Kobus and Wilhelm — had planned to murder former president Nelson Mandela.
There was also talk of hijacking vehicles and shooting people on the streets.
Crous said he began having doubts while they were planning the Soweto bombings, but alleged Boeremag commander Herman van Rooyen told him he could not withdraw and reminded him they were not doing it for themselves, but for the ”Boer nation”.
He showed Crous a sketch of his plans for a revolution, which would be triggered by the bombings in Soweto which, Van Rooyen said, would cause blacks to murder whites and to rebel against the ANC government because they would not be able to catch the Boeremag bombers.
This in turn, Van Rooyen claimed, would result in white policemen and farmers supporting the Boeremag’s war against the government.
Crous testified that Kobus Pretorius and Van Rooyen had mapped out and planned the Soweto bombings in detail and had drawn up an hour-to-hour plan of their movements leading up to the bombings.
Pretorius had drawn a sketch to show him exactly where he had to plant a bomb on a bridge in Soweto. The actual moments when the bombs would go off in the early hours of November 30, 2002 was indicated with the word ”POP” on their planning sheet.
He said the bombs exploded later than was planned because they had transport problems and were waiting for rain — as they knew the police helicopters would not fly and there would be fewer people on the streets.
He testified that two of the accused in October 2002 had taken a rubbish bag full of explosives to a Boeremag supporter known as ”Oom Velle”, to blow up the Buddhist temple in Bronkhorstspruit, regarded as a ”heathen” place.
A mosque in Soweto was also identified as another ”heathen” target.
Crous caused laughter in the court with testimony about a late night conversation with Kobus Pretorius, who told him that the apartheid government had once shot down a strange aircraft and found ”small men” (seemingly space aliens) walking around when they went to investigate the crash site.
”He was quite serious and I rather believed him. He said he had read about it in Revelations in the Bible,” Crous said.
Pretorius also told Crous that a ”white woman” was trained to murder Mandela and that on the night of the funeral, the Witwatersrand would be cordoned off and blacks in taxis would start murdering whites, according to his interpretation of the prophesies of Boer prophet Siener van Rensburg.
He also said a big star or planet would crash into earth early in 2003, which only the ”monetary force” knew about, that South Africa would be the safest place on earth and that they had to prevent the monetary force from using South Africa.
The monetary force, Pretorius told him, had given money so that (former president) F W de Klerk would ”sell out the country” and had arranged for a woman (De Klerk’s present wife Elita) to ”watch him”.
The trial continues. – Sapa