Boeremag Trial Resumes

Over the last six years, Fick and his team have been doggedly wading through the astounding volume of paperwork.

On the other side are a heavy-weight defence team comprising two attorneys and nine advocates who are funded by the Legal Aid Board.

The accused are: an electrician, an engineer, a retired lecturer, a group of farmers, two medical doctors, a cash loan company owner and several students.

Three others, a colonel in the SANDF as well as two majors, have continued to receive their government salaries which by July this year, were estimated to have reached a total of R11-million.

The case goes back to 2002 when the police finished a two-year investigation into the Boeremag’s alleged plot to destroy the country’s infrastructure in an outrageous bid to get rid of the new government and chase out all non-whites to clear the path for an exclusive Boer republic.

In May 2003 the high court trial of the 23 men accused of the plot began. One has subsequently died.

Shortly after proceedings began, seven of the accused pleaded not guilty, while the others refused to plead — claiming they did not recognise the court’s jurisdiction or the government’s legitimacy.

Pleas of not guilty were, by law, entered on their behalf.

Only one, Dawid Oosthuizen, pleaded guilty to a charge of terrorism after entering into a plea bargain with the state that saw him become one of its witnesses.

Oosthuizen was sentenced to an effective eight years in prison, but was released in 2006 after his sentence was changed to one of correctional supervision.

Over the years, the accused have employed a number of delaying tactics, from trying to prevent Judge Eben Jordaan from hearing the matter on the grounds of alleged bias to attempting to have Fick kicked off the case because they believed he lacked integrity.

Other objections during the trial included complaints about prison conditions that the accused said made them too tired to sit in court for a full day.

One of the more bizarre complaints related to the “torture” those in custody had to endure because of the prison’s choice of radio station.

The men complained to the court that they were facing psychological breakdown, and one of them had even contemplated suicide, because of the “black music” played on MetroFM nine hours every day at the maximum security prison where they are being held, C-Max.

Although the state closed its case against two years ago, argument and cross-examination of witnesses has continued.

A key component of the state’s case against the accused is “document 12” — of which there are more than 14 versions. It provides step-by-step details of the planned coup, including how the Boeremag would take over radio stations and military bases, damage electrical substations and ground aircraft.

These operations would pave the way for the accused to reclaim power and set up a new government. After that, according to document 12, the group would begin chasing out all blacks and Indians, as well as white sympathisers — at first trying to lure them out of the country with a trail of food and, if that did not work, by force.

From the court documents, it is clear that the group was driven by religious motives and the fear that whites would perish under a black government.

They tried to spread fear among the Afrikaner community that blacks were planning an imminent deadly attack on whites that would include rape and pillage.

They called on supporters to join the “struggle”, claiming that “the Almighty Father” expected it of them.

In addition, the accused are charged with conspiring to blow up a vehicle that former president Nelson Mandela was supposed to travel in on October 11 2002.

As the trial drags on, the costs continue to rise.

More than R20-million has been forked out in legal aid for the accused since the trial began, said the spokesman for the Legal Aid Board, Mpho Phasha.

Another R7-million or so has been spent on housing and feeding those in custody. And then there are the costs of the judge, the prosecution team, court time and security, which cannot be quantified.

But the spokesman for the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, Tlali Tlali, this week defended the spending.

He said that, although the cost of a trial should not be discounted, the nature of the charges also had to be taken into account.

He said once a decision had been made to prosecute, it had to be followed through.

Any decision to discontinue a case would have to be based on compelling grounds and could not be made on the basis of only one factor, Tlal i said.

“Whilst a cost consideration is not an element to downplay, similarly the nature of charges that the accused persons are facing should not be discounted,” Tlali said.

The accused in the Boeremag trialIn Custody1. Retired lecturer Mike du Toit from Krugersdorp;

2. Teacher Andre du Toit from Bela Bela;

3. Engineer Jacobus du Plessis from Brits;

4. Self-employed businessman Adriaan van Wyk from Pretoria;

5. Security company owner Tom Vorster from Garsfontein, Pretoria;

6. Retired SANDF Colonel Dirk Hanekom from Bloemfontein;

7. Farmer Jurie Vermeulen from Brandfort;

8. Pensioner Gerhardus Visagie from Pretoria;

9. Farmer Herman van Rooyen from Bela Bela;

10. Medical doctor Johan Pretorius from Mokopane;

11. Engineer and farmer Kobus Pretorius from Mokopane ;

12. Theology student Wilhelm Pretorius from Pretoria;

13. Farmer Rudi Gouws from Bela Bela;

14. Student Jacques Jordaan from Magalieskruin.

Out On Bail15. Dion van den Heever, an electrician from Postmasburg;

16. Machiel Burger, an army colonel from Postmasburg;

17. Jacques Olivier, an army major from Johannesburg;

18. Pieter van Deventer, an army major from Bloemfontein;

19. Fritz Naude, a farmer from Bethlehem;

20. Lets Pretorius, a medical doctor from Mokopane;

21. Businessman Frederick Boltman, from Mokopane.

Dead22. Johan Herman Scheepers, former Eskom employee from Ermelo, died of a virus in 2007.

Free Man23. Dawid Oosthuizen, a farmer from Bela Bela, was initially accused number 23. He pleaded guilty to terrorism in 2003 and was sentenced to an effective eight years imprisonment.

He is now one of the state’s 162 witnesses and was released under correctional supervision in December 2005, after serving just over two years of his prison sentence.

The IncidentsOn October 29 2002, Soweto resident Claudia Mokone was killed as she slept next to her husband in their shack in the sprawling Johannesburg township.

Mokone was hit by a piece of railway track that flew through the air following a bomb blast at a nearby railway line. The state has charged the Boeremag accused with making and detonating that bomb and eight others that exploded in Soweto that night. Other targets in the vicinity included a bridge, a mosque, a petrol station and a taxi rank. The accused also face charges relating to a bomb that exploded outside a Buddhist temple in Bronkhorstspruit, east of Pretoria.

Although Mokone was the only fatality, others were injured in the series of explosions.

thetimes.co.za