Boeremag planned to use SANDF bases for coup - SA

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Several South African National Defence Force (SANDF) bases and their troops were identified in 2001 to help carry out a plan to overthrow the state, the Pretoria High Court heard in the Boeremag treason trial on Wednesday.

Police informer Johannes Coenraad Smit, the first state witness, also told the court convicted extremists Barend Strydom and De Wet Kritzinger had been identified to him as some of those behind the planning of the coup.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=13&art_id=qw1067420881746B263&set_id=1

[dArKeR]

1. Boeremag provided with army base maps

Rightwingers planning a coup d'état were in 2001 provided with maps, aerial photographs and weapons and ammunition stock lists of the Lohatlha defence force base in the Northern Cape, the Pretoria High Court heard on Thursday.

Police informer Johannes Coenraad Smit told the court he received these documents from two of the accused in the Boeremag treason trial during a meeting in August that year.

One of them, Jacques Olivier, was then a major attached to the Lohatlha base and responsible for stocktaking, Smit testified. The other was Dion van den Heever, a self-employed electrician.

http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=22849&t=1

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2. 'Gunpowder, treason and plot'

A group of men allegedly planning a right-wing take-over of the government were given noms de guerre and military ranks and had to take an oath of loyalty , the Pretoria High Court heard on Tuesday.

At meetings, the men recited a rewritten version of the Blood River Covenant -- according to which the Voortrekkers promised in 1838 to honour God by building a church if He gave them victory in their war against the Zulus.

These formalities all formed part of meetings held early last year to plan the military coup d'etat, police informer Johannes Coenraad Smit told the court.

He testified that the group planned to blow up ten power stations in the execution of the coup. Two-hundred-and-forty time switches were to be built for this purpose.

This number was calculated on the basis that each power station had six outgoing lines -- and that at least four masts on every line had to be destroyed, Smit said.

He told the court that plans for taking over defence force bases made no provision for taking prisoners.

"Everyone would have been summarily shot."

http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=23066&t=1

[dArKeR]

3. Boeremag to sell sheep to finance activities

Apart from selling sunflowers and sheep to finance their alleged coup plot, the Boeremag also talked of "hijacking" a grain harvest and arranging a cash-in-transit heist, the Pretoria High Court heard on Wednesday.

According to police spy Johan (JC) Smit, who has claimed to have infiltrated the Boeremag's inner circle while secretly reporting to the police, there had been discussions about ways to make money during some of the Boeremag meetings.

Cash-in-transit heists, he said, would probably have been carried out by "operators" -- usually commando members -- that the Boeremag wanted to recruit as part of their plan to take over the country.

Smit earlier testified that financing for the alleged coup would have included a crop of sunflowers and 200 sheep donated by Free State farmers as well as R10 000 from alleged Boeremag leader Mike du Toit's retirement package.

http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=30637