2004: Boeremag: 60 bombs, chasing the blacks into the sea

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[In 2004, I thought the Boeremag were not the real thing, but now, decades later, I know a lot more and they were actually very good guys. Jan] [I find the Boeremag plans embarrassing to say the least. For example: Did they really believe that setting off a bunch of home-made bombs would cause the SA currency to collapse and nationwide chaos to set in? Huh? I don’t believe Right Wing Terrorism will ever stand a chance in South Africa – that is – assuming they can actually manage to pull off their plans without the Police knowing their every move… Even then… its a hopeless case. That terrorism works for the FAR LEFT is only because outside the country, across the world, are millions of allies busy making political moves. These Right Wingers think that letting off a couple of bombs will win a war. They obviously have not even taken the time to study the strategies of the Liberation movements where 10% or less of the effort was military and the rest was propaganda/political, etc. Before they think of overthrowing the ANC, they should spend a *LOT* of time actually studying the ANC/SACP. These people who believe in Right Wing Terrorism should take several steps BACK and look at the many other non-violent, but extremely necessary steps that need to be taken to further their cause. By ignoring the NON-VIOLENT options, they are merely setting themselves up for TOTAL FAILURE. Jan]

The Boeremag dreamed of using the huge Armscor building in Pretoria as a breeding farm for “a new (Afrikaner) nation”, the Pretoria High Court heard on Tuesday.

Free State potato farmer Henk van Zyl disclosed this in relating a conversation he had with alleged Boeremag leader Tom Vorster.

Testifying, he said the Makopane herb farm, owned by one of the 22 alleged Boeremag members on trial, Lets Pretorius, had at one stage been used as the headquarters for the planning of a coup d’etat.

After one of their meetings at the farm, he and Vorster drove past Armscor’s building.

‘I did not have many words’
Vorster said he wanted a building like it to “keep a bunch of women, isolate them and inseminate them with (the sperm of) Boeremag members to start a new nation”.

After the laughter died down in court, Van Zyl added, deadpan: “I did not have many words.”

Van Zyl said he had told Vorster about his plan to blow up Afrikaans comedian Casper de Vries “because I believed he was not on the right path”.

While they were passing Hillbrow, Vorster remarked that it was a bad place and he and accused Herman van Rooyen had identified targets there for bombing.

Vorster had given him R1 000 to buy gas cylinders for 60 bombs, Van Zyl testified. He bought 16 cylinders at a scrapyard in Bethlehem and explained in detail to the court how he had made the bombs. He had also assembled a dustbin full of metal spikes that could be thrown in the road.

In July 2002, a group of Boeremag members gathered at Pretorius’s farm, where Vorster and Pretorius’s son Kobus unsuccessfully tested detonators for their bombs.

A short while later, there was a meeting in the mountains near Mokopane at which Vorster talked about a plan called Operation Popeye that would have served as a trigger to take over the country and chase all blacks into the sea or to neighbouring countries.

Vorster named nine targets they planned to bomb as part of their coup plan, including: the National and Provincial Operational Co-ordinating Committee’s offices, the Reserve Bank, Stock Exchange, Johannesburg International Airport and the Johannesburg station and taxi rank. He said parliament in Cape Town would be bombed, too.

According to Vorster, the bombs would have caused the South African monetary system to collapse.

“He said there would be a new monetary system. There would not be a rand any more, but a veld,” Van Zyl testified.

Ranks were also given to Boeremag members at this meeting, but Vorster was adamant there would not be generals in the Boeremag army.

Vorster asked several of the accused to buy motorcycles, which he said would be used to escape after the bombings.

Van Zyl said he had to build 20 bombs and the accused Herman van Rooyen and Kobus Pretorius, 20 each. After the bombings, the plan was to take over defence force bases.

“Vorster said white people who did not want to take part in the defence force could be used to clean up the country and break down the squatter camps. Oom Vis Visagie (Boeremag chaplain) said we would hit them with a curse.”

Van Zyl then realised the police were hot on their heels.

He buried the cylinders and road spikes and went on the run with Vorster and his second-in-command, Dirk Hanekom. He and Vorster altered their appearances. – Sapa

This article was originally published on page 1 of Cape Times on August 11, 2004

Source: Independent Online (IOL)
URL: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click…
Source: https://archive.africancrisis.info/?p=104309

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