Five leaders of a “Boer Army” white supremacist plot to assassinate former South African president Nelson Mandela and drive blacks out of the country were sentenced to 35 years in prison on Tuesday after a trial lasting more than 10 years.
A Pretoria High Court handed down sentences ranging from 20 to five years to others of the 21 defendants of the “Boeremag,” a ragtag militia of apartheid loyalists accused of a botched 2002 coup attempt. This had included charges of causing explosions.
Some of the sentences were suspended.
Nine of the accused walked free after being held for 11 years behind bars during the trial, National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Medupi Simasiku said.
In the course of the prolonged case, witnesses testified that the Boeremag planned to assassinate anti-apartheid hero Mandela, who was South Africa’s first black president, by planting a bomb along a route he was due to travel.
However, their plan was thwarted when the world-famous statesman, now retired, aged 95 and convalescing at home in Johannesburg, traveled to his engagement by helicopter.
Several of the Boeremag members were charged with causing nine explosions at various sites in Gauteng, South Africa’s richest province, in October 2002, with most blasts taking place in the sprawling township of Soweto, south of Johannesburg, where one woman was killed.
Racial tensions persist almost 20 years since the first democratic elections ended apartheid rule in South Africa, but radical groups such as the Boeremag and the Afrikaner Resistance Movement of murdered far-right leader Eugene Terre’blanche have little backing from the country’s almost 5 million whites.
The alleged mastermind of the Boeremag, former university lecturer Mike du Toit, was the first to be convicted last year for high treason and was among those given a 35-year sentence.
According to prosecution testimony, the Boeremag’s plot, concocted around barbeques and at fast-food outlets, had suggested driving South Africa’s black majority of about 40 million out of the country and into Zimbabwe by lining a major national road between the two countries with food parcels.
It had also proposed sending the 1.2 million Indians in the country back to the subcontinent by boat.
Heavy rain and strong winds yesterday disrupted flights, trains and ferries, forcing the closure of roads across large parts of New Zealand’s North Island, while snapping power links to tens of thousands. Domestic media reported a few flights had resumed operating by afternoon from the airport in Wellington, the capital, although cancelations were still widespread after airport authorities said most morning flights were disrupted. Air New Zealand said it hoped to resume services when conditions ease later yesterday, after it paused operations at Wellington, Napier and Palmerston North airports. Online images showed flooded semi-rural neighborhoods, inundated homes, trees fallen on vehicles and collapsed
FRAYED: Strains between the US-European ties have ruptured allies’ trust in Washington, but with time, that could be rebuilt, the Michigan governor said China is providing crucial support for Russia’s aggression in Ukraine and could end the war with a phone call, US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker said. “China could call [Russian President] Vladimir Putin and end this war tomorrow and cut off his dual-purpose technologies that they’re selling,” Whitaker said during a Friday panel at the Munich Security Conference. “China could stop buying Russian oil and gas.” “You know, this war is being completely enabled by China,” the US envoy added. Beijing and Moscow have forged an even tighter partnership since the start of the war, and Russia relies on China for critical parts
Two sitting Philippine senators have been identified as “coperpetrators” in former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s crimes against humanity trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC), documents released by prosecutors showed. Philippine senators Ronald Dela Rosa and Christopher Go are among eight current and former officials named in a document dated Feb. 13 and posted to the court’s Web site. ICC prosecutors have charged Duterte with three counts of crimes against humanity, alleging his involvement in at least 76 murders as part of his “war on drugs.” “Duterte and his coperpetrators shared a common plan or agreement to ‘neutralize’ alleged criminals in the Philippines
In a softly lit Shanghai bar, graduate student Helen Zhao stretched out both wrists to have her pulse taken — the first step to ordering the house special, a bespoke “health” cocktail based on traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). “TCM bars” have popped up in several cities across China, epitomizing what the country’s stressed-out, time-poor youth refer to as “punk wellness,” or “wrecking yourself while saving yourself.” At Shanghai’s Niang Qing, a TCM doctor in a white coat diagnoses customers’ physical conditions based on the pulse readings, before a mixologist crafts custom drinks incorporating the herbs and roots prescribed for their ailments.
RSS