* Plots hatched around barbecues and fast-food outlets
* Fringe group wanted to kill Mandela and drive out blacks
* Verdicts awaited on 21 other Boeremag members
(Adds analyst reaction)
By Peroshni Govender
JOHANNESBURG, July 26 (Reuters) – The mastermind of a “Boer
Army” white supremacist plot to assassinate Nelson Mandela and
drive blacks out of South Africa was found guilty of high
treason on Thursday after a trial that lasted almost ten years.
Former university lecturer Mike du Toit was the first member
of the “Boeremag”, a rag-tag militia of apartheid loyalists, to
be found guilty in connection with a botched 2002 coup attempt
in Africa’s biggest economy which aimed to overthrow the ruling
African National Congress.
He will be sentenced at a later date, and may face life in
jail. Verdicts on 21 other Boeremag members are expected over
the next few weeks.
Under du Toit’s plan, concocted around barbecues and in
fast-food outlets, the Boeremag would force South Africa’s black
majority – roughly 40 million people – over the border into
Zimbabwe with food parcels, while its 1.2 million Indians would
be put on boats back to the subcontinent.
Witnesses testified that the group also planned to
assassinate Mandela, who became South Africa’s first black
president in 1994 and acted as a unifying force after decades of
white-minority rule.
Continued…
