The men connected to an alleged right wing threat 'directed' at the ANC's elective conference in Mangaung.(Delwyn Verasamy, M&G)
18 DEC 2012 15:10 - SALLY EVANS, VERASHNI PILLAY The terrorist threat at the ANC's Mangaung conference has been revealed as an alleged assassination attempt on Jacob Zuma and other top leaders. SPECIAL FOCUS Mangaung 2012: A special report OUR COVERAGE Four appear for alleged Mangaung bombing plot Police concede bomb threat tied to Mangaung Seven arrested for right wing Mangaung bomb plot The state on Tuesday presented a sensational allegation of a plot on President Jacob Zuma's life, along with the senior government ministers and ANC officials. Various firearms – some unlicensed – and grenades had been stockpiled for the plot. Speaking at the appearance of four men connected to the alleged threat, the state's prosecutor Shaun Abrahams outlined a dramatic plan that formed over the period of the past year, in several meetings across the country with "right-wing leaders known to the state". Four men, Mark Trollip, John Martin Keevy, Johan Hendrik Prinsloo and Hein Boonzaaier, connected to an alleged right wing threat "directed" at the ANC's elective conference in Mangaung appeared at the Bloemfontein Magistrate's court on Tuesday morning. Included in Abrahams’ statement were details of a meeting where it was agreed that a political party was not going to work, and plans were made to sabotage the ANC's elective conference in Mangaung. The plot was allegedly planned to coincide with the anniversary of the Battle of Blood River, at noon when light fell on a particular monument that was not mentioned. Boonzaaier and Prinsloo are both senior members of the newly established Federale Vryheidsparty (FVP), the party's national secretary Francois Cloete told the Mail & Guardian on Tuesday. According to Abrahams they have also held senior positions in a number of other right wing organisations. Trollip was said to be the "self-proclaimed" leader of a right-wing organisation "dedicated to self-determination of Afrikaans people", while Keevy did not belong to any particular organisation. Keevy was arrested at Outeniqua Guest House, Prinsloo at his house in Springs and Boonzaaier at his house in Lyttleton Manor, Centurion. ‘Execution style’ killing plan Apparently Keevy conducted a reconnaissance of the conference venue as part of a plan to target a venue where Zuma, Motlanthe and other top leaders would be dining, and shoot them "execution style". The case was remanded to January 8, with the accused to be detained until that time. The state in the meantime was looking to make more arrests to add to the proceedings of people involved in the plot. Free State police spokesperson Brigadier Billy Jones confirmed to the M&G that the four will face one charge of high treason and two charges in terms of the Terrorism Act. "The threat was definitely directed at the conference," Jones said on Tuesday morning. "Following further investigation and more evidence which came to light." Police on Monday had said the arrest of the men was "totally" unrelated to the elective conference. An intelligence source told the M&G on Monday that both crime intelligence and counter-intelligence were involved in the operation, which saw the suspects arrested in three separate operations in Limpopo, the Free State and the Northern Cape. Police searched the suspects' premises and seized evidence "linked to the on-going investigation", Jones said. The FVP was formed in October after it registered with the Independent Electoral Commission as a political party. Cloete said that it was established to promote "self-determination of the Afrikaner/Boer people in a confederal political model". * Got a tip-off for us about this story? Email amabhungane@mg.co.za Sally Evans is an investigator from the M&G's Centre for Investigative Journalism, amaBhungane. The M&G Centre for Investigative Journalism, amaBhungane, produced this story. All views are ours. See Amabhungane.co.za for our stories, activities and funding sources. Mail & Guardian - - - - COMMENTS BY SONNY - - - Will this trial also last for 10 years like the 'Boeremag Trial' and will the end results also be a case of "Agent Provocateur?" The truth will still have to come out there. We hope that this trial will be 'for real!' Or, otherwise release these 'victims' now. We cannot comprehend that the 'Afrikaner Patriots' are so naive. Or is this another "Broederbond conspiracy Theory?" If the facts are correct, then, the plot has misfired!
A TALE FROM TWO CITIES Conspiracy on its own is a very hard case to prove in court. During 1976/76 White Albino Terrorist Breyten Breytenbach was serving a sentence for terrorist and other political charges when he hatched a plan with a prison warder to make a daring escape from prison. (More daring than Winston Churchill). This co-conspirator warder Lucky Groenewald was smuggling pencil drawings out of Pretoria Maximum Prison to agents on the outside, whom in turn were selling the pencil portraits on the political 'elite' market. The Head of the SB, who later became Commissioner, got wind of the 'conspiracy' and put one of his expert investigators from Johannesburg, onto the case after it was started by the Pretoria SB. When the investigation hotted up the warder Lucky started getting death threats and he had to get protection from the investigators. One Detective, also from Johannesburg, who had been seconded to Pretoria for another investigation and trial was assigned to protect Lucky Groenewald during the evenings. Because of pressure from 'above' the investigation was put into top gear and the I/O was told to bring the case of Breytenbach to court for prosecution. At this stage no physical attempt had been made to escape, other than the conspiracy. Breytenbach was duly charged for Conspiracy to Escape from Lawful Custody and a range of other charges. The result of the trial? Oh, Breytenbach, was acquitted by the presiding judicial officer because of the fact that there was no evidence to escape or any physical attempt to escape as such. After serving his sentence, Breytenbach was released and he made his way to France where he resided and eventually got married. Breytenbach was the founder member of Okhela which was a similar movement to Operation Vula headed by Mac Maharaj and other cadres prior to the elections in 1994. THE CRUX OF THE MATTER This investigation, without pre-empting the outcome, seems to be headed in the same direction. Time will be the Judge.
Names: Breytenbach, Breyten
ReplyDeleteBorn: 16 September 1939, Bonnievale, Western Cape
In summary: Poet, writer, painter and activist
.Breytenbach was an opponent of the apartheid regime, whose work represented a milestone in the development of Afrikaans poetry, formally and politically. His literary reputation is international, with work having been translated into Dutch, English, French and German.
Born on 16 September 1939 in Bonnievale, near Robertson in the Cape, Breyten Breytenbach completed his schooling at Hoërskool Hugenoot in Wellington, Cape. He began his tertiary studies at the University of Cape Town in 1958. His opposition to apartheid saw him leave South Africa for Paris in 1960. In 1962 he married Yolande Ngo Thi Hoang Lien, a Viëtnamese national. His first published work, in 1964, Die Ysterkoei Moet Sweet (The Iron Cow Must Sweat), broke new ground in Afrikaans poetry as “powerful and startling ideas are presented without the use of traditional rhythmic metres and attractive images” (Joyce).
When Breytenbach returned clandestinely to South Africa in 1975, he was swiftly arrested. He pleaded guilty to entering South Africa to start an organization, Atlas or Okhela, intended to be the white wing of the ANC. Charged with treason under the draconian Terrorism Act, he was sentenced in the Pretoria Supreme Court to nine years in prison. Even while in prison Breytenbach was prolific, writing five volumes of poetry and English prose. An example is his prison memoir Confessions of an Albino Terrorist (1980). After his release in 1982 he left South Africa for France and became a French citizen.
He won the Rapport's major literature prize of R15 000 in April 1986 for his volume of poetry. His 1989 novel Memoire de Pousiere et de Neige (Memory of Dust and Snow) is a brilliant political analysis of the various anti-apartheid movements in South Africa, a truculent, thinly veiled autobiographical account which has been described as having a ‘dense style'. The moving prose of his autobiographical Return to Paradise brought a new focus on this extraordinarily gifted Afrikaner's conflict of love and hate for his roots.
In December 1993 Breytenbach — still living in self-imposed exile in Paris — paid a visit to the ‘new South Africa'. This visit contrasted sharply with the fiasco of his furtive return in 1975, the catastrophe of his arrest, excruciating ‘show trial', and the two years spent alone in a cell directly adjoining Pretoria Central's death row.
Resident in Paris, he currently divides his time between Europe, South Africa and the USA, mostly writing and lecturing. In January 2000 he began a three year period in the Graduate School of Humanities of at the University of Cape Town as a visiting professor in the departments of English and Drama. He has taught creative writing there as well as at the Gorée Institute in Dakar, Senegal and the University of New York.
Breytenbach is also known for his paintings, many of which portray surreal animal and human figures, often in captivity. He has exhibited in many countries.
References
•Howcroft, P. (undated). South Africa Encyclopaedia: Prehistory to the year 2000, unpublished papers with SA History Online.
•Joyce, P. (1989). The South African Family Encyclopaedia, Cape Town: Struik, p.58.
•Milne, R. (1993). The Star, 12 October
•Sienaert, M. (2001).The I of the Beholder: Identity formation in the art and writing of Breyten Breytenbach, Cape Town: Kwela Books and SA History Online.