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SOUTH AFRICA: White Supremacists Get Lengthy Sentences

SOUTH AFRICA: White Supremacists Get Lengthy Sentences After a nine‐year‐long treason trial, some of the guilty head for jail. The ringleader of a white supremacist plot to assassinate Nelson Mandela and drive black people out of South Africa has been sentenced to 35 years in jail. Former university lecturer Mike du Toit was convicted in 2012 of treason for his leadership role in the plot. Twenty other members of du Toit's white supremacist militia Boeremag were also jailed for between five and 35 years, although many will go free straight away because they were in custody throughout the nine‐year treason trial. Two of his co‐conspirators, Herman van Rooyen and Rudi Gouws – who both escaped from custody and were rearrested – were given longer sentences for their roles in planting bombs and plotting to kill Mr Mandela, local media reported. Judge Eben Jordaan said that South Africa could have been thrown into chaos if the plot to kill Nelson Mandela with a car bomb had succeeded. In 2002 Boeremag attempted to overthrow the governing African National Congress ( ANC). Analysts say that while race relations in South Africa are still an issue, white extremist groups like Boeremag – have very little support. Meanwhile a senior union official at a Lonmin mine in Marikana has been shot dead in the latest violence to hit the country's platinum belt, a spokesman said on October 18th. A police spokesman said the motive for the killing was unknown. Elsewhere, also on the 18th, police fired rubber bullets to disperse thousands of people who rioted after five people were arrested for the rape and murder of two toddlers in Diepsloot township, a densely‐populated slum northwest of Johannesburg. South Africa has one of the highest murder rates in the world. Around 16,000 people are killed a year, according to official statistics. Most murders occur in densely populated and poverty‐stricken areas with poor policing. (BBC News online 29/10; © AFP 18/10) http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Africa Research Bulletin: Political, Social and Cultural Series Wiley

SOUTH AFRICA: White Supremacists Get Lengthy Sentences

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Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
© 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
ISSN
0001-9844
eISSN
1467-825X
DOI
10.1111/j.1467-825X.2013.05388.x
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

After a nine‐year‐long treason trial, some of the guilty head for jail. The ringleader of a white supremacist plot to assassinate Nelson Mandela and drive black people out of South Africa has been sentenced to 35 years in jail. Former university lecturer Mike du Toit was convicted in 2012 of treason for his leadership role in the plot. Twenty other members of du Toit's white supremacist militia Boeremag were also jailed for between five and 35 years, although many will go free straight away because they were in custody throughout the nine‐year treason trial. Two of his co‐conspirators, Herman van Rooyen and Rudi Gouws – who both escaped from custody and were rearrested – were given longer sentences for their roles in planting bombs and plotting to kill Mr Mandela, local media reported. Judge Eben Jordaan said that South Africa could have been thrown into chaos if the plot to kill Nelson Mandela with a car bomb had succeeded. In 2002 Boeremag attempted to overthrow the governing African National Congress ( ANC). Analysts say that while race relations in South Africa are still an issue, white extremist groups like Boeremag – have very little support. Meanwhile a senior union official at a Lonmin mine in Marikana has been shot dead in the latest violence to hit the country's platinum belt, a spokesman said on October 18th. A police spokesman said the motive for the killing was unknown. Elsewhere, also on the 18th, police fired rubber bullets to disperse thousands of people who rioted after five people were arrested for the rape and murder of two toddlers in Diepsloot township, a densely‐populated slum northwest of Johannesburg. South Africa has one of the highest murder rates in the world. Around 16,000 people are killed a year, according to official statistics. Most murders occur in densely populated and poverty‐stricken areas with poor policing. (BBC News online 29/10; © AFP 18/10)

Journal

Africa Research Bulletin: Political, Social and Cultural Series – Wiley

Published: Nov 1, 2013

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