Johannesburg - The next time five of the Boeremag bombers enjoy Christmas at home, it is likely to be 2026.
And that is with parole.
Tom Vorster, Herman van Rooyen, Johan Pretorius, Wilhelm Pretorius and Rudi Gouws were handed the heaviest of the sentences in the Pretoria High Court on Tuesday.
Each was sentenced to an effective 25 years in prison. The five were found guilty of high treason, for which they received 35 years.
Of this sentence, 10 years were suspended for five years. They also received 13 years for culpable homicide and for conspiring to kill then president Nelson Mandela. This sentence will run concurrently with the 25 years.
“If the judge does not give a non-parole period, then, as a rule, a prisoner will have to serve half their sentence before becoming eligible for parole,” said James Smalberger, chief deputy commissioner of the Department of Correctional Services’ incarceration and corrections unit.
So, for the five, it means a stretch in prison of 12-and-a-half years before they will be eligible for parole.
Vorster shrugged on Tuesday and told reporters he had not expected such a severe sentence, as he had already been in prison for more than a decade.
The third Pretorius brother, master bombmaker Kobus, was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment, 10 years of which were suspended.
This was because Pretorius had a change of heart during the trial, broke away from his past and expressed remorse for what he had done.
The members of the bomb squad were sentenced to an additional 13 years’ imprisonment on charges of culpable homicide and conspiring to murder Mandela.
Soweto mother Claudina Mokone was killed when a piece of steel dislodged by a bomb the Boeremag had planted on a railway landed in her shack.
Judge Eben Jordaan said Mandela would have been killed by a landmine planted by the Boeremag bomb squad if he had not arrived by helicopter to open a school in Bolobedu, Limpopo. This would have caused chaos and bloodshed in the country.
He said the Boeremag’s aim had been to destroy democracy.
The bombers already had five large car bombs ready for targets in the city centres of Pretoria and Joburg, and were planning further bomb attacks when they were caught.
Boeremag leaders Mike du Toit, Dirk Hanekom and Dr Lets Pretorius, the brothers’ father, were each sentenced to 30 years’ imprisonment, 10 years of which was conditionally suspended for five years.
Mike du Toit’s right-hand man, Andre du Toit, and Dion van den Heever were sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment, of which 10 years was suspended.
Rooikoos du Plessis and Jurie Vermeulen, who also played important roles in planning the coup, got 15 years’ imprisonment, with 10 suspended.
One of the Boeremag’s most active members and their chaplain, 74-year-old Vis Visagie, was sentenced to five years of correctional supervision.
Five of the Boeremag members who played a lesser role, including the youngest member, Jacques Jordaan, walked out of the court free men after being given suspended sentences. They include Adriaan van Wyk, the member considered a ‘weakling’ by the others, and former defence force officers Giel Burger, Jacques Olivier and Pieter van Deventer.
The sentences were met with outrage by some family members but acceptance by others.
The Star