A Gauteng woman has told how she and her family fled their home for the safety of a small Free State town, after believing a hoax SMS that former president Nelson Mandela was in a coma.
Christene Pretorius, from Springs, swallowed the message warning Afrikaners to escape a genocide triggered by Mandela's supposed imminent death.
When she received the warning SMS she left work, rounded up her family and went to camp out "in the middle of nowhere" for two days before realising she had been duped.
But when Pretorius returned she was fired from her pharmacy job of 12 years for absconding from work. On Monday her flight to Heilbron for two days has a sequel before the Council for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) when she tries to get her job back.
Behind Pretorius and her family's panicked flight to safety in Heilbron is a tale of conspiracy theory, "basic survival", and claims of an Uhuru plot which would be ignited by Mandela's death.
The alarming SMS, sent on February 19, said the police and army were on alert in preparation for attacks. The message was a warning that the time for Uhuru had arrived and whites, especially Afrikaners, were in danger of being wiped out.
The claimed threats to the safety of Afrikaners had been highlighted in a DVD by Gustav Muller, the leader of a group calling themselves Suidlanders.
"The DVD was very convincing. I have never been this scared in my life and when we got the warning I thought it was real and what the DVD warned about was about to happen," said Pretorius.
The DVD has been widely circulated and is also a topic of conversation on the Boerevryheid website.
Both the Suidlanders and Boerevryheid are splinter groups within rightwing Afrikaner circles.
In his "information" DVD, dated January 2007, Muller warns of an Uhuru plot - also known as the Night of the Long Knives, Iron Eagle and Operation White Clean-up.
Uhuru is the Swahili word for freedom, and according to Muller, was the code name for a plot drawn up in Russia before South Africa became a democracy.
In the video, Muller address-es a small gathering of people, on what he refers to as the "table that had been set for South Africa". Muller said the information was not to be seen as a call to arms, but rather as putting into context the events of the past few years, including strike action, farm murders and cash-in-transit heists.
Muller said he was a former military intelligence officer, and was aware of the existence of Uhuru. He said after peaceful elections in 1994 it was thought that "they", presumably referring to black South Africans, had decided against going ahead with the plot.
However, he said recent events pointed to something sinister being planned. Pretorius and many others had seen the video and were terrified about its implications.
In the event of Uhuru, Afrikaners were advised to go to Spar supermarket in Heilbron where they would be directed to safety. Pretorius and her family, including her children and grandchildren, scurried around to get the supplies necessary.
"We bought a tent that cost us R1 000," said Pretorius. On its website the Suidlanders posted a basic survival guide that includes food that needs to be stockpiled in the event that people had to flee. For a family of four to survive for 18 months they would need, among others, 72 cans of beans and meatballs, 182 packets of two-minute noodles, 48 tins of chakalaka and 100 rolls of toilet paper.
While the family made their way to Heilbron, the SMS and e-mail campaign continued and was widely publicised in the Afrikaans media - to the extent that Mandela appeared on the front page of the Afrikaans weekly, Rapport, under the headline "Kyk! Ek is Piekfyn" (Look! I am fine).
Pretorius said they met a man at the Spar who told them to go to a nearby dam where they could set up camp.
"We have nothing to do with it. We don't even want our name to be mentioned in connection with this," said an employee at the Spar.
Pretorius said: "The men dropped us off, believing that we would be safe there. We were in the middle of nowhere and nothing, sitting in the baking sun with small children," she said.
Two days later they were informed that the SMS had been a hoax and that Mandela was alive and well.
However, when she return-ed to the pharmacy to resume work, she was informed that she was suspended for absconding.
"They held a hearing and I was fired. I have never taken time off before, except when I was sick," said Pretorius. Her plight was taken up by Zehir Omar Attorneys.
"My client was fired for telling the truth," said Omar, who will be using the Suidlanders DVD as evidence.
While the e-mail has been exposed as fictitious, the controversy surrounding the DVD continues.
On its website the Suidlanders said in a statement that it called for calm following the events of the past month. It said that the organisation wanted to make it clear that it was not responsible for the SMSes and emails.