The wife of one of the assassins of SA Communist Party leader Chris Hani was among several people arrested on Friday morning as part of a country-wide police swoop on alleged rightwingers plotting to topple the government.
A police source confirmed that Gaye Derby-Lewis was arrested in Pretoria for possession of an illegal firearm. She was to appear in court on Monday.
Police Director Sally de Beer declined to confirm the arrest.
"All I can tell you is that we arrested a 63-year-old woman in Pretoria this morning for the possession of an illegal firearm."
Conservative Party leader Ferdi Hartzenberg, meanwhile, said the firearm for which Derby-Lewis had been arrested was licensed in her son's name. He was currently in Canada.
"I am surprised that they are acting so harshly against her. I would have thought they would have investigated the case further before making an arrest." Hartzenberg denied that Derby-Lewis' arrests had anything to do with the alleged rightwing plot.
Police said the arrest was part of a country-wide raid on 94 farms and residences identified after months of intelligence gathering as part of an investigation into the alleged rightwing terrorist plot.
The operation, dubbed Hopper, started at 5am and would continue as long as was necessary, De Beer said.
Several arrests have already been made for possession of illegal firearms, ammunition and other offences. She was unable to give numbers, saying an update would be given later in the day.
The police would also question a number of people they believed could assist in their investigations into the recent bomb blasts, as well as the broader rightwing plot.
Janus Walusz and Gaye's husband Clive gunned down SACP general secretary Hani in the driveway of his Boksburg home in 1993. They were convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Australian-born Gaye Derby-Lewis, a former Catholic nun and nightclub owner, was at one stage in the dock along with Walusz and her husband but she was acquitted.
Earlier this year, it was alleged that rightwingers plotting a coup had planned to stage a jailbreak for the two men, as well as former Vlakplaas commander Eugene de Kock and former Pretoria Boer Commando leader Willem Ratte. -
Sapa