Group face Mandela attempted murder charge
Twenty-two white men appeared in a South African court amid tight security today in connection with a plot to kill Nelson Mandela and overthrow the government.
Judge Eben Jordaan adjourned the case to May 26 for defence lawyers to sort out state-paid lawyers for some of the accused.
The men face 43 charges including high treason, murder, attempted murder terrorism and the illegal possession of arms and ammunition.
Dozens of family members of the accused gathered early to claim seats in the public gallery of the court.
In what has been described as the biggest security operation for a trial in South Africa, only 120 members of the public were allowed into the court.
A group of black protesters danced and shouted anti-white slogans “kill the farmer, kill the boer” outside the court.
They dispersed after being warned by police.
Ironically, the first treason trial in the post-apartheid South Africa is being held in the recently restored Palace of Justice where Mandela and others were sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964.
Allegedly members of the extreme right-wing group called Boeremag – Farmers Force – the 22 are charged for the murder of Claudia Mokone in a Soweto bomb blast.
They are also charged with attempted murder, alternatively conspiracy to murder for an alleged plan to blow up a car transporting former South African president Mandela to a public event.
Mandela foiled the alleged plot by choosing helicopter transport over a motor vehicle.
It is alleged that the 22 plotted to kill all blacks or drive them from the country and set up an Afrikaner state.
A 23rd accused, Dawid Oosthuizen, aged 27, was jailed for 12 years on Friday in a plea bargain arrangement with the prosecution.
After decades of racial oppression under the apartheid regime, South Africa had its first multiracial election in 1994.
A small group of conservative whites remains opposed to democratic rule.
