Apartheid loyalist guilty of treason

7/27/2012
BLADE STAFF AND NEWS SERVICES

JOHANNESBURG -- The mastermind of a "Boer Army" white supremacist plot to assassinate former President Nelson Mandela and drive blacks out of South Africa was found guilty of high treason on Thursday after a trial that lasted almost 10 years.

Mike du Toit, a former university lecturer, was the first member of the "Boeremag," a ragtag militia of apartheid loyalists, to be found guilty in a botched 2002 coup attempt in Africa's biggest economy.

It aimed to overthrow the ruling African National Congress and to put South Africa's 1.2 million Indians on boats back to the subcontinent.

He will be sentenced at a later date and may face life in prison.

Verdicts on 21 other Boeremag members are expected over the next few weeks.