A dark chapter in SA's history

Four decades after Rivonia, the trial of the Boeremag became the first high treason case to be heard in democratic South Africa.

- HAMISH MITCHELL

After some months, the trial was relocated and the remaining twenty-two accused lined the weighty double-rowed dock in a larger courtroom at the North Gauteng High Court, just across the road from the Palace of Justice.

It was here that I first encountered the Boeremag eight years later, in May 2011, as a fledgling journalist for Jacaranda FM.

Time drags in court, and on days when it felt particularly stagnant, I would observe each of the men. They'd already spent close to ten years in this courtroom, and over time I became aware of some of their habits to overcome the boredom. Some of them read outdoor magazines or a newspaper would get passed along the line until the pages became worn. Others wrote in notebooks or sketched on pieces of paper.

I was often the only journalist in court for weeks on end during the period that I covered the trial. Taking advantage of the empty public gallery, I would sit at the end of the front row where it was easier to hear proceedings in the cavernous space.

I had been reporting on the trial for over a year when, on 26 July 2012, in an unusually packed courtroom, Mike du Toit became the first of the Boeremag accused to be found guilty of high treason. Since there were more than twenty accused in the trial, the judgment proceedings spanned several days. The following day, his brother, André Tibert du Toit, was also found guilty.

On that day, after Judge Eben Jordaan had left the courtroom, I rushed over to the dock to get a comment from either Mike or André. I wanted to capture their reactions to being convicted. As I was making my way towards them, Mike stood up, shook his brother’s hand, laughed and said, “Welcome to the High Treason Club!”