Welcome to the high treason club

The Boeremag on Trial

- Karin Mitchell

ON THE night of 30 October 2002, eight bomb blasts tore through Soweto, leaving one woman dead and damaging vital infrastructure.

The bombs were the work of far-right white Afrikaner separatist group the Boeremag, whose stated aim was to overthrow the ruling ANC government, rid the country of black people and reinstate a new Boer-administered republic.

After a cross-country manhunt, 23 men were arrested and charged with high treason after the police seized explosives, homemade pipe bombs, weapons and ammunition in arms caches all over the country.

In what became the longest and most expensive trial in the country’s history, told in reporter Karin Mitchell’s book The High Treason Club, the public learned of a fanatical group driven by nationalism, racism, militancy and fear.

Mitchell also covered the Marikana Massacre, the Oscar Pistorius trial and other significant political events. She has been writing full time since 2016.

This is an edited extract of The High Treason Club published by Penguin Random House at a suggested retail price of R340.

Treason