'Too tough on Boeremag'

The families of the 23 convicted Boeremag members are outraged by the sentences - up to 35 years in many instances.

"I am shocked," said Esther du Toit, wife of Mike du Toit, who was sentenced to 30 years in prison on Tuesday for his role in the white-supremacist coup attempt.

"I don't think it's fair. These guys didn't plan to overthrow the government and it is sad to see at the end of the day how it ends," she said.

Du Toit, who has been separated from her husband for four years, brought their 11-year-old daughter to the start of the sentencing on Monday but didn't want the child to see her father being sent to jail on Tuesday.

In 2002 the 23 men detonated several bombs in Soweto and planned to kill former president Nelson Mandela in Limpopo.

They received sentences ranging from 10 years, completely suspended, to 35 years.

"It is shocking to think that they could send someone to jail for something that was only just a storm in a teacup," said Du Toit.

"Our lives have been completely disrupted. My children were teased by people telling them 'Your father is a jailbird'. It tore our family to pieces. I wish it had never happened," said Du Toit, whose daughter was five months old when her father was arrested.

Du Toit said she was aware of her husband's involvement in "meetings" but she thought they were about how to stop the murder of white farmers.

"They were genuinely scared of farm attacks. He was a history teacher and lecturer at university, and his feeling was that history was going to repeat itself. They really believed in the 'Night of the Long Knives', so they wanted to be ready in case something like that happened," she said.

Like many other people, Du Toit still believes in the group's cause.

The court was packed with the men's supporters on Monday and Tuesday.

At the end of the trial, an elderly man got up and shouted: "Ons sal oorwin! (We will overcome)".

"Though our relationship is completely over, I still have empathy and sympathy for their cause," said Du Toit.

A Facebook page, Free the Boeremag, has been started.

Hawks spokesman Captain Paul Ramaloko said the police were not aware of any further Boeremag cells operating in the country.

"If there are others still on the street, we cannot say," he said.

When the son of one of the convicted men was asked about continuing Boeremag activities, he said: "I don't get involved in such nonsense.

"I go to work, I go and have a couple of drinks with friends, I go home."

The trial by numbers

• Starting on May 19 2003, the trial lasted 10 years, six months and 20 days. It cost the state more than R36-million in legal fees alone for the prosecuting team of three advocates.
• More than 61000 pages of court papers and documents were compiled.
• More than 30 bail applications and 40 other applications were brought against the state.
• Members Rudi Gouws and Herman van Rooyen escaped from the Pretoria High Court in May 2006.
• Four men turned state witness and applied for indemnity.
• The sentences ranged from 10 years, wholly suspended, to 35 years in prison.