APA – Cape Town (South Africa) South African police this week swooped on members of an extremist right-wing organisation, the Suidlanders, as part of an investigation into plans to sabotage the soccer World Cup, APA learns here Sunday.
Raids have taken place in Pretoria and Mpumalanga and come in the wake of heightened racial tensions after the murder of white supremacist leader, Eugene Terre’Blanche and the recent outbursts by African National Congress Youth League president Julius Malema.
Earlier this week, the police also swooped on the Worcester home of Frederick Rabie, a former lieutenant colonel in the old civilian force commandos, in the Cape Province. He was arrested and police discovered an arms cache, including explosives and thousands of rounds of ammunition at his house. The bust comes a week after the arrest of the head of security at the Worcester Magistrate’s Court (in the Western Cape Province), Henry Harding, following the discovery of a cache of explosives, firearms, ammunition and drugs in underground storerooms at the magistrate’s court.
Rabie was given bail and will appear in court on Monday.
The police investigation into the suspected sabotage plot is linked to an e-mail calling on foreigners to boycott the World Cup that is being circulated worldwide. It talks of a war against white South Africans and carries graphic details and bloody photographs of white victims of crime. Claiming to reveal information suppressed by the South African Police Force (SAPF) and the media, the e-mail urges foreigners to stay away from South Africa during the World Cup.
Claiming that the country is on the verge of a full-blown revolution that would lead to civil war, the website says : "The time has come for people to realise they cannot be on the sideline any longer and everybody’s participation is needed to defend the last bastion of a true Christian nation against total annihilation."
Sources this week confirmed that alleged plans by right-wing elements to "destabilise" South Africa in the run-up to the World Cup were being taken "seriously". Police spokesman Colonel Vish Naidoo refused to comment on the investigations, but said that the security forces were prepared for any eventuality during the World Cup.
