Tantrums and tears as Terre'Blanche convicted

Eugene Terre'Blanche, the neo-Nazi many once feared would plunge South Africa into bloody civil war, was yesterday convicted of attempting to murder a former black employee and assaulting another.

The verdict on the country's most infamous white supremacist led to extraordinary scenes in the Potchefstroom Magistrates Court, which was packed with camouflage- fatigued followers of Terre'Blanche's Afrikaner Resistance Movement (AWB).

The large and hefty AWB leader, whom black witnesses said they were afraid to testify against, fought back tears as he accused magistrate Chris Eksteen, judicial head of this ultra conservative rural "dorp" in North-West Province, of becoming the accomplice of the African National Congress. "You are a traitor ... the judgment is a political judgment," he said.

There were more tears when bail was set at 2,000 rand (pounds 300). Terre'Blanche said he could not afford it and promised he would not to abscond before sentencing on June 17. The judge reduced bail by half and the AWB clubbed together to meet it.

Potchefstroom is at the heart of AWB country. Apartheid may be gone but here old habits die hard. AWB members routinely insulted and intimidated blacks who attended the trial. Throughout the proceedings the fat white AWB members sat and forced the blacks to stand at the back of the courtroom.

Maurius Oliver, who worked for Terre'Blanche, testified against his "baas", but asked for police protection and claimed his employer had assaulted him too.

Terre'Blanche was found guilty of attempting to murder Paul Motshabi.Motshabi hobbled into court totestify how he was beaten into a month-long coma and permanent brain damage by Terre'Blanche.

Terre'Blanche claimed to have argued with Motshabi but not to have harmed him. He said he had found Motshabi lying in a ditch.

The AWB hit international headlines in 1994 when three members were shot dead by a black policeman after shooting their way throught the black Bophuthatswana "independent" homeland in an attempt to prevent an inevitable black liberation coup.