Amnesty Hearings — Pretoria — 1996-07-01

JEAN DU PLESSIS: Well, at that stage we needed to establish the organisation.  I drafted various planning documents.  In 1990 I started planning the organisation, it was then called the South African Partisans, and round about June/July I changed the name to the National Socialist Partisans. I was basically looking at a 25 to 30 year plan, during which we wanted to liberate this country from the National Party, and from any possibility that the ANC would take over and we also had international objectives.

UNKNOWN: Well, at that stage who knew of your planning at that stage?

JEAN DU PLESSIS: I felt that the more secrecy there was, the greater our chances of success and White was the only other person who had access to all my documentation, because he was the deputy leader of the organisation.

UNKNOWN: Now did you discuss the principles of these organisations with anybody?

JEAN DU PLESSIS: Yes, I discussed it in part with Dries Alberts and where necessary, I also discussed it with Mr Van Wyk, Mr Jurgens Grobbelaar, and also partly with Mr Anton Terblanche of the Boerestaat Party, and also with Mr Leunus van Rooyen, because I hoped he would later join the BBB.

UNKNOWN: Did you at that stage try and establish an international contacts?

JEAN DU PLESSIS: Yes, I made contact with Mr Oliver Matthie.

UNKNOWN: How do you spell that Matthie?

JEAN DU PLESSIS: I am not exactly sure.

UNKNOWN: M-A-T-T-H-I-E?

JEAN DU PLESSIS: Yes, I think it is correct.

UNKNOWN: You may proceed.

JEAN DU PLESSIS: He came to South Africa because things were getting quite difficult for him in France, he was a French citizen.  He was a right-winger and had strong nationalist socialist leanings.

UNKNOWN: Did you discuss any tactics or planning with him?

JEAN DU PLESSIS: Yes, I saw him as somebody that I could trust. I saw him as somebody that I could trust, confidante. He went back to Europe with this information which we discussed, so that he could establish a similar kind of organisation as we had established here in South Africa.  He then had contact with various people in France and Italy. I know that he was a very well-read person and also a very well-travelled person.

UNKNOWN: Did you receive any correspondence from him?

JEAN DU PLESSIS: Yes, I did.

UNKNOWN: In Mr Van Wyk's application for amnesty, if you look there at Annexure Z11.

JEAN DU PLESSIS: Number 4, Z11, number 4, if you look at that, you will see a letter from Mr Oliver Mathie which he sent me, during 1991.

UNKNOWN: What was the essence of this letter, what information did it convey?

JEAN DU PLESSIS: He told me that he had already recruited five Italians to join us and that they had already started with their training and that he was looking forward to our coming to Europe.

UNKNOWN: Now what was the purpose of that training?

JEAN DU PLESSIS: Basically we wanted to establish a protest organisation in various countries in Europe, and we hoped that it would then extend also to Britain and America, and we felt that if we declared a White country and nation in South Africa, we would experience great resistance from the United Nations and NATO countries.

UNKNOWN: How was this organisation in Europe supposed to assist you?

JEAN DU PLESSIS: They would contribute to the destabilising of the United Nations forces as well as destabilising of the United States forces should we declare a White country here.  They also had as an objective, the independence of certain groups such as the Basque group in Spain, in Corsica there is a liberation movement who wanted to secede and we felt that in a global right-wing organisation, underground organisation, we would be able to contribute to the national striving, nationalist socialist strivings of the various right-wing organisations and countries.

UNKNOWN: Right.  Could you tell us about the establishment of the NSP and your initial activities.

JEAN DU PLESSIS: Well, White drafted a document which would serve as an oath.  We then swore a blood oath.

UNKNOWN: What is a blood oath?

JEAN DU PLESSIS: Well, you basically pierce your skin and then place your blood on a document, and we then swore that we would be faithful unto death to the Nationalist Socialist Partisans and also faithful to our objectives of liberating White people worldwide, in South Africa and worldwide from the Jewish and financial powers.

UNKNOWN: Continue with the establishing of the party.

JEAN DU PLESSIS: I felt at that stage we should establish a very small core group, keep it as small as possible. It would function along the lines of a cell, until such time as we had gained enough support, as well as logistic support to establish a full-scale organisation.  The four of us, namely White, Grobbelaar, Van Wyk and myself.

UNKNOWN: How did you regard yourself, as fanatics, as committed?

JEAN DU PLESSIS: Well, we saw ourselves as one hundred per cent committed.  We felt that the people of this country were being deluded.  That people do not want to see what was happening in this country, and that those few who saw the truth weren't doing anything about it. I felt that it was my responsibility to do something about this matter.  To do something about communism and the Black powers threatening to take over the country and to prevent that.

UNKNOWN: What was your role models in the history of the Boer people?

JEAN DU PLESSIS: Well, I had great respect for Jopie Fourie, for Capt Danie Theron and also for Genl De Wet. I felt that these people believed very strongly in their "volk", in their people and they were prepared to sacrifice everything for their people.

UNKNOWN: Is it just coincidental that all heroes died in a violent way, they were all shot?

JEAN DU PLESSIS: I felt that to die for the struggle was to die a noble death.

UNKNOWN: Right, would you continue with the NSP? What did you do then?

JEAN DU PLESSIS: We then decided, or I decided that we would launch our first operation in order to obtain weapons. Part of our plan was to initially collect some weapons, sufficient to equip a group of about 20 men, to the tune of about 20 men and then to launch our next operation to raise funds.  We then wanted to establish an Army base in South West Africa and I also envisaged establishing training camps in Mozambique and in Botswana and in Zimbabwe as well.

UNKNOWN: Continue?

JEAN DU PLESSIS: We then borrowed a vehicle from a person well-disposed towards us, we also received money and we ... (intervention).

JUDGE WILSON: Who was this person?

JEAN DU PLESSIS: It was Mr Anton Terblanche.

UNKNOWN: Was he aware or rather how much money did you receive?

JEAN DU PLESSIS: It was about R2 000,00.

UNKNOWN: And was he aware of what you were planning to do with the money and the vehicle, broadly speaking?

JEAN DU PLESSIS: No, Mr Terblanche wasn't aware of what the operation entailed. He simply believed in us and in our objectives to liberate the country. I felt that the less he knew and the less anybody knew, the safer it would be for us and for them.

UNKNOWN: Do you think Mr Terblanche knew that it was probably going to be used in some illegal way and to promote your underground objectives and organisation?

JEAN DU PLESSIS: I think the thought probably crossed his mind, yes, but he couldn't have been sure, because I didn't inform him of any of the detail.

UNKNOWN: Did you accept therefore that the BBB was supporting to you financially, morally?

JEAN DU PLESSIS: Yes.

UNKNOWN: Continue with the operation.