THE South African neo Nazi leader, Mr Eugene TerreBlanche, was jeered through the streets of Johannesburg yesterday after 10 of his supporters received jail sentences of up to 26 years for their part in a string of fatal bombings in 1994.
Surrounded by uniformed supporters wearing holstered pistols, the khaki clad Africaner Resistance Movement (AWB) leader fled from a crowd of taunting blacks outside the Rand Supreme Court after the sentences were read. As he went, Mr John Keane, the Dublin born father of one of the victims, questioned why the AWB's leaders were able to go free after their movement had murdered more than 20 people.
"They can not in all consciousness tell us they were unaware of the bombing plans," he said. "I don't think these people are ready to reconcile and personally I am not ready to reconcile with them. I just cannot".
Mr TerreBlanche, leader of the Resistance Movement, had walked from the building with his supporters to confront dozens of journalists and a crowd of several hundred onlookers, most of them jeering blacks.
As the media filmed and photographed, a defiant AWB man stepped forward and unveiled a banner denouncing the ruling African National Congress. But like many AWB attempts to communicate to the world it was a vain gesture the banner was written in Afrikaans.
Surrounded on all sides by booing blacks, the AWB men bolted for the street, pushing and punching those in their way. Among those assaulted was Mrs Joan Keane, Mr Keane's wife. Their only child, the Irish South African ANC parliamentary candidate, Ms Susan Keane, was among those killed by an AWB bomb on Johannesburg's Bree Street just days before the April 1994 election.
Heckled on all sides, the AWB supporters began to run for their cars. Mr TerreBlanche's driver crashed into the rear of a parked car in his efforts to escape.
In sentencing the convicted men, Judge, Monus Fleming said he was taking into account the highly politicised climate in South Africa at the time of the bombings. The AWB's leadership had been prophesying a "race war in the aftermath, of the country's first multiracial elections and the bombers had feared, for their lives.
Five of the men, convicted of murdering three people with a bomb in Pretoria, were sentence to a total of 26 years in prison. Another five, convicted of possessing weapons and explosives received sentences ranging from three to six years. Judge Fleming delayed sentence on a further four men who escaped from custody last month, three of whom had been convicted of setting the Bree Street bomb in Johannesburg.
Lawyers described the sentences as comparatively light: South African prisoners are usually granted one third remission, so even the murder convicts can expect to serve a maximum of 16 years. The sentences were bitterly denounced afterwards by Mr Keane.
"I think it's a travesty of justice, he said. "What would they have got had they been in the IRA and bombed London?"
Standing among the crowd outside the courtroom was a ragged young black man with one arm. Around his neck hung a card board placard, written in ballpoint. It said: "Today I don't have to walk with an I.D. behind my back pocket. Don't have to sleep in Hillbrow with one eye open for raiding cops. Have privilege and can vote. All of this because of Susan Keane, who is unfortunately not here to see these victories. Lala kahle (sleep well) comrade.