AWB leaders face bomb charges as count begins

THE NET closed yesterday around Eugene Terreblanche, the leader of the far-right Afrikaner Resistance Movement (AWB), after three of his closest lieutenants appeared in court in connection with the bomb attacks in Johannesburg earlier this week.

South Africa's first democratic elections, the target of the bombers, stumbled towards an apparently satisfactory conclusion last night after an extra day of voting.

Judge Johan Kriegler, chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission, declared the election to have been 'an outstanding success', although he conceded there had been substantial technical shortcomings.

After a meeting yesterday evening with President F W de Klerk and the African National Congress leader, Nelson Mandela, he declared that there was no reason to doubt that the elections had been free and fair. But there remained numerous allegations of irregularities, especially in KwaZulu-Natal, where up to 200,000 blank ballot papers were reported to have gone missing.

It remains for the count to start this morning and for the official result to be announced, possibly on Monday. Unofficial projections may come as early as this evening.

Three senior members of the AWB were among 33 right-wing extremists who appeared in the Johannesburg Magistrates' Court yesterday facing charges including 19 counts of murder, 191 counts of attempted murder, vehicle theft, malicious damage to property and breaking the Arms and Ammunition and Explosives Acts.

The AWB chief-of-staff, Josias Alexander van Cruywagen, the commander of Mr Terreblanche's secretive Ystergaarde (Iron Guard) unit, Leon van der Merwe, and the organisation's executive secretary, Nico Prinsloo, were among the accused.

Suggestions that Mr Terreblanche must have known what his subordinates were plotting were reinforced by a statement he made during a rally on Thursday. He denied that he had ordered his members to plant bombs but also declared: 'There will be more explosions until the Afrikaner nation is given its land.'

Despite the threats, the extra day of voting passed off peacefully. However, doubts remained in some areas as to how clean the electoral process had been. Both Inkatha and the ANC accused each other of mounting pirate polling stations in KwaZulu.

Despite the mud-slinging and confusion, South Africa's financial markets were taking the long view. Share prices surged on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange amid expectations that the elections would be followed by heavy foreign investment.

Mandela exclusive

Nelson Mandela will be president of the new South Africa. Next week, exclusively in the Independent, Mr Mandela will give his first post-election interview to our Johannesburg correspondent, John Carlin.

Election reports, page 12

Letters, page 15