Two extreme right-wing white men, David Beelders (39) and Arnold van der Westhuizen (27) were sentenced to effective prison terms of 7½ and 6 years respectively after being convicted on three charges under the Terrorism Act. Much of their sentences are to run concurrently.
The third accused, Bryan Hack (23), leader of the Conservative Student's Association at the University of Cape Town, was acquitted.
The men were sentenced in the Cape Town Supreme Court on 7 September.
Beelders was sentenced for complicity in the fire which caused R10,000 worth of damages to the offices of the South African Institute of Race Relations and the Black Sash in Mowbray, Cape Town, 1978 (6 years), for encouraging van der Westhuizen to blow up the building of the *Cape Times* newspaper (5 years) and for "activating" a teargas canister at a public meeting of the progressive Reform Party in Sea Point in 1977 (18 months).
Van der Westhuizen was convicted of firing shots at the Clifton home of the then leader of the opposition Progressive Federal Party, Colin Eglin, of complicity in the SAIRR fire, and of inciting a group of University of Cape Town students to kidnap left-wingers and to break into and enter business premises occupied by people with political convictions opposed to theirs (5 years). (CT 7.9.79; RDM 8.9.79)
