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The ringleader of a white supremacist plot to assassinate Nelson Mandela and drive black people out of South Africa has been sentenced to 35 years in jail, state media have reported. Former university lecturer Mike du Toit was convicted last year of treason for his leadership role in the plot, after a trial lasting more than 10 years He led the Boeremag, a militia of white supremacist loyalists. In 2002 it attempted to overthrow the governing African National Congress. Twenty other Boeremag members convicted of high treason were given jail terms of between five and 30 years in the court in Pretoria.