Prosecutor Ansie Venter asked for the postponement for a thorough psychological evaluation of Mr Knoesen.
The state would need four weeks for the psychological report to be compiled.

The psychologist tasked with the evaluation is presently in training sessions, which will last for the next two weeks.

According to Advocate Venter, the psychologist will need at least two sessions with Mr Knoesen for the compilation of the report.

Meanwhile, the state continued with arguments in aggravation of sentence today by calling the National Commissioner of the Hawks Counter-Terrorism Unit, Colonel Johannes Hendrik Vreugdenburg, to the stand.

Colonel Vreugdenburg, a decorated anti-terrorism specialist with international credentials, testified that Mr Knoesen’s terrorism plot could have destroyed South Africa with immediate sanctions and economic collapse.

He further said that the Crusaders’ coup would have had a profound effect on the entire nation, with the aim of restoring apartheid in the country.

According to Colonel Vreugdenburg, millions of lives would have been destroyed by the violence aimed at black South Africans, as outlined in Mr Knoesen’s Crusaders’ attack plan.

Colonel Vreugdenburg told the court that far right-wing extremism had evolved from national pride during the Great Trek and two Boer wars, to religious fanaticism.

He said that like ISIS, fragmented far-right Christian extremists, like Mr Knoesen, who believed he was ordained by God to overthrow the government, utilise certain Biblical scriptures to glorify and rationalise their bias.

According to Colonel Vreugdenburg, there are no existing rehabilitation programmes available to Mr Knoesen.

He warned Judge Johanna Mthimunye that religious, right-wing fanatics like Mr Knoesen would re-offend and that the best sentence would be the minimum prescribed sentence, which would be life in prison.