Terreblanche: Controversial leader

Terreblanche has served more than half of a five-year term for attacking a black security guard.

The flamboyant head of the Afrikaner Resistance Movement will be freed on parole on 11 June, the official said.

Terreblanche's movement was a fierce opponent of the end of white rule in South Africa.

'Good behaviour'

"Terreblanche will be released on parole next Friday and will serve the remainder of his service under correctional supervision," said government spokesman Sarie Peens.

He was jailed in March 2001 after being convicted of trying to kill security guard Paul Motshabi in 1996.

He worked really hard on the prison farm and had good relations with his fellow inmates Sarie Peens, government official

Mr Motshabi was so severely beaten he was left paralysed and permanently brain damaged.

Terreblanche was also found guilty of assaulting a petrol station attendant.

Ms Peens said Terreblanche had behaved well in prison.

"He worked really hard on the prison farm and had good relations with his fellow inmates," she said.

In the 1980s and early 1990s, Terreblanche's AWB - known for its military uniforms, neo-Nazi insignia and horse-back parades - campaigned to preserve white rule in South Africa and advocated white supremacist ideas.

Its fortunes however have declined since 1993 when supporters crashed an armoured vehicle into a building where talks on South Africa's transition to from apartheid to democracy were being held.