SA to review law on mercenaries
Veronica Mohapeloa
26 August 2004
The government is to review the Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Act following the alleged involvement of South Africans in mercenary activities in other African countries.
On Wednesday, British businessman Mark Thatcher was arrested in Cape Town for contravening the Act. The son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is suspected of helping to bankroll a planned coup in Equatorial Guinea.
He appeared in the Wynberg Regional Court and was released on R2-million bail. The case was postponed to 25 November for further investigation.
The trial is under way of 14 suspected mercenaries - eight South Africans and six Armenians - in the Equatorial Guinea capital of Malabo. Guinea's state prosecutors have demanded the death penalty for their leader, South African Nick du Toit, although the country's president has said that none of the accused face capital punishment.
The suspected mercenaries face a range of charges,
including crimes against the head of state, terrorism and the possession of arms and explosives.
Meanwhile, about 70 other men, some of whom are South Africans, have been accused of mercenary activities and are standing trial in Zimbabwe on allegations of a coup plot. They have claimed that they were on their way to guard a mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula said that Africa had for some time now been bedeviled by "soldiers of fortune engaged by some people to effect coups in their countries".
Nqakula said the government would review the law, with a particular eye to the challenges arising from such matters as the definition of a conflict, military assistance, the exclusion of enlistment of South Africans in other countries' defence forces, and the gathering of evidence.
Source: BuaNews
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