Jail awaits you, mercenaries told
DEFENCE Minister Nosiviwe MapisaNqakula has issued a stern warning to South African mercenaries battling Boko Haram in Nigeria that they face serious consequences for their actions.
The former South African Defence Force soldiers have been enlisted by the Nigerian government to help them fight the terrorist group.
Mapisa-Nqakula said yesterday the Foreign Military Assistance Act prohibited South Africans from fighting outside the country for financial gain.
She said the conduct of the former SADF members was in violation of the country’s laws. This meant the former soldiers were liable for prosecution on their return.
It has been reported that at least 100 mercenaries have been helping in the fight against Boko Haram in Nigeria.
Former SADF soldier Leon Lotz was killed in Bono state in Nigeria in March, confirming the involvement of mercenaries in Nigeria.
Mapisa-Nqakula, who was briefing the Cape Town Press Club after her budget vote, did not indicate if the government would immediately come down on the former soldiers once they came back to South Africa.
Newly elected Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari also expressed concern this week that the outgoing government had hired the mercenaries.
He said the Nigerian military should take on Boko Haram without having to use private soldiers.
Mapisa-Nqakula said South Africa had not deployed any troops in Nigeria.
Prison
The action of the mercenaries had not been sanctioned by the government, she said.
“To simply sneak out of the country for financial gain, it renders you a mercenary. Those are mercenaries and there should be consequences,” Mapisa-Nqakula said.
She said the Foreign Military Assistance Act would have to be applied against these former soldiers when they returned home.
The act prescribes a prison term of up to six years.
The government introduced the act in 1998 after it emerged that former SADF soldiers were hired across the globe, but mainly in Africa.
One infamous case was the arrest of Briton Simon Mann and a planeload of 64 mercenaries who were arrested in Zimbabwe – and some in Equatorial Guinea – for trying to overthrow the government of Obiang Nguema Bassongo in the mid-2000s.
Several of these men were jailed for more than five years and languished in foreign prisons for their role.
Nguema said the mercenaries had been hired by exiled opposition leader Severo Moto.
Nguema came to power in 1979 after overthrowing his uncle Fransisco Macias Nguema in a military coup.
The late British prime minister Margaret Thatcher’s son, Mark Thatcher, was arrested in South Africa by the Scorpions for being involved in the plot to oust Nguema.
He was released after a plea bargain with the State and was given a suspended four-year jail term and fined R3 million in 2005.
Mapisa-Nqakula said the government would not tolerate the use of mercenaries.