unwillingly
Peta Thornycroft
Wynand du Toit, a former South African commando, was deported from Angola last month exactly 10 years after he had been freed from a Luanda jail. In 1985 Du Toit became Angolas most celebrated prisoner after he was captured in an attempt to blow up Angolas oil fields in the Cabinda enclave.
Du Toit returned to Angola to work with the South African mercenaries and military trainers Executive Outcomes (EO) in 1994. While he was in charge of training soldiers for the Angolan government he said he had made his peace with the MPLA government in Luanda.
Like many former soldiers, Du Toit said he had been bullshitted by the previous South African government into going to war against Angola.
He said in interviews at camps south of Luanda he wanted to settle in Angola when his lucrative contract with EO ended. And he did. He became one of the few South Africans lured to the devastated country by agriculture and not diamonds.
He says he was granted a concession to occupy and farm 6 000ha in southern Angola and went there two years ago. I did well. Buying cattle from the people out there and selling them to the abattoirs We were trading. Sometimes we exchanged goods for cattle, sometimes money… and then the governor told me to go to Luanda to settle my permit. When I got there I was arrested and put in jail, and the next day I was deported.
Du Toit said he had been given no reason for being thrown out of Angola, and hoped to return. But he was not optimistic. All foreigners who invested in Angola as individuals, and not through large companies, have been expelled. I was surprised because I am one of the very few to go into farming.
I was given no reason. The South African government didnt seem to know I was being deported. I invested all my money there, my trucks, my capital is there. I made many friends in Angola. I want to return.
Attempts to contact the Angolan government were unsuccessful.