unrest
Mail & Guardian reporters
The army weapon and ammunition heists in Bloemfontein may have been intended to fuel instability in Lesotho. This scenario was flighted by security experts this week as police made their first arrests.
Lesotho has been racked by protests since claims by opposition parties that the ruling Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) defrauded them of election victory a fortnight ago. The LCD won 78 of the 79 constituencies.
A court challenge by the Basotho National Party and the Basotholand Congress Party (BCP) on the eve of the elections failed, despite clear evidence of irregularities in voter registration. Neither party has accepted the election results. The recipients of the arms may be elements of the Lesotho Liberation Army – the former military wing of the BCP.
Units of the police and defence forces arrested suspects Hendrik and Petrus du Preez – apparently brothers – early on Wednesday in a joint operation.
A statement by Minister of Safety and Security Sydney Mufamadi said ammunition hijacked from an army truck on Monday, as well as weapons stolen from Bloemfontein’s 44 Parachute Brigade on the weekend of May 16 and 17, were recovered.
Mufamadi declined to comment, but Deputy Minister of Defence Ronnie Kasrils told Parliament’s joint standing committee on defence that the suspects, both members of the parachute brigade, apparently had right-wing links.
In the earlier heist, which baffled investigators because of its audacity, the elite parachute brigade’s rapid- deployment store was broken into. The thieves made off with equipment for a small army, including rocket and grenade launchers, machine guns and assault rifles.
It appears the weapons were transported in a military Samil truck, also stolen from the base. The truck was found that same weekend, burnt out on the De Wetsdorp road, which leads from Bloemfontein to Lesotho and KwaZulu- Natal.
On Monday another military vehicle, a Samag truck transporting 185 000 rounds of ammunition from the Tempe maintenance unit in Bloemfontein, was hijacked en route to Group 36 headquarters in Ladybrand. Group 36 is tasked with security on the Lesotho border.
The truck was found on the N1 just outside Bloemfontein, minus ammunition and its two drivers. The body of one, Corporal Chere Michael Leisanyane, has since been found by police drivers.
In apparent confirmation that the earlier break-in and Monday’s hijacking were linked, the Du Preez brothers faced charges of burglary, armed robbery and murder when they were led – masked, chained and heavily guarded – into Bloemfontein Regional Court on Thursday. They were not asked to plead.
Researchers at the Institute of Security Studies this week speculated that elements of the Lesotho Liberation Army may have been the intended recipients of the arms. The liberation army, at one stage supported by apartheid South Africa, was never fully integrated into Lesotho’s official military structures.
The BCP was the ruling party in Lesotho until last year, when then prime minister Ntsu Mokhehle formed the LCD breakaway party, which took over the government. Disaffected liberation army members were unlikely to have transferred their loyalties to the new ruling party.