OWN CORRESPONDENT in Johannesburg | Friday 9.15pm.
MERCENARY outfit Executive Outcomes on Friday denied that any of its members is playing a hand in renewed fighting in Angola.
Responding to recent media reports, EO managing director Nic van den Berg said: “I declare that EO is not involved in Angola and has not been since leaving that country in January 1996. “We have absolutely no desire to work for Unita and will support the recognised government if requested to do so.”
He added that EO also did not know anything about a group that was supposedly organising South Africans to fight for Unita in Angola.
The company was contracted by Angolan president Jose Eduardo dos Santos in 1994/1995 to train government soldiers. A number of EO members died or were wounded in subsequent skirmishes with Unita.
Foreign Affairs spokesman Machiel van Niekerk on Thursday said while the department was aware of rumours that South Africans were being hired to fight in Angola, no proof of these allegations has yet been found.