OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 8.30pm.
MOZAMBICAN attorney-general Antonio Namburete said on Wednesday that more arrests could follow in connection with the gun-running and espionage charges levelled against foreign affairs official Robert McBride.
Namburete spoke in Pretoria, after addressing a crime conference, saying the case against McBride must still be solved: “The suspects still have to be questioned about the evidence that has been gathered.”
Namburete earlier told the crime conference that gun-running and crime in South Africa — organised from Mozambique — is on the increase.
Meanwhile police special investigation unit head Director Bushy Engelbrecht says he has asked for a meeting with McBride to discuss the latter’s information on gunrunning.
McBride, just released from custody in Mozambique, has accused South African police of misleading Mozambican police to ensure he was charged with gunrunning.
“The docket shows quite clearly that members of the SAPS deliberately misled their Mozambican counterparts in order to ensure that I was charged,” he said, and has lodged a complaint with the Independent Complaints Directorate against the police team handling his case.
McBride has also denied news reports quoting him as saying senior South African government officials are involved in arms smuggling. He said that in fact when released, he had received the details of senior Mozambican security force members involved in arms trafficking.