/ 12 March 1999

EXCALIBUR BOOMING

OWNER of security company Excalibur, Andre van der Byl, says his business has boomed following allegations it was involved in gun running and had links with Robert McBride. He appeared in the Durban Regional Court on Thursday charged under the Arms and Ammunition Act. Excalibur allegedly supplied seven automatic weapons late last year to the bodyguards of Dumisani Khuzwayo, an former Inkatha Freedom Party Youth Brigade leader who defected to the African National Congress. The prosecution contends the men were not security guards. Van der Byl said the seven men he supplied the guns to were Excalibur employees and the process of registering them with the Security Officers Board was nearly complete.