OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Sunday 11.30am
POLICE at Cape Town’s airport have seized about 30 semiautomatic and automatic guns and several rifles from security staff of Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi, due here Sunday, a South African official said.
The arsenal was seized when about 113 members of Kadhafi’s security force flew into Cape Town on Thursday to prepare for the Libyan leader’s visit to attend the R47-million inauguration of South Africa’s next president, Thabo Mbeki, on Wednesday.
Foreign delegations attending the ceremony had been told they would only be allowed to bring five side arms into the country, government spokesman Faizel Dawjee told the Sunday Times newspaper.
The foreign ministry confirmed that the Libyan security staff had been reminded of this rule before they arrived.
Dawjee said the Libyan arsenal was under guard at the airport. A special permit had been issued for the delegation’s stipulated five weapons, which would be handed to them.
Gaddafi, travelling abroad for the first time since sanctions against his country were He is to arrive here from the Zambian capital Lusaka where on Saturday he held talks with President Frederick Chiluba on the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo. About 96 governments are expected to attend Mbeki’s inauguration. — AFP