Madagascar’s consul general in Johannesburg went to the city’s international airport on Friday to check the passenger list on the weekly flight to the island amid concern that South Africans might be involved in a plot to assassinate newly elected President Marc Ravalomanana.
Consul General Bruno Ranarivelo told Beeld newspaper in an interview published on Friday that a group of South Africans could already be in Madagascar, disguised as security guards, to prepare a coup against President Marc Ravalomanana.
On Friday, he told news agency Agence France Presse (AFP) from the airport that ”nothing has been confirmed, nothing is precise”, adding that it was difficult to ascertain whether or not rumours in Madagascar that paramilitary action was being prepared were true.
But because of those concerns, he said, and because South Africa ”is practically the only African gateway to Madagascar”, he went to the airport to check the Air Madagascar flight, which was full.
Airport police re-checked passengers and baggage, he said.
Three Ukrainian tourists in particular were questioned by the police, but the consul general said it appeared normal that the plane was full, and that all the passengers appeared to be beyond suspicion.
Ranarivelo said he had transmitted a note last week to South Africa’s foreign ministry to express the concerns of the new government in Antananarivo, which is facing off against supporters of former president Didier Ratsiraka, who has rejected the results of presidential elections.
The consul general said he had no reports of any private helicopters or fixed-wing aircraft taking off from South Africa to transport mercenaries or military material to Madagascar.
South Africa’s Department of Foreign Affairs said it had no knowledge of allegations that South African mercenaries were on their way to assassinate Madagascar’s president.
A representative for Ravalomanana told AFP in the Madagascan capital, Antananarivo, on Friday that 36 mercenaries had flown out of South Africa to ”assassinate” the head of state of the Indian Ocean island.
”Reliable sources informed us that three helicopters left this morning from East London, in South Africa, with 36 mercenaries on board destined for the island of Sainte-Marie (off Madagascar’s east coast),” said the representative, Raymond Ramandimbilahatra, reading from a statement.
”They have orders… to assassinate President Marc
Ravalomanana,” he added.
South African aviation authorities denied that three helicopters had left East London, reportedly transporting the mercenaries to carry out the assassination.
”There was no such operation in the East London area,” Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) representative Trevor Davids told the South African Press Association (Sapa).
He said the air control tower did not have any record of such an occurrence. An aviation expert told Sapa that helicopters carrying that number of people to Madagascar would have to land for refuelling in Mozambique.
In terms of legislation passed a few years ago, it is illegal for South Africans or South African residents to participate in foreign military conflicts, which includes acting as mercenaries, without government permission. – Sapa-AFP