A SOUTH African man who was arrested after he allegedly tried to set the country’s high commission offices in Kenyan capital Nairobi on Monday, had been declared a habitual criminal in this country, the Department of Foreign Affairs said. Representative Ronnie Mamoepa said on Tuesday night the man approached the embassy in November last year demanding financial assistance to return home, claiming to be destitute. On Monday the man was spotted hiding in the Consular section of the embassy by the cleaners. When he realised he had been spotted, he threw papers on the floor and poured petrol on the papers in an attempt to set the offices alight. Security guards apprehended him. Mamoepa said the man had been declared a habitual criminal in South Africa and had served lengthy jail terms. In 1995, he took his nephew hostage in a Boksburg prison and former Gauteng premier Tokyo Sexwale negotiated his release. Mamoepa could not remember his demands at the time. The man will appear in a Nairobi court on Wednesday. – Sapa
Tuesday January 29, 2001