When the new Pan-African Parliament is inaugurated in Ethiopia next week, it will confront a host of challenging issues -‒ not least the role of mercenaries in Africa.
”Mercenaries are now topical. They are in the news,” Frene Ginwala, the Speaker of South Africa’s National Assembly, told journalists in Johannesburg on March 12.
Ginwala was referring to the 79 suspected mercenaries who were arrested in Zimbabwe and the oil-rich West African nation of Equatorial Guinea this week. Along with four of her colleagues in the legislature, the speaker will represent South Africa in the Pan-African Parliament (PAP), which is to hold its first session from March 15 to 20 in Addis Ababa.
President Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea said the 15 suspects detained in his country were ”an advance team” seeking to topple the government. He claimed they were linked to the other 64 suspects who were arrested in Zimbabwe after their ageing US-registered Boeing 727-L100 was impounded at Harare International Airport on March 7.
On Wednesday, Zimbabwe’s Minister of Home Affairs, Kembo Mohadi, claimed that Equatorial Guinea’s opposition leader -‒ Severo Moto -‒ had offered the mercenaries around $1,9-million and oil rights for toppling Nguema.
The country is currently the third largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa, yielding 350 000 barrels of oil per day.
Moto, who is based in Spain, has denied the allegations.
Mohadi also said the plane was believed to have been hired by South African mercenaries and western security agents. The Zimbabwean government, which is at odds with the United States and the European Union, is threatening to execute the alleged mercenaries.
The detainees say they are security guards who were hired to protect mining firms in the strife-torn central African countries of Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
South Africa’s Foreign Affairs Ministry has confirmed that 20 of its nationals are among those arrested in Zimbabwe. The others come from Angola, Namibia, the DRC and Zimbabwe.
Ginwala said there were instruments in place to curb the activities of mercenaries in Africa.
”Already the African Union does not recognise takeovers or coups, including those made by mercenaries. We operate within that parameter. Also there are international instruments that forbid forceful removal of governments,” she told reporters.
Barend Geldenhuys, another South African member of the PAP, said ”It’s our responsibility to influence the Pan-African Parliament to address the issue.”
His colleague Mninwa Mahlangu added that South Africa had committed itself to restoring peace on the continent.
Various factors have conspired to undermine these good intentions, however.
Since the demise of apartheid, South Africa has played an active role in bringing peace to a number of African countries ‒- including the DRC, Burundi, Liberia, Mozambique and Angola.
But the end of segregation also led to the retrenchment of troops by the new government. Overnight, many found themselves on the street, with little prospect of employment elsewhere.
”These are people who are well trained … [but] under the new dispensation their services are not required. They found themselves without jobs. And it [military work] is the only job they can do,” said Geldenhuys.
Local security firms estimate that about 1 000 of those former soldiers are now working in Iraq -‒ ”protecting ministers and other senior government officials,” according to Geldenhuys.
The PAP member said he had no qualms about South African soldiers guarding oil fields overseas. ”What’s not acceptable is for them to overthrow a foreign government. That gives a bad name to South Africa,” he added.
In a bid to address this situation, South Africa has introduced tough laws to deal with mercenaries -‒ often referred to as ”dogs of war”.
SA Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Aziz Pahad says that if the South Africans detained in Zimbabwe are involved in mercenary activities, then they will be contravening the Foreign Military Assistance Act. This forbids the involvement of South African nationals in military activities outside the country without authorisation from the National Conventional Arms Control Committee.
The Organisation of African Unity (OAU) which was replaced by the African Union (AU) in 2002, also took a tough stance on mercenaries. Rolf Stainer, a German mercenary, was extradited from Uganda to Sudan for supporting Anyanya rebels in south Sudan in the early 1970s.
The OAU condemned the legendary French mercenary Bob Denard, who was involved in several coups in the Indian Ocean island nation of Comoro. It also put pressure on Executive Outcomes, a now defunct mercenary firm, to pull out of Sierra Leone and Angola.
At least two of the alleged mercenaries arrested in Zimbabwe have been linked to Executive Outcomes, which was previously based in South Africa’s capital -‒ Pretoria. The company folded in 1999 amidst bad publicity and scrutiny by the national parliament.
Angolan Foreign Affairs Minister Joan Miranda was quoted by state-owned radio as saying he believed the mercenaries had belonged to the feared 32 Battalion (also referred to as the Buffalo Battalion) which spearheaded South Africa’s clandestine offensive in Namibia and Angola during the 1970s and 80s. Angolan refugees made up a large component of the battalion, which was disbanded at the demand of the African National Congress -‒ now South Africa’s ruling party.
It is likely that South Africa’s Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma will raise the issue of mercenaries when she leads her country’s delegation to the inaugural session of the PAP. – IPS