By participating in an elaborate sting operation involving dozens of its citizens, the South African government was seeking to ram home the message that the country is no longer a breeding ground for mercenaries.
Instead it has created a rod for its back, as two of the more odious regimes in Africa play fast and loose with the legal mores that underpin the South African Constitution.
The South African government believed it knew what the planeload of militarily trained men were up to when they left Polokwane airport on March 7. Hours later the men, those waiting to meet them at the airport in Zimbabwe and the flight crew — numbering 70 in all, each with a South African passport — were locked in Chikurubi maximum security prison, suspected of plotting to overthrow the unsteady regime of Teodoro Obiang Nguema in Equatorial Guinea.
The suspicion was based on information from Pretoria; then-intelligence minister Lindiwe Sisulu admitted as much a few days after their arrest. She hailed the collaborative efforts of South Africa, Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea in foiling the recruitment of mercenaries who had done so much damage on the continent.
The sting, however, has been compromised by Nguema’s admission that he is incapable of conducting a fair trial of the 13 men he is holding on similar charges. He has officially requested South African assistance in making the case against those suspects — but in his customary contrary way, he has withheld adequate consular access to the men by South African officials from Pretoria and the embassy in Gabon.
Still, it is Zimbabwe, once again, that is making the most of its neighbour’s inability to protect its citizens when they get into trouble in other countries.
Unable to substantiate charges more serious than infringement of aviation and immigration laws against the 70 men it is holding, the Zimbabwe government is now seriously weighing up extraditing them to Equatorial Guinea. No such legal niceties prevail in Equatorial Guinea, where Nguema came to power by murdering his uncle and has habitually used alleged coups as a pretext for thinning out his opposition.
Days after the arrest of the 70 men, Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said the suspects would face the might of the law in Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea and would then have the book thrown at them when they came home.
She said they could expect no more than a no-frills consular service. But providing even that has proved problematic. This week, for example, the South African embassy staff in Harare has been able to see only seven of the 70 men individually. It has based its assurances that they are well on observations at their trial, which is being conducted in the prison. The men made another appearance there on Wednesday.
But having its citizens facing the death penalty has now concentrated the South African government’s mind.
This week Deputy Minister of Foreign Aziz Pahad said the suspects were being treated like any South Africans in distress abroad. In addition to consular access, this would entail demanding a fair trial for them in accordance with international law.
He made it clear South Africa is not about to accede to the demands by the suspects’ families that they be expatriated for trial in South Africa. But he indicated that the government would be obliged to get involved if they were sentenced to death.
Even then, however, this would be limited to using its persuasive powers with countries whose leaders have not shown a predilection for taking advice.
The South African Human Rights Commission got involved in the issue this week, reminding the government of its duty towards its citizens detained abroad. As the sting operation goes increasingly from bad to worse, the government can expect this point to be driven home repeatedly.
On Wednesday Harare Magistrate Mishrod Guvamombe rejected a defence motion to free the 70 suspects, saying there was reasonable suspicion against the men. He ordered them remanded to custody until their next appearance on May 26.