Zimbabwe’s state security and immigration officials have been delaying the release of 62 mercenaries from the Chikurubi prison since Monday. The lawyer for the men, Jonathan Samkange, told the Mail & Guardian on Thursday afternoon that ”technically my clients have been released from the custody of prison authorities. They were handed over to immigration who are treating them as illegal immigrants.”
He said Zimbabwean authorities have expressed concern that the men posed a security threat and had turned down their offer to foot the bill for air or road transport out of the country.
The men, who served 12 months in prison for violating Zimbabwe’s immigration, aviation, firearms and security laws, will be ferried to the Beit Bridge border in Zimbabwean state vehicles.
The mercenaries could face further sanction in South Africa. The National Prosecuting Authority has indicated that they may be prosecuted on their return for breaching the Foreign Military Assistance Act.
NPA spokesperson Makhosini Nkosi told Sapa: ”We will speak to them when appropriate … They’ve been in jail for a year and want to see their families. Their families want to see them.
”We have contact with their lawyers and know where to find them. So why would we want to arrest them?”
Their early release in March after a reduction of sentence was thwarted by an appeal by Zimbabwean attorney general Sobuza Gula-Ndebele who argued that the provision only applied to Zimbabweans.
Leave for the appeal was granted, and a date for the matter to be heard was set for later in May. The sentences expired before this could happen.
The group was arrested at Harare International Airport when they apparently landed to refuel and pick up military equipment. Zimbabwean authorities said they were on their way to join 15 others, including eight South Africans, arrested in Equatorial Guinea for allegedly plotting a coup.
Former 32 Battalion faces uncertain future
The South African government has been in contact with the Angolan authorities over the possible voluntary repatriation of former Angolan soldiers who fought in the apartheid-era South African Defence Force (SADF), the Mail & Guardian learned this week.
The expected release on Thursday, from a Zimbabwean prison of 62 mercenaries linked to last year’s abortive coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea has raised new questions over the future of the veterans of the SADF’s 32 Battalion.
Most of the mercenaries to be released are Angolan exiles who fought with the SADF in the 1970s and 1980s.
South African National Defence Force (SANDF) General Bobo Moerane said that Angola was willing to accept the veterans, who now hold South African citizenship. He said the South African government and the United Nations high commissioner for refugees would work with the Angolan authorities to safeguard the security of the veterans, who would be returning to a country whose government they once opposed.
”We have a future obligation … together with international organisations, to see that people are not intimidated.” He emphasised that any repatriation would be voluntary.
Angolan embassy officials had not responded to requests for comment at the time of going to press.
Moerane also confirmed that Pomfret, the former military base to which the men and their families were moved in 1989, would be closed and destroyed, probably by the end of the year. He told the M&G that the inhabi-tants would be given title to houses at various locations around South Africa, depending on availability.
In the context of a national housing shortage, Moerane said the people of Pomfret represented an ”extra burden” on the government because ”we have to bring them to the front of the list”.
Moerane said the SANDF was working in conjunction with government departments to ensure that all social needs were met. He dismissed reports that the government perceived a security risk in the concentration of 32 Battalion veterans, who have been associated with mercenary operations over the years. ”The basic reason why we have to move them is the danger of asbestosis,” he said, referring to the danger of contamination from a nearby abandoned factory and mine. — Justin Pearce