President Thabo Mbeki has urged the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to deal firmly with anyone seeking to destabilise that country, South African Broadcasting Corporation radio news reported on Thursday.
He said if South Africans are involved in attempts to overthrow the DRC government, strong action should be taken against them.
”Clearly, if there are any South Africans who are involved in any illegal processes in the Congo intended to destabilise and affect the elections, I think the Congolese government needs to act firmly against those people as we would within the context of our own law,” Mbeki told the broadcaster.
”Anybody who would plan to engage in military action intended to disrupt the processes leading to elections in the Congo, I am quite sure they would fail.”
At least 26 men — 19 of them carrying South African passports, three Americans and four Nigerians — were arrested on Friday and are being held for an alleged coup plot.
DRC government spokesperson Henri Mova Sakanyi reportedly said: ”They wanted to destabilise the institutions of the country; that means a coup attempt.”
South Africa’s Department of Foreign Affairs said 16 of the South African passport holders are members of the Omega Security Company, which has contracts with the DRC’s National Transport Office for the training of security personnel in Matadi, Boma and Mouanda.
The other three South African passport holders work for a mining company, Mirabulis, as interpreters.
Video footage of those in detention was screened on television news bulletins on Wednesday.
South Africa’s ambassador in Kinshasa, Sisa Ngombane, said this amounted to a ”gross violation of their rights”, Beeld newspaper reported.
”We are unhappy about these allegations, as well as the Congolese’s planned telecasting of videos of the men,” Ngombane said. ”[Broadcasting] such videos, while there is still no evidence against them, is a gross violation of their human rights.”
Ngombane said South Africa has always had good relations with the government of President Joseph Kabila.
South Africa is helping to monitor the run-up to the election in the DRC on July 30, and paying for the printing of the ballots.
”The [Congolese] government is not being frank about its conduct,” said Ngombane, with reference to DRC Home Affairs Minister Theophilus Mbemba’s claim on television that the men — all security guards — might be mercenaries.
They were apparently unarmed when they were arrested, Beeld reported.
Omega has denied charges that any its employees were involved in a plot to overthrow the DRC government. — Sapa