A contentious South African draft Bill to prevent nationals from working as hired guns abroad on Tuesday came a step closer to being promulgated into law after its approval by a parliamentary committee.
The draft law was approved by Parliament’s defence portfolio committee with a majority vote by members of the ruling African National Congress. But opposition lawmakers called it flawed, sloppy and unconstitutional.
”We really hope that parties and organisations that have South Africans enlisted with them will take this matter to the courts,” said Pieter Groenewald of the minority Freedom Front Plus party.
The Bill, replacing existing legislation regarded as inadequate, requires South African citizens and permanent residents to obtain permission to enlist in a foreign armed force.
The diplomatic community has voiced its concern, with British High Commissioner Paul Boateng calling for nearly 800 South Africans serving in the British armed forces to be exempted from the proposed law.
His spokesperson, Russ Dixon, said on Monday: ”We will continue to pursue this matter bilaterally”.
Britain fears that South Africans enlisted in its armed forces, some for over 10 years, could now find themselves on the wrong side of the law.
Most were white South Africans who served in the apartheid-era defence force and left the country after the end of white minority rule in 1994.
Len le Roux, head of the defence sector programme at the Institute for Security Studies think-tank in Pretoria, said the proposed law could block the future of many South Africans seeking employment abroad.
”No other armed force is likely to appoint a person knowing that if the individual were needed for operational deployment … he or she might have to give up their South African citizenship or risk breaking a law back home.”
Defence committee chairperson Thandi Tobias said the issue needed careful consideration so that South Africans were not placed in a situation ”when ordered tomorrow to come and kill South Africans, he or she will do that”.
”There needs to be control over the movement of South African citizens, especially these with special skills, because they are killing machines. They can be ordered to kill.”
Between 4 000 and 20 000 South Africans are estimated to be working for private security firms abroad, including at least 2 000 in Iraq.
British businessman Mark Thatcher was arrested in South Africa under anti-mercenary legislation and accused of partly financing a plot to overthrow the president of Equatorial Guinea.
The son of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher pleaded guilty to unwittingly violating the current anti-mercenary law in January last year and paid a R3-million fine.
The Prohibition of Mercenary Activities and Regulation of Certain Activities in Areas of Armed Conflict Bill is due to be sent to Parliament for approval, after which it will be promulgated into law by President Thabo Mbeki. — AFP
