By Peter Fabricius Foreign Editor
Several South Africans, led by a former SA Police Service officer, are working for a Dubai-based security company in Guinea, providing protection and training to the military junta which seized power in a December coup and has been ostracised by African organisations, security sources say.
South Africa's director-general of international relations and co-operation, Ayanda Ntsaluba, said yesterday the government's information also suggested that the South Africans allegedly working for the junta were employed by "companies operating largely through Dubai".
Ntsaluba declined to name the company, but intelligence sources said the South Africans had been in the turbulent West African state for at least a month, working for Omega Strategic Services (OSS) to provide security and military training for the military junta headed by Captain Moussa Dadis Camara.
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UN diplomats have corroborated the reports of mercenaries helping the junta The contingent in Guinea is headed by Daniel Oosthuizen, the OSS director of operations and a veteran of 18 years' service in the SAPS, according to the sources.
Ntsaluba said the South African government was trying to verify French media reports about the presence of South African mercenaries in Guinea, providing training for the junta's soldiers and securing imports of weapons from Ukraine.
UN diplomats have corroborated the reports of mercenaries helping the junta.
South African intelligence sources said the South Africans had started arriving in Conakry, the capital of Guinea, on October 13 because Camara feared that he might be himself be toppled in a coup.
The turbulence increased dramatically after September 28 when Camara's troops attracted worldwide condemnation by firing on protesters against the junta and killing about 150 of them, according to the UN, though the junta itself puts the figure at about 50.
Oosthuizen is heading the OSS operation in Guinea
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