Johannesburg - Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula has issued a stern warning to South African mercenaries battling Boko Haram in Nigeria that they face serious consequences for their actions.
While the former South African Defence Force soldiers have been enlisted by the Nigerian government to help them fight the terrorist group, Mapisa-Nqakula said on Wednesday the Foreign Military Assistance Act prohibits South Africans from fighting outside the country for financial gain.
She said the conduct of the former SADF members from the apartheid regime was illegal and in violation of the laws of the country.
This means these former soldiers were liable for prosecution on their return.
It has been reported that at least 100 mercenaries were helping in the fight against Boko Haram in Nigeria.
Former SADF soldier Leon Lotz was killed in Borno state in Nigeria in March, confirming the involvement of mercenaries in Nigeria.
Mapisa-Nqakula, who was briefing the Cape Town Press Club following her budget vote, did not indicate if they would immediately pounce on the former soldiers once they came back to South Africa.
Newly elected Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari also expressed concern this week that the outgoing government had hired the mercenaries.
He said it was supposed to have been the Nigerian military taking on Boko Haram, and not private soldiers.
Mapisa-Nqakula said South Africa had not deployed any troops in Nigeria.
The action of the mercenaries had not been sanctioned by the government, she added.
“To simply sneak out of the country for financial gain, it renders you a mercenary. Those are mercenaries and there should be consequences,” Mapisa-Nqakula said.
She added that the Foreign Military Assistance Act would have to be applied against these former soldiers when they returned home.
The act prescribes a prison term of up to six years.
The government introduced this act in 1998 after it emerged that former SADF soldiers were hired guns across the globe, mainly in Africa.
One infamous case involved the arrest of members of Executive Outcomes who were arrested in Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea for trying to overthrow the government of Obiang Nguema Bassongo in the mid-2000s.
Several of these men were jailed for more than five years and languished in foreign prisons for their role.
Nguema said the mercenaries had been hired by exiled opposition leader Severo Moto.
Nguema came to power in 1979 after overthrowing his uncle Fransisco Macias Nguema in a military coup.
Former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher’s son, Mark Thatcher, was also arrested in South Africa by the then Scorpions for being involved in the plot to oust Nguema.
He was released after a plea bargain with the State and was given a suspended four-year jail term and a fine of R3 million in 2005.
The Star