By Jenni Evans
The two men arrested on charges of breaking laws on weapons of mass destruction and nuclear energy worked at a Randburg engineering company, their colleagues told Sapa on Thursday.
One was arrested in Durban and another in Randburg on Wednesday night, police spokeswoman Director Sally de Beer said earlier.
"We are shocked," said an employee who asked not to be named.
"We just repair vacuum pumps... it's like taking your car into the workshop for repair."
He said police took files and a computer when they searched the premises.
A lawyer for one of the men would not comment.
Johan Meyer, a director of a Vanderbijlpark engineering firm, was arrested last week under the Non-Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction Act and the Nuclear Energy Act and 11 containers of equipment were removed from his premises.
They were taken to a nuclear research facility at Pelindaba, west of Pretoria.
The case against Meyer was withdrawn on Wednesday.
His lawyer would not comment on whether Meyer was assisting an international investigation into the import and export of nuclear components, but said he would make a statement later on Thursday. - Sapa