Scorpion sting for mercenaries
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Scorpion sting for mercenaries
From News24
Scorpion sting for mercenaries
18/08/2004
Cape Town - Hundreds of would-be mercenaries in the Western Cape and Gauteng are on tenterhooks after the Scorpions swooped on a Parow company that apparently offered them work in a "security force" to be deployed in an unnamed African country.
The Scorpions took the owners of a recruitment company and the boss of a security company in for questioning on Wednesday night.
The same team that investigated the actions of alleged mercenaries arrested in Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea earlier this year carried out the swoop.
The Scorpions also seized various documents, letterheads, computers and fax machines.
The documents apparently contain the names of more than 1 000 people from the Cape and Gauteng who joined the security company.
Andrew Leask, Scorpions chief of investigations for special national projects, said the people listed would all be questioned.
R50 000-a-month salaries
They will be questioned in accordance with the act on foreign military assistance, mercenary activities and various charges of fraud.
It is believed the security force was to have been deployed for six months at the end of July.
Each applicant was to have paid R65 and would have been paid R10 000 shortly before his departure. Their salaries would have been R50 000 a month.
An e-mail, of which Die Burger has a copy, appears to have been part of the company's recruitment drive and confirms the allegations.
According to the e-mail, the group works primarily with SADC-member countries, although one of its largest contracts was with the Democratic Republic of Congo.
One of the men, who goes under at least three names, said on Wednesday his business was far from over.
When asked why he used the codename "Spider", he said: "That is just one of the names I use for my operations."
During an interview last month, the man showed Die Burger numerous documents and gave information about the security force.
He was allegedly asked by the government of an African country to do away with people who posed a threat in South Africa. He showed photographs of these people.
Leask said these documents also had been seized.
18/08/2004
Cape Town - Hundreds of would-be mercenaries in the Western Cape and Gauteng are on tenterhooks after the Scorpions swooped on a Parow company that apparently offered them work in a "security force" to be deployed in an unnamed African country.
The Scorpions took the owners of a recruitment company and the boss of a security company in for questioning on Wednesday night.
The same team that investigated the actions of alleged mercenaries arrested in Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea earlier this year carried out the swoop.
The Scorpions also seized various documents, letterheads, computers and fax machines.
The documents apparently contain the names of more than 1 000 people from the Cape and Gauteng who joined the security company.
Andrew Leask, Scorpions chief of investigations for special national projects, said the people listed would all be questioned.
R50 000-a-month salaries
They will be questioned in accordance with the act on foreign military assistance, mercenary activities and various charges of fraud.
It is believed the security force was to have been deployed for six months at the end of July.
Each applicant was to have paid R65 and would have been paid R10 000 shortly before his departure. Their salaries would have been R50 000 a month.
An e-mail, of which Die Burger has a copy, appears to have been part of the company's recruitment drive and confirms the allegations.
According to the e-mail, the group works primarily with SADC-member countries, although one of its largest contracts was with the Democratic Republic of Congo.
One of the men, who goes under at least three names, said on Wednesday his business was far from over.
When asked why he used the codename "Spider", he said: "That is just one of the names I use for my operations."
During an interview last month, the man showed Die Burger numerous documents and gave information about the security force.
He was allegedly asked by the government of an African country to do away with people who posed a threat in South Africa. He showed photographs of these people.
Leask said these documents also had been seized.
