2 000 mercenaries hired - claim

2004-08-18 15:46

Tisha Steyn

Cape Town - The Scorpions have raided a recruitment company in Parow, which they believe has recruited thousands of South Africans as mercenaries.

Andrew Leask, who heads the Scorpions' special national projects, confirmed that three people had been "taken in for questioning".

Two of them were arrested at their home in Durbanville about 09:00 on Wednesday. They accompanied the Scorpions to the offices of International Intelligence Risk Management in Parow.

By 15:30 the Scorpions were still at the offices, where the special investigation unit had seized paper and electronic documents, cellphones and computers.

At least 2 000 files found

Leask said files were found of at least 2 000 people, who had been recruited as mercenaries.

He said the Scorpions were trying to determine whether these recruits had been sent to foreign countries as mercenaries.

The recruitment of mercenaries is illegal under the South African Foreign Military Assistance Act.

Fraud charge also under investigation

An alternative charge of fraud would also be investigated.

Recruits were required to pay R65 cash a month, and the Scorpions were trying to determine what had happened to the money.

Leask said there were no indications that the recruitment company had any links with South Africans working as security personnel in Iraq, or South Africans being held in Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea.

The Scorpions were also looking into other companies recruiting people to work in countries of conflict.

Some of these companies had been subcontracted by the Parow company to recruit people for it.

They were also still looking for the owner of the company, who was believed to be somewhere in the Western Cape, but had eluded them on Wednesday.

- News24