SA men implicated in DRC plot
2006-07-29 12:04
Adriaan Basson and Deon Lamprecht
Johannesburg - A Johannesburg "businessman" and a small Congolese political party are planning a coup for December in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The DRC are going to the polls on Sunday for the first time in 40 years.
Beeld is in possession of a video and tape recording of two meetings on which South Africans and Congolese plot to take over the DRC capital Kinshasa and kill president Joseph Kabila and his four deputies.
The first meeting - which was recorded with a hidden camera - is according to Beeld's source one of at least eleven meetings between members of the Parti National Congolais (PNC) and the South Africans between May 2005 and as recent as May 2006.
According to the source the coup will be financed with European funds and the planning is still continuing. About 250 South African mercenaries are allegedly involved.
It is still unclear how much support the PNC has in the DRC under military and political groups.
Baruti Amisi, senior researcher at the University of KwaZulu-Natal's Centre for Civil Society, on Friday said although the PNC's head office is in Johannesburg, the party also has branches in the DRC.
The PNC boycotts Sunday's election and rejects the Kabila-regime.
'Planning must be seen in a serious light'
Henri Boshoff, senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) and DRC expert, on Friday from Bukavu said although Congolese expatriates in South Africa are normally estranged from the reality in the DRC, "any planning of this sort must be seen in a serious light".
The leader of the PNC, Jemadari Vi-Bee-Kil Kilele, identifies himself as the party's "secretary general" on the video.
According to Beeld's source the South African co-ordinator of the planned coup is an East Rand businessman with links to the ex CCB-member Johan Niemoller who was involved with the "intimidation" of a journalist in the late 1990's in an East Rand shopping mall.
Beeld has confirmed that the man, to which Kilele refers to as "Jannie" on the video, is Jan Johannes Smith.
On the video Kilele rejects the Sun City peace treaty between DRC-parties and accuses Kabila, his deputies, top members of cabinet and the security structures of not being Congolese citizens.
"Our goal is to get rid of the government in place," says Kilele.
A second South African, who is introduced by Smith as "Rocky", his intelligence chief, says: "We must take the political stronghold of your country first."
Kilele answers: "If we hit the capital city Kinshasa, where the government is based, the whole country will support the action."
Rocky: "How strong are you... how much support do you have?"
Kilele's general, who sits on his left, answers: "We have the province of Kivu behind us... the Mai Mai (local Congolese militia) is our force."
(Later in the meeting Kilele mentions that the PNC is based in Bukavu, the capital of Southern Kivu).
A Congolese, which apparently organised the meeting, says: "Each resident of Kinshasa has a knife, they will support anyone who starts such an action."
Rocky: "What is your intention with these four guys (Kabila's deputies)?"
Kilele: "Those people need to be killed, as well as Kabila... we must get rid of all those people."
Later Smith says: "Our work we'll do... our work is to put you into Kinshasa... we don't want mines and stuff... we just want you to consider our guys for a job... we would like to be considered for your intelligence service."