March 10, 2004, 09:00
Foreign affairs officials are still awaiting details on the identity of some 20 South African suspected mercenaries held in Zimbabwe. The men were taken into custody on Sunday after their plane, a Boeing 727-100 cargo transport, was detained at Harare International Airport.
Ronnie Mamoepa, a department spokesperson, says once their names were known, consular services would be offered and their families informed. The names would only then be made available to the media. Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) officials were also waiting for details from the SA Revenue Service and Zimbabwe's aviation authority for their own investigation before making any further comment.
The South African and Zimbabwean media were meanwhile having a field day with the saga, nearly all giving it front page treatment.
Business Day said the aircraft was carrying 64 mercenaries on their way to stage a coup in Equatorial Guinea.
If the men arrested in Zimbabwe turned out to be "dogs of war," South Africa would abandon them to Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's justice, The Star newspaper reported Mamoepa as saying.
The Citizen said other reports indicated the men were security guards headed for various mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo(DRC).
Zimbabwe's state-owned The Herald newspaper quoted the country's home minister, Kembo Mohadi, saying the plane was carrying 18 Namibians, 23 Angolans, two DRC citizens and a Zimbabwean travelling on a South African passport.
False claim
The plane was detained and the crew and passengers arrested after airport authorities became suspicious of the pilot's claim that the plane was only carrying three crew and four cargo handlers. The paper added that the aircraft was to be met on the ground by Simon Mann, identified by another paper as a senior Logo Logistics Limited official, and two other men.
Logo is a British company and has claimed the men are mine security staff.
Retired Colonel Tshinga Dube, chief executive of Zimbabwe Defence Industries (ZDI), was also at the airport.
Logo executive Charles Burrow, speaking from London, said the incident was a misunderstanding. The aircraft, flight planned to Bujumbura in Burundi, were taking personnel to the DRC. What appeared to be military items aboard was mining equipment.
The company's cryptic website listed operations in places as diverse as China and Pakistan, Venezuela and Guyana and African countries such as Sierra Leone, Liberia, the two Congos, Angola, Zambia and Mozambique. "Common key attributes" found in staff in its service include "discretion, political sensitivity, (and) military experience".
Services offered by Logo Logistics include "risk intelligence and assessment, support helicopter operations, service support in harsh environments, (and) rough field and parachute air re-supply". - Sapa
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