Mercenary law allows exceptions for liberation struggles
Publish date: 29 September 2005
Issue Number: 1431
Diary: Legalbrief Today
Category: Labour
The government plans to toughen up its anti-mercenary law, but has made a controversial exception which would allow South Africans to join liberation struggles in other countries, says a report in the Cape Times.
Draft amendments to the 1998 Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Act would introduce compulsory minimum jail terms of up to 15 years for South Africans who provide military or security services abroad. It will also give the government broader discretion to decide which countries South Africans may or may not serve in. The report says analysts believe the law is aimed squarely at the hundreds of South Africans serving in Iraq as security officers and guards on the side of the Iraq Government and its foreign backers, led by the US. Although tightening up on these, it excludes participation in national liberation struggles for the liberation of peoples of any country, self-determination and independence from colonialism, occupation, aggression or domination in accordance with the principles of international law. Full Cape Times report
