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| author/source:Star (SA) |
| published:Sat 8-May-2004 |
| posted on this site:Sun 9-May-2004 |
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| Article Type : News |
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| Guaranteed delivery of weapons "within 24 hours of payment, to anywhere in Africa" |
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By Brendan Seery
Putting 70 alleged mercenaries on trial in Zimbabwe could have been potentially embarrassing for the government. It would have revealed that a Zimbabwean parastatal company has been deeply involved in gun-running across Africa. The alleged mercenaries, arrested in March, are to be extradited to Equatorial Guinea to stand trial for plotting the overthrow of the government there. The Harare authorities announced the extradition last week, not long after receiving legal documents from lawyers representing the arrested men outlining their defence to various minor charges laid against them in Zimbabwe. A court case would have revealed that the parastatal Zimbabwe Defence Industries (ZDI) has been working for the past few years with a number of white South Africans in joint ventures to ship arms around the continent. The South African arms brokers, operating with offshore companies, registered in places like the Bahamas, were able to guarantee delivery of weapons "within 24 hours of payment being received, to anywhere in Africa," according to a source in Pretoria. Once payment had been received, an aircraft would be dispatched from South Africa to Harare. It would load the weapons from military facilities at Harare airport and would then fly on to its final African destination, said the source.
The source is a friend of businessman Nick du Toit, the man arrested in March as the alleged mastermind behind the Equatorial Guinea coup plot. Among his many business interests, Du Toit and a partner ran an arms broking business which relied upon ZDI's ability to fill orders quickly. The rapid response of this arms channel saw Du Toit and his partner doing "very well indeed" out of the weapons business, said the source. "But he was just a broker - there was no way he would have got involved in a coup. He had too many business interests in EG and he would have risked too much." Du Toit was arrested in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, 24 hours after the Harare authorities seized a Boeing 727 aircraft and its 70 passengers and flight crew on March 8. According to the Zimbabweans, the men were trying to collect a shipment of weapons in Harare and use them to overthrow the government in Equatorial Guinea. Those arrested have denied the allegations, claiming they were collecting the weapons for an operation to protect a mine in the lawless eastern areas of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The Pretoria source produced the invoice from ZDI to Nick du Toit's Bahamas-registered company, Military Technical Services, from February this year. The invoice confirmed the purchase of weapons with a total value of $1-million (R6,86-million). The invoice was signed by Group Captain GH Mutize, the marketing manager of ZDI. The organisation's directors are a veritable Who's Who of the Zimbabwean military: General Vitalis Zvinavashe (former chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Force, now retired), Lieutenant-General CG Chiwenga (his successor) and Air Marshal Perence Shiri (chief of the air force of Zimbabwe and one-time commander of the notorious North-Korean-trained Fifth Brigade). The weapons supplied to Nick Du Toit's customers could have come from three sources: The Zimbabwe National Army armouries; from weaponry captured by Zimbabwean troops in their involvement in the DRC or could be have been bought new. Whatever the origin of the weapons, the revelation of the ZDI weapons deals will certainly raise eyebrows among African Union states, as well as further afield in countries concerned at arms proliferation.
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