South Africa's mercenary town

by Jonathan Charles BBC World Affairs Correspondent, in Pomfret, South Africa

Pomfret couldn't sound more British, a legacy of a long finished empire.

Many of former mercenary Jose's colleagues have been killed

There's little to remind the visitor of South Africa's British influence though, in this dusty town in the Kalahari desert.

Pomfret is crumbling away.

When we there to film, we suffered the same deprivations as the local residents. Our house had no running water, we were reliant on pouring bowls of this precious liquid in to the bathtub for storage, bowls which had to be carried a long way from a communal tap.

Shutting down

Once, Pomfret did have a proper water supply, pumped in to every home. For months, though, supplies have been turned off. It's part of what the inhabitants say is pressure from the South African government.

The authorities are trying to force Pomfret's residents to leave. They want to shut the town down. Pomfret's crime is to have, allegedly, been the base for mercenaries who've been involved in a recent African coup.

It's not the image that the new South Africa is keen to see attached to its name. Now, it's taking action.

If you drive, as far as you can,heading northwest from Johannesburg, you come to Pomfret. It's a six hour drive along a road which peters out in to a dirt track for the final 100 kilometres of the trip.

End of the road

Many of the soldiers of fortune who were recruited to take part in a military coup in Equatorial Guinea, two years ago, had links to Pomfret

Pomfret is, literally, the end of the road-the very edge of South Africa. A few more kilometres across the Kalahari desert scrub and you'll reach the border.

Pomfret was once a military base, the headquarters of 32 battalion. The troops of 32 were recruited from Angola during the 1970's - black soldiers working for the white apartheid regime.

They fought the enemies of white South Africa. They were accused of brutally suppressing factional violence in South Africa's black townships.

Then, more than a decade ago, white rule gave way to black majority government. The men of 32 found themselves on the wrong side of history. Their unit was disbanded.

Military coup

Since then, some of them have scratched a living working as mercenaries or private security contractors.

Many of the soldiers of fortune who were recruited to take part in a military coup in Equatorial Guinea, two years ago, had links to Pomfret.

The attempted coup, funded partially (and he says unwittingly) by Sir Mark Thatcher ended in failure when their plane was detained in Zimbabwe.

Jose was one of those recruited for the aborted coup. He spent 14 months in a Zimbabwe prison.

Pomfret, once run on mercenary money, is now in poverty

He was working as a security guard when he was offered the job. He says "I received a call from my friend saying there was a certain chap who was looking for guys".

The friend was someone that he knew from his old military unit, 32 Battalion. He accepts that he and the others who took part in the Equatorial Guinea affair might have been the trigger for the government's fresh crackdown on Mercenary activity.

Global initiative

South Africa's clamping down because it believes that such activity is incompatible with its foreign policy goal of promoting African unity and global peace.

One leading South African politician, Phenye Vilikazi, told us, "I share in South Africa's vision of having a peaceful world and South Africa should do its bit for that. South Africa must take the necessary leadership to make sure that where it puts its mouth, it also puts its action".

He sees it as part of a global initiative to stamp out mercenary activity. "The world is trying and South Africa can't remain asleep during this great revolution of making sure that we create a peaceful world."

This new law, though, has been accused of overkill.

Phenye Vilikazi says South Africa must stamp out mercenary activity

It seeks not just to prevent people from working as mercenaries but also from undertaking any activity in conflict zones, unless the government grants special permission.

Life harder

That's bad news for the 1100 South Africans who are working in Iraq as security contractors. Technically, their work would also be rendered unlawful.

Many of the firms that employ them are British and they're very unhappy with the thrust of the South African legislation. Peter Leon, a South African lawyer representing the British Association of Private Security Companies, is trying to get the law amended.

He told me, "Obviously, the legislation seeks to prevent mercenary activity and we have no problem with that but the real problem is that it stops not just South African companies or South African individuals but anybody from performing any service in any area of armed conflict, anywhere in the world".

The new law will make life harder for the men of Pomfret and their families.

New South Africa

Pomfret is a town slowly falling apart

Jose, the former mercenary, is concerned that the law will stop him doing legitimate security work, such as guarding mines, outside South Africa.

It will stop him using his only skill, his military training. "I'm sitting here without job and if I can't work in security, how can I feed my family, my children?"

However he earns a living, the government is determined it will be out of Pomfret. It believes that by dispersing Pomfret's residents, it will have made a start.

It's a very visible signal about what the new South Africa is and isn't prepared to tolerate.

---

Jonathan Charles' film on Pomfret can be seen on Newsnight on 9 November 2006 at 2230GMT on BBC Two and live on this website.