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Police discovered the military camp on a farm in Mganduzweni about 20km outside White River last Friday following a tip-off that the trainees were not being trained

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Sizwe sama Yende

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The threat about the 95 Libyans found in a military camp in Mpumalanga is that it is unknown who they are and why they are undergoing such training.

Institute of Security Studies (ISS) senior researcher, Martin Ewi, warned that the discovery was a serious threat to South Africa’s internal security.

“A thorough investigation needs to be conducted to ascertain which group they belong to in Libya, who is their link in South Africa and why they are not trained for what they came for in the country and where else are they training?” Ewi said.

Libya has been restive and unstable since 2011 due to a civil war that started at the height of anti-government protests in Arabic countries known as the Arab Spring. This resulted in the assassination of dictator, Muammar Gadaffi. Another civil war broke out in 2014.

Libya has since been led by rival groups – a government of national unity based in Tripoli, a government of national stability in Sirte and rebellious Islamist militia.

“It is possible that the 95 trainees could belong to any of these three groups. However, I don’t think the government of national unity could send people in South Africa for training without consultation,” Ewi said.

Police discovered the military camp on a farm in Mganduzweni about 20km outside White River last Friday following a tip-off that the trainees were not being trained at the Milites Dei Academy as security guards, but as war soldiers.

One veers off the R538 road to Hazyview into a dirt road flanked by mostly macadamia farms before reaching the Milites Dei Academy.  It is a fully-fledged army training camp with everything a soldier needs for training.

The 95 Libyans who are now in police custody applied for visas to undergo security training.

However, according to police minister Senzo Mchunu, there were irregularities in how the Libyans obtained their visas.

Mchunu visited the camp on Saturday afternoon said that although the facility’s existence was legal according to Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority (PSIRA) it did not comply with the regulatory body’s requirements for a security guards’ training.

“There are many things we saw that we are not going to talk about. However, a facility like this does give rise to a number of questions. Indications are that this is a military training camp more than security training facility. What they are doing here is not what they applied for with PSIRA,” Mchunu said.

The owner is not yet arrested. Mchunu insisted that many charges and issue will arise as the police’s “thorough” investigation continues.

Police found weapons but they were all legal.

Community members came to know about the “Indian-looking” men as they foraged into the village where they were selling blankets. According to security guards at the camp, the trainees were selling blankets allocated to them to get money for liquor.

Lucky Cosas Maseko (52), who lived all his life in Mganduzweni, said that he came across the Libyans a few times, but was not aware what they had been up to.

“There were suspicious people, pretending as if they were here to sell clothes. They spoke bad English, mostly, but some were totally unable to,” Maseko said.

He said that even though he was not accusing the Libyans of anything, there had been an increase in rape cases, shootings of people by balaclava-clad men and disappearances of locals especially women.

“Those cases remain unresolved,” Maseko said. “Some people staying near the camp have left. What do you do if your neighbour is shot, and you don’t know by who and for what reason. We have never seen these things before and now we are suspecting them,” Maseko added.

He said that there must be something amiss with South African Security Agency personnel who could not pick up what was going on at the camp.

“They have been there for a long time and that must say something about our intelligence. This means we are in trouble as citizens. How safe are we?”

Mchunu said that the investigation report mentioned acts of criminality by the Libyan trainees against community members but there had been no complainants identified so far.

Mchunu said that he was not aware yet if the South African government had been in contact with Libya. He said, for now, the process of deporting the Libyans had not started.

Ewi said that the country’s intelligence could have been misled. “I don’t think intelligence was aware. The question is: how can we have 95 people training without the knowledge of SA intelligence?” he said.

“They only attracted attention when they started doing crimes and locals complained about ‘Arab-looking’ people.”