Africa-Press – South-Africa. National Assembly Speaker and former defence minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula says the government avoided political implications when it disregarded a court order compelling it to arrest former Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir in 2015, who was wanted by the International Criminal Court for genocide and crimes against humanity.
The Gauteng High Court in Pretoria issued the order during Al-Bashir’s visit to South Africa.
Netwerk24 reported at the time that more than 800 peacekeepers feared for their lives in North Darfur, where Sudanese soldiers surrounded their bases. They feared Sudanese soldiers would kill them in retaliation for Al-Bashir’s arrest.
However, the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) denied that SA troops were held hostage in Sudan.
According to Mail & Guardian at the time, spokesperson Simphiwe Dlamini said the SANDF was not under threat. He dismissed the Netwerk24 report, saying “there is no iota of truth in these allegations”.
The United Nations (UN) also denied it. It said the troops were neither under threat, nor held hostage.
“The information we have from Unamid (UN-African Union Mission in Darfur) is they were not under any threat and so that is where we stand.
“In terms of operational details, obviously, the troops on the ground may have to go through manoeuvres at any point in time. But, in terms of whether they faced a threat or were surrounded or held hostage, no, they were not,” said Farhan Haq, deputy spokesperson for the UN secretary-general.
However, Mapisa-Nqakula contradicted the SANDF in an interview with Newzroom Afrika on Wednesday.
She said the local peacemakers were “encircled” by the Sudanese troops on the day the court issued the order and that the government avoided political implications that could have resulted from Al-Bashir’s arrest.
She said:
“If President Al-Bashir had been arrested in SA at the time, there could have been serious battles which could have impacted negatively. We could have lost. We could have suffered serious casualties,” she said.
Mapisa-Nqakula acknowledged there was still confusion about the matter.
She attributed the confusion to the government’s failure to address the issue “so that South Africans are aware of some of the decisions”.
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