SWATF scam dust won’t die down

NAMIBIANS and Angolans were among several groups of people turned away from army bases in South Africa on Wednesday after they turned up to receive money and be integrated into that country’s national defence force.

Several media reports from South Africa said yesterday that over 500 people, some of them old people and women, tried to report for duty at the Eighth SA Infantry Battalion in Upington but were informed that there were no jobs for them.Police had acted earlier by blocking roads leading to the Eighth SA Infantry Battalion.The people were redirected to the Congregational Church in Rosedale where they were addressed by a certain ‘General’ Pieter Esterhuizen and ‘Colonel’ Johannes May, both regional representatives of an organisation called SA Cape Corps Trust.In Bloemfontein the leader of the organisation, a ‘General’ Henry January, was arrested obstructing the police and ignoring an order to disperse.In Namibia and Angola the SA Cape Corps Trust promised former South West Africa Territory Force members that they will get payments of up to N$490 000 for their part in the war before Namibia’s Independence in 1990.They were told to be in Upington on Wednesday to get the money although the South African High Commission in Namibia had said that they knew nothing about the payments and that those who paid the N$182 registration fee did it at their own risk.The South African government had warned that any illegal demonstration would result in arrests.