Appeasing hostage takers is a mockery of the rule of law 

17 October 2021

Instead of condemning the actions of individuals who allegedly held Ministers Thandi Modise, Mondli Gungubele and Deputy Minister Thabang Makwetla hostage yesterday, the Presidential Task Team on Military Veterans has chosen to make a mockery of the rule of law by choosing to mollycoddle the offenders through an “appeasement press conference”.

The hostage situation that unfolded at St George’s Hotel was a direct violation of the Section 7(a) of the Protection of Constitutional Democracy Against Terrorist and Related Activities Act (PCSATRA) which clearly states that:

 “Any person who intentionally- 

(a) seizes or detains; and 

any other person (hereinafter referred to as a hostage), in order to compel a third party, namely a State, an intergovernmental organisation, a natural or juridical person, or a group of persons to do or abstain from doing any act as an explicit or implicit condition for the release of the hostage, is guilty of an offence of taking a hostage.”  

The hostage takers not only detained Cabinet Ministers but they also threatened not to release them unless President Cyril Rampahosa came to address them, a clear violation of the Act. As such, the focus of the press conference convened by the Presidential Task Team on Military Veterans this morning should have been to state the legal steps that the State will be taking to hold the perpetrators to account.  

The press conference did not say anything new about the welfare of military veterans or how successive ANC administrations have continued to fail them over the years. In all honesty, the Presidential Task Team was just trying to paper over the cracks on internal ANC factional battles. Yesterday’s events were a manifestation of the high stakes game being played by ANC factions to get an upper hand over each other.  

We have always been on record stating that the Department of Defence and Military Veterans should work on updating the database of military veterans and ensuring that qualifying individuals are given the necessary support as provided for under the Military Veterans Act.

However, the ANC, in its quest for political expediency, made unsustainable concessions to non-statutory military veterans aligned to the ANC. They created expectations beyond affordability and reason, which promises were clearly not offered to all military veterans as defined by the Military Veterans Act.  

The current allocated budget does not provide for those expectations and there is no indication that such funding will be available anytime soon.

The Presidential Task Team’s ill-informed press conference has created a bad precedent and birthed the perception that demands can be met if one holds cabinet ministers hostage. It is incumbent upon the state to correct this and take legal action against the perpetrators of yesterday’s hostage situation.

Issued by Kobus Marais, DA Shadow Minister of Defence, 17 October 2021