Pretoria - The National Director of Public Prosecutions has withdrawn the criminal case against 53 military veterans accused of holding hostage Defence and Military Veterans Minister Thandi Modise and her deputy Thabang Makwetla.
The military veterans appeared in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court yesterday to hear whether or not the prosecuting authority would proceed with the charges against them for the hostage drama at the St George Hotel in Centurion last year.
The men and women heaved a sigh of relief as the State indicated that following the representations by defence teams it had decided not to pursue the criminal case against the group.
Speaking outside court following their appearance, Lwazi Mzobe, the national co-ordinator of the Liberation Struggle of Military Veterans, said they came to court knowing that the State had no case against them.
Mzobe said they were happy to be out of the shadow that the government had attempted to place them under in order to paint them as lawless criminals.
“We were arrested simply for demanding the reparations that were owed to us for everything we sacrificed for this democracy. We weren’t just coming here to demand things out of nowhere, or to harm anyone.
“The reparations we are seeking are not from taxpayers’ money. The UN left the duty of reparations and reintegration to the governing party, but the government does not want to tell us what the agreement was, or give us what is due to us like other countries.”
The legal representative of the group, Andries Nkome, said the charges stemmed from a meeting that took place at St George's Hotel, where the military veterans were supposed to meet with Deputy President David Mabuza in relation to how to action a consensus document that the Presidency had made on the reparations that were due to be paid to them.
Nkome said that subsequently people who were not supposed to be part of the discussions with the Presidency then turned up to lay charges against the military veterans, alleging they had held them hostage.
“The truth of the matter is that since 1994 when we attained democracy, we did not pay as a nation reparations to military veterans, and that is all that they are looking for.
“The Presidency made a promise that the reparations would be paid, and now everybody has developed cold feet and are not looking to make good on those promises.”
Nkome said that even before the incident at St George’s Hotel they had already been engaging with the Department of Military Veterans and the ministry to try to get the reparations on behalf of the 4 000 members involved, as they represented almost 3 000 of them.
“We're looking for one solution to say that if the government is willing to talk, about 90% of the military veterans are our clients, and we can make sure we have a long-lasting solution to their plight.
“They could have not physically fought for the freedom of this country only to be left destitute without houses or jobs and they regret having gone out to fight for the democracy that everyone is now enjoying,” he said. After the court appearance, they gathered at Burgers Park to collect their cellphones that had been confiscated by the police since the hostage drama.
Pretoria News