Charges mount against 53 ‘veterans’ arrested after Tshwane hotel ministers’ hostage drama
What started as possibly three charges of kidnapping against a group of so-called military veterans that allegedly held senior government officials hostage at a Tshwane hotel has morphed into 26 counts of kidnapping.
Last week, a police special task force team had to rescue defence minister Thandi Modise, her deputy Thabang Makwetla, and Minister in the Presidency, Mondli Gungubele after they were allegedly held hostage by the group at St George’s Hotel in Centurion.
The hostage situation happened after a meeting set to address military veterans’ grievances reached a deadlock as the veterans refused to proceed without President Cyril Ramaphosa or Deputy President David Mabuza.
National Prosecuting Authority regional spokesperson, Lumka Mahanjana, said the 53 suspects arrested for the hostage drama each face one count of conspiracy to kidnap and 26 counts of kidnapping.
Mahanjana said the charges increased as the number of confirmed government officials accumulated to 26.
“The delegates were kept in the venue for three hours,” she said.
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On Wednesday, 42 members of the group were each granted R500 bail and 11 were set to appear in court at the Kgosi Mampuru correctional service court for their formal bail application on Friday.
Previously explaining as to how the hostage situation unfolded, Gungubele said when officials could not reach an agreement with the group on how the meeting should take place, they decided to adjourn the meeting but the so-called veterans locked the doors.
“We could not agree on how the meeting should take place. We reached a point when I thought we were agreeing that it should adjourn, as we were leaving the meeting, they closed the doors. It is at that point when we realised that we were being held hostage.”
The unhappiness of the “veterans” has been a long-existing issue. In November 2020, Ramaphosa established a presidential task team led by Mabuza to address the issue.
Among the issues raised by the group is the demand to be provided houses and pension fund support.
Modise said the one thing that hindered the group from benefiting was that they were not recognised as military veterans and should await the outcome of applications to verify whether they were members of liberation struggle forces.
According to a 2011 military veterans act, any South African citizen who served under a SA liberation struggle between 1960-1994 may receive a military pension, housing, free access to military health services, skill acquisition and education support.
The government has been mulling over an amendment bill to the act which has not been passed yet.
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