SA mercenaries in Iraq

[d0b33]

http://www.slate.com/id/2148608/?nav=ais

A piece of popular wisdom passed around by contractors working in Iraq says, "You know you've been in Baghdad too long when hearing Afrikaans at the pool is normal."

That observation speaks to the outsize presence of South Africans in Iraq's wartime contracting boom. Security costs have soaked up a massive chunk of Iraq reconstruction funds, and former South African soldiers and police, often veterans of the country's apartheid-era border wars, have found their skills in high demand.

Exact numbers are hard to come by, but an estimated 2,000 to 4,000 South African expatriates are in Iraq, a sizeable number of whom work as armed guards. Several South African-based or -dominated security companies such as Reed, Safenet, and Omega Risk Solutions are registered with the Iraqi ministry of the interior.

But that bubble may soon burst. The South African parliament is pressing ahead with new legislation, the Prohibition of Mercenary Activity Bill, which would tighten oversight of South African citizens and residents who work in war zones.

 

[GTi]

They must first help their own country before helping others, SA is a war zone and it has been for for all these years,10 years on and the battle field is getting worst.South African's fighting and killing South African's.

 

[Syndyre]

They must first help their own country before helping others, SA is a war zone and it has been for for all these years,10 years on and the battle field is getting worst.South African's fighting and killing South African's.

People have rights and freedom of movement, you can't demand they "help their own country first". Besides I'm guessing they weren't particularly wanted here post-94 anyway.

 

[kilo39]

They must first help their own country before helping others, SA is a war zone and it has been for for all these years,10 years on and the battle field is getting worst.South African's fighting and killing South African's.

How are they going to do that? No voice, no arms, no say.

They are doing the best for SA they can, ie, bringing home R6 billion to the SA economy yearly!!!

(but shut them down - we don't like them/reason enough)

 

[Freshy-ZN]

Madness, this whole thing is madness. Another fine example of the guavament being useless while the things that really need attention are ignored.

 

[Acill3s]

Im sure they are doing a good job there and we've got to may security guards over here any way, so there not gonna be helping our murder problem here