South Africa's Ageing White Mercenaries who helped turn the tide on Boko Haram

I suppose it's always a challenge to your ethics when you see someone from the so-called "wrong" side of that imaginary dividing line between Politically Correct and Politically Incorrect doing the right thing. In this case, it's a group of aging veteran WHITE South African soldiers from the Apartheid days nailing the Boko Haram militants who have been waging a war of terror and oppression against the people of Nigeria and West Africa.

Link

Leon Lotz was once a member of the Koevoet – “crowbar” in Afrikaans – a paramilitary police unit created by South Africa’s apartheid regime to root out guerrillas in what is now Namibia. Thirty years later, something persuaded him to take up arms again in a foreign country. He was killed in March, apparently by friendly fire from a tank in northern Nigeria. Among the most striking facts about Lotz was his age: 59.

Not that these guys can expect a hero's welcome for their efforts. The South African government has made it clear that the best they can expect back home, is arrest and prosecution.

South Africans assisted the controversial US security company Blackwater in Iraq, Steyl added, and were now willing to do dirty work in Nigeria that western powers shirked. “The South African mercenaries are giving Boko Haram a hiding. These guys are in their 50s, but for a pilot or tank driver it doesn’t really matter. There’s going to be no Boko Haram. It boggles the mind that Britain and America promised to help Nigeria but never did.

“But the South African government doesn’t want them to exist. They wish them off the planet. When they come back from Nigeria, it will try to prosecute them and put them in jail. Because the colour of these men is white, it makes laws that stop them earning money off shore. How wrong can you be? There is now reverse racism and it’s difficult for white people to get a job.”

Speculation on why they are effective....

South Africans retain some unique selling points to African governments, according to Helmoed Heitman, local correspondent of Jane’s Defence Weekly. They were more used to being in a scrap than American or European forces, who often came with “gold-plated” equipment, he suggested, and white South Africans were often more at ease fighting alongside black comrades than European troops would be.

“Most of the guys I know were not particularly racist or fighting for white minority rule,” he said. “They have no problem working with black guys and don’t have a racial hangup. Most people in Africa have long since realised this. What they look for is someone with real shooting experience. The old SANDF are not always liked, necessarily, but they are highly regarded.”

Your thoughts?

a reply to: meridie

Reminds me of the English mercenaries used during the Bush wars in Rhodesia in the 1960s.

This is what happens when cultural values are perverted from the get go.

Just stopping the apartheid did nothing to make things better there. What needed to change was the value system. But as being a part of the global BS geopolitical economic climate, how COULD anything change? Much like the racial issues the US is seeing.

It's pretty pathetic. But not surprising.

a reply to: meridie

I can understand the USA and the UK being reluctant to become actively involved in actions against Boko Harem.

Once defeated then current history teaches us that they in turn would become immediately demonised and accusations of neo-colonialism would be directed at them.

Another case of the US / UK being in a no-win situation - universally condemned for thinking they are the 'world police' when they become involved and then vilified and criticised when they don't.

Surely Africa is big enough and strong enough to police itself nowadays - isn't that what we are repeatedly told?
I would have thought a pan-African force would be the ideal solution?

As for US and UK servicemen not being accustomed to serving alongside 'black guys' - that's just ridiculous.....you do know that Black men and women are quite common in the Armed Services of both nations?

All paramilitaries get old, Look at the PIRA, they're now politicians writing books and living in yesteryear because they can do nothing else.

a reply to: Freeborn

One would think, yes. I think there was a joint regional force also, of soldiers from Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Niger.