Coup Attempt Rumored in S. Africa Homeland

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa —  About 30 white mercenaries serving as military commanders and advisers in the black South African tribal homeland of Transkei have been arrested in an apparent mutiny by junior officers amid rumors of an attempted coup d’etat there.

Umtata, the capital of the nominally independent homeland, was reported by residents on Saturday to be tense, with hundreds of heavily armed soldiers and police patroling the streets, manning roadblocks, guarding key installations and raiding the homes of government opponents.

Most of the mercenaries were detained by Transkei police in pre-dawn raids on their homes on Friday, according to well-informed political sources in the homeland, but others were arrested at their offices at the Transkei Defense Force headquarters later on Friday and Saturday.

‘A Family Matter’

Although observers in Umtata described the affair as “a family matter” and not ideological, most linked it with Transkei’s recent clashes with Ciskei, another Xhosa tribal homeland, and the thwarted, Transkei-sponsored attack last month on the presidential palace in Ciskei.

Soldiers in the Defense Force reportedly were pitted against police in the homeland, with Prime Minister George Matanzima at odds with his older brother, Kaiser D. Matanzima, a retired president who continues to hold most political power.

“We are going through the night of the long knives,” a lawyer in Umtata said Saturday, describing the ongoing raids on homes of prominent Transkei politicians as well those of the white mercenaries and the emergence of an Officers Action Committee at the head of the mutinous soldiers.

“There appears to have been a major falling out among the Matanzimas and their supporters, but all we know for sure is that the raids and arrests are still continuing,” the lawyer said. “There has been little bloodshed, but the arrests probably run into hundreds.”

Developments Unclear

Mystery enveloped most of the developments, and government officials were unwilling to explain what was happening.

Gen. Zondwa Mtirira, Defense Force commander, said simply, “I am out of the picture” when he was contacted by telephone in Umtata. Family members at the home of Brig. Bantu Holomisa, the chief of staff, who was freed from two months’ political detention last week, said he was “at a soccer match” and not available.

The involvement of the Transkei army in the developments put its white advisers in the center of the controversy, and some Umtata sources said they, in fact, were a major issue in the conflict, with junior officers resenting their influence and effective military control of the homeland, whose independence is recognized only by Pretoria.

‘Just Stay Tuned’

“Be patient,” said an official at Prime Minister Matanzima’s office Saturday evening. “Everything will be resolved in a day or two. The situation is still developing, but it will be clear, we hope, on Monday. Like they say on the radio, just stay tuned for further developments.’

Other sources said that the prime minister appeared to be following orders of the Officers Action Committee, made up of black colonels and majors under the leadership of Brig. Holomisa.

“The men with the guns have taken over,” one lawyer in Umtata said as he watched cars being stopped and searched at a roadblock outside his office. “But what they want, aside from power, is still a mystery.”

According to South African press reports from Umtata, 27 white officers were arrested by their black subordinates on Friday and Saturday, but the state-run South African Broadcasting Corp., apparently quoting official sources, put the total at more than 30 over two days and indicated that the detentions were continuing.

7 Mercenaries Freed

Seven of the battle-hardened white mercenaries, mostly veterans of the long Rhodesian war in what is now Zimbabwe, were released Saturday and taken to East London, outside the nominally independent homeland. Others said they had left Transkei voluntarily on Saturday to avoid arrest and possible detention.

They said in East London that they had been rounded up, told their contracts had been terminated and were being deported but had been given no reason for the Transkei action.

South African authorities said in Pretoria that they were negotiating for the release of the other prisoners and the safe passage of their families, many of whom are South African citizens, but refused to give any further details of developments in Transkei.

Among those held in Umtata was Maj. Gen. Ron Reid-Daly, former commander of the Transkei Defense Force and one-time commander of the elite and feared Selous Scouts, which boasted of having the highest “kill ratio” during the Rhodesian war.

Veterans of Selous Scouts

Most of whites working for the Transkei Defense Force were Selous Scouts veterans, but others came from the Rhodesian Special Air Services and the Rhodesian security police.