South African Veterans Take Government Ministers Hostage in Protest

South African National Defense Force soldiers stand at attention. (Wikimedia commons)

Three South African ministers were freed by South African special forces on October 14. The ministers had been held hostage by a group of veterans protesting the government’s failure to provide many Black veterans with promised compensation for their fight against the Apartheid regime, lasting from 1948 to 1994.

Minister of Defence and Military Veterans Thandi Modise was attending a meeting that night at a hotel in Pretoria with her deputy Thabang Makwetla and Minister Mondli Gungubele. The trio met with a task force of veterans, which was organized by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa last November. The congregation discussed the government's failure to provide promised military benefits to those who fought against South Africa’s Apartheid regime, under which the Black South African population was brutally repressed. 

In a video statement posted on Twitter, Gungubele recounted, “As we were leaving the meeting, proceeding to the doors, they closed the doors. It was at that point that we realized that we were held hostage.” 

The veterans in question, agitated over the lack of concrete action to provide compensation, demanded a meeting with Ramaphosa, financial assistance for veterans seeking to start a business, and a cash payout equalling roughly $270,000. They explained that they needed the funds to pay for housing and healthcare—services that the government promised them but failed to deliver. 

The incident resulted in a three-hour standoff with the police. Negotiations broke down, and the police were eventually forced to take a “tactical approach,” storming the building with special forces, according to National South African Police Services Spokesperson Vish Naidoo. The special forces did not fire any shots during the operation and were able to successfully rescue all three ministers without provoking injury. 

Modise—a veteran herself—described her emotions during their captivity: “We were not threatened, just uncomfortable with being held against our will.” 

Immediately following the rescue, the authorities arrested 56 veterans, subsequently sending 53 of them to jail. These veterans appeared in court on October 19 and were charged with kidnapping. 42 of the veterans were granted bail; the authorities continue to hold 11 of them in custody due to prior convictions, with the next hearing scheduled for February 2022. The veterans involved in the stand-off recognized that their frustrations had boiled over and resulted in extreme actions, but they claimed nonetheless that the government’s response was excessive. 

South Africa’s history of veteran compensation has been rife with complications, largely stemming from the unconventional nature of the conflict; a large portion of the individuals involved in the hostage situation fought under a number of insurgent groups rather than one unified military body. This dispersement resulted in an inadequate veteran database and disagreements over who could be considered a veteran.

In 2011, the government attempted to reconcile such issues by passing a law that instituted a Department of Military Veterans. The department publicly recognized all former insurgents who fought against the apartheid regime. A governmental spokesperson for the Department of Defense and Military Veterans estimated the number of these individuals to be approximately 20,000. 

In 2011, the South African government attempted to reconcile its failures by promising pensions, counseling, housing, education, and the repatriation of the remnants for veterans who died in exile. However, fulfilling such promises has been slow; since 2016, only 4,500 individuals have been offered counseling, and only 495 veterans have received financial compensation. 

South African veterans, many of whom have fallen into poverty, continue to accuse the government of corruption and mismanagement. They have also claimed that there are disparities between their benefits and the benefits of white veterans who served in the military while fighting to uphold Apartheid. Although prominent in the attention it received, the hostage incident was only one of numerous protests calling for a wide range of government support that veterans claim that the government had promised them.