Mon séjour en Afrique du Sud (Cape Town)

An SA National Defence Force employee was arrested on Wednesday in connection with the rape of his domestic worker at his house in Masakone near Makhado, Limpopo police reported.

Captain Ailwei Mushavhanamadi said the 40-year-old man asked the woman. aged 21, to make him tea. When she took the tea to his bedroom, he allegedly raped her.

The man's wife was away at work at the time of the incident. He will appear in the Tshitale Magistrate's Court.

In a separate incident, a 26-year-old woman on Tuesday laid a rape charge against her husband.

Mushavhanamadi said the incident occurred when the woman's husband arrived home in Lambani near Thohoyandou around 4.20am.

Ceremonies in memory of 49 people who died during attacks by South African forces on anti-apartheid activists in Lesotho in the 1980s will be held Friday and Saturday in the capital Maseru.

A 1982 raid on Maseru by the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) killed 40, including five women and two children.

The December 9 raid was described by then SANDF chief, General Constand Viljoen, as a pre-emptive strike targeting 12 members of the African National Congress (ANC), which has been in power in South Africa since apartheid ended in 1994.

Nine others perished in another raid in 1985.

The governments of South Africa and Lesotho along with a memorial group, the Freedom Park Trust of South Africa, are jointly participating in the commemoration that will begin with a cleansing and healing ceremony on Friday.

Lesotho and South African traditional healers will preside over the slaughter of sacrificial animals, which will be presented to the ancestors.

Wally Serote, the executive chairman of the Freedom Park Trust, said the two-day commemoration was a "symbolic cleansing and healing of the wounds inflicted by the injustices of the past."

He said "soil from the graves of people who fell during conflict in Lesotho will be collected" to form part of a memorial in Pretoria, which will commemorate "those who died in the conflict events that mark South Africas history."

On Saturday, there will be a religious ceremony attended by Roman Catholic, Anglican and Evangelical priests. South African Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota and his Lesotho counterpart Mohlabi Tsekoa will represent their governments.

The ANC, Africa's oldest liberation movement, was banned under apartheid and operated from exile in London, Moscow and several African nations during white minority rule.

Between 1975 and 1980 six nations -- Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe -- teamed up to form a body dubbed the Frontline States to aid the liberation movements in South Africa and Namibia.

The price they paid was dear, ranging from military raids to covert support to rebel movements in Angola and Mozambique.

Forty-three ex-members of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) were arrested in Albert Park, Durban, on Tuesday evening on charges of holding an illegal gathering.

Police spokesman Director Bala Naidoo said on Wednesday it was not yet certain whether or not the gathering had anything to do with Wednesday's election.

He confirmed that 15 firearms had been found at the gathering, but all were licensed.

The ex-SANDF members are scheduled to appear in court on Thursday.

The bodies of the six SA National Defence Force soldiers killed last week in the Democratic Republic of Congo arrived at the Waterkloof Air Force Base in Pretoria on Tuesday afternoon.

The men were killed when the armoured vehicle they were travelling in plunged into Lake Kifu near Goma last Tuesday. They were Sergeant Mashape Maake, 39, Corporal Sello Pilusa, 36, Rifleman Joseph Bauque, 29, Rifleman David Raphasha, 30, Rifleman Mametja Marakalala, 32, and Rifleman Tirhani Rikhotso, 34.

Bauque was based at General Support Base Durban in KwaZulu-Natal. The other soldiers were from 7 SA Infantry Battalion in Phalaborwa, Polokwane.

As the sun set at Waterkloof on Tuesday, six coffins draped in South African flags were offloaded from the plane by fellow soldiers, while a guard of honour moved into place between the coffins and the awaiting hearses.

Once the coffins had been offloaded the order to remove hats was given and the coffins were simultaneously loaded into the back of the awaiting hearses. The hearses then departed leaving the soldiers and grieving family members behind on an empty airfield.

The soldiers had all been serving on a peacekeeping mission in the DRC.

SANDF spokesman Colonel Kwena Mangope said it appeared the driver had lost control of the vehicle. "We are not sure what caused him to lose control," he said. Those who died were apparently trapped under water.

Five soldiers who managed to escape from the vehicle were treated for minor wounds and shock.

The SANDF is to appoint a board of inquiry into the causes and circumstances of the accident.

The names of the six soldiers killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo were released by the SA National Defence Force on Thursday.

The men were killed when the armoured vehicle they were travelling in plunged into Lake Kifu near Goma on Tuesday.

They were Sergeant Mashape Maake, 39, Corporal Sello Pilusa, 36, Rifleman Joseph Bauque, 29, Rifleman David Raphasha, 30, Rifleman Mametja Marakalala, 32, and Rifleman Tirhani Rikhotso, 34.

Bauque was based at General Support Base Durban in KwaZulu-Natal. The other soldiers were from 7 SA Infantry Battalion in Phalaborwa, Polokwane.

SANDF spokesman Colonel Kwena Mangope said the bodies would be returned to South Africa shortly. The soldiers were all serving on a peacekeeping mission in the DRC.

Mangope said it appeared the driver had lost control of the vehicle. "We are not sure what caused him to lose control," he said.

Those who died were apparently trapped under water. Five soldiers who managed to escape from the vehicle were treated for minor wounds and shock.

The SANDF is to appoint a board of inquiry into the causes and circumstances of the accident.

SA's peacekeeping burden in Africa is likely to remain the same or decrease in the foreseeable future, the head of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) said yesterday.

This could result in huge financial savings for the defence force as SA's annual bill for peacekeeping missions in Africa runs into the millions.

The defence force's chief director, Gen Siphiwe Nyanda, said the proposed African Standby Force and a diminishing number of conflicts on the continent would help reduce SA's peacekeeping burden .

The African Standby Force would mean greater sharing of the peacekeeping burden among African countries.

Nyanda, speaking to journalists in Pretoria on developments in the SANDF since its creation 10 years ago, said the defence force would consider serving on peacekeeping missions on other continents if requested.

SA has about 3000 troops on peacekeeping duties, mainly divided between Burundi, where SA leads the African Union mission, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. There are also a few South Africans who serve in the United Nations observer mission between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

The defence force has been stretched because of health problems arising from the 21% HIV/AIDS infection rate and aging soldiers, as well as the half-yearly rotation of troops on peacekeeping duty

Nyanda said the United Nations (UN) had sent a team to investigate the possibility of a takeover of the peacekeeping mandate from the South African-led African Union mission in Burundi.

This means SA would be reimbursed for most of the costs for the operation. Nyanda said if there were a UN takeover, SA troops would remain in Burundi for as long as they were needed. SA has been lobbying for a mandate change.

Nyanda referred to the Burundi mission as "ground-breaking", saying it was an "instructive lesson" in the interplay between political arrangements and peacekeeping operations.

The SA National Defence Force confirmed on Wednesday that the six soldiers involved in an accident in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were dead.

"We won't release their names until families have been told," said Colonel Kwena Mangope.

The soldiers serving in a peacekeeping mission in the DRC were killed when the armoured Casspir vehicle they were travelling in left the road and plunged into Lake Kifu near Goma on Tuesday at about 1pm.

Mangope said it appeared the driver had lost control.

"We are not sure what caused him to lose control of the vehicle," he said. He also said the SANDF were not sure if the driver was one of those killed in the accident.

Five soldiers managed to escape but it is believed those that died had been trapped under the water and drowned.

Those who managed to escape were treated for minor wounds and shock.

The SANDF said it would appoint a board of inquiry into the causes and circumstances of the accident.