Mon séjour en Afrique du Sud (Cape Town)

THE commander of a battalion and a major have been accused of influencing a rifleman to change his statement implicating two senior officers in a murder plot.

The commanding officer of 121 Battalion at Mtubatuba on the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast, Colonel Louis van Eeden, and legal officer, Major Ferdinand Labuschagne, appeared in the kwaMsane Magistrate's Court this week on a charge of defeating the ends of justice.

Van Eeden and Labuschagne's arrests follows that of two other senior officers, Captain Andre Goosen and Major Willem Bronkhorst, who are facing a charge of conspiracy to murder.

They have already appeared in court and were denied bail.

Goosen and Bronkhorst were arrested early in May after Rifleman Vikimpi Sithole made a statement to police in which he claimed that they had asked him to kill Major July Manekwane, who is the second-in-command at the base.

Van Eeden, 40, and 33-year-old Labuschagne were arrested after it was claimed they allegedly tried to persuade Sithole to make a new statement.

Sithole was also allegedly threatened that his contract would not be renewed.

Sithole, who is a state witness, has since been placed in the witness protection programme.

Investigating officer Msawenkosi Mthembu, who opposed bail for both Van Eeden and Labuschagne, said he believed they would abscond if granted bail.

Labuschagne denied claims that he had taken Sithole to "bushes" in St Lucia where he was threatened.

Labuschagne told the court that Sithole had approached him: "He told me that he had made a big mistake [in making his statement] but that he had been forced to do so."

Labuschagne said he was then given instructions by his superior to take Sithole to the Mtubatuba Magistrate's Court, where Sithole made a new statement.

Labuschagne also claimed that Sithole had contacted him by telephone from the safe house in Pretoria - where he is in the witness protection programme - and had said that he had been kidnapped by police.

Both applicants told the court that they had only R500 each as their salaries had been stopped by the SANDF.

There was also drama in court when the state advocate, Luxolo Mbusi, refused an offer from the defence lawyer, Kobus Booyens, for a civilian Afrikaans interpreter.

Mthembu told the court that he had information that the interpreter was involved in the loss of ammunition from the battalion.

He was referring to an audit late last year that revealed that ammunition worth R2-million had gone missing from the base.

In his closing argument, Mbusi told the court that it would be an injustice to release the two as there is "a possibility that ammunition lost from their base was used to further the activities of the Boeremag".

Van Eeden and Labuschagne will know tomorrow whether they will be granted bail.