7 September 2011
Johannesburg — Documents showing plans for a 136-strong South African-led "rapid intervention force" being deployed in Libya have been leaked to the media.
According to a Media24 report, the documents include an invoice from what appears to be a South African security company for "specialist training" in the country.
It also says that arms shipments from Chinese companies, via South Africa, were being considered.
The documents were discovered by a foreign correspondent for Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper on a street corner in Tripoli.
"The documents were sitting on the side of the curb where someone had abandoned them.
"It would seem they were dumped in a hurry," he told Media24.
He released some of the documents to the media group, which published copies of the "rapid intervention force" plan on news24.com on Wednesday.
One of the documents, is an invoice from a company calling itself Alfa Security Services and bearing a Pretoria postal address. But there is no record of such a company being registered in South Africa.
Dated June 29, it sets out details of a 12-month contract by "six training team specialists" and two "support team specialists" at a cost of US5.4 million.
The company's postal address is that of an SA National Parks (Sanparks) office in Pretoria.
Sanparks has denied having any knowledge of the security company.
Another document, in both Arabic and English, shows plans for a "rapid intervention force" staffed by 73 South Africans and 63 Libyans under the group command of a South African.
It lists equipment for the teams, including 127 AK-47 assault rifles, 12 PKM machine guns, a dozen RPG-7 rocket launchers, 12 sniper rifles, 60mm mortars, pistols and medical bags.
