SA contractors in Chad safe

By Leon Engelbrecht, ITWeb senior writer

Johannesburg, 05 Feb 2008

All 15 South Africans known to be in war-torn Chad are safe - for the moment, says the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

Most are employees of South African companies contracted by Celtel to install mobile phone infrastructure in the north-central African state.

DFA spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa says French troops evacuated five South Africans overnight and will take more to safety today.

The five evacuated to Libreville, in neighbouring Gabon, are employed by African Cellular Towers. AC Towers MD Chris Kruger says the company had six employees in Chad, five from SA and one from Zimbabwe. All are safe.

AC Towers manufactures and installs towers and equipment shelters and has been in Chad for six years. Kruger says his workers will return to the country as soon as it is safe to do so. "I'm positive everything will be back to normal soon. It normally settles down after about two months."

Kruger says strife is just another business risk in Africa. "We have this in the DRC [Democratic Republic of Congo], in Sierra Leone; we had it in Sudan and three times already in Chad." He adds: "Those places are safer than SA, people respect each other there."

He notes that the staff's personal possessions, some vehicles and other equipment, "but nothing major" is at risk in Chad's capital N'Djamena, where some looting is reportedly taking place.

But the same is not true for Venture Communications (VC), which still has three staff members in the city. CEO Stiaan Engelbrecht says the three are trapped in a house near the US Embassy in a zone close to the presidential palace that has seen heavy fighting between rebels and government troops.

Engelbrecht's company has been in Chad since 2005, but was planning to complete its business there by the end of next month. He says VC has equipment worth between R4 million and R5 million at risk.

He adds VC will return there after the current strife ends to complete current work for Celtel, but will then withdraw from Chad. "It is a difficult country to work in. Initially things went well, but it has since become more difficult to work there."

Engelbrecht says he had been scheduled to fly there this past Sunday to start wrapping up business - but fighting closed the airport on Friday.

VC also employed about 20 local subcontractors in Chad, who are now caught up in the fighting.

Engelbrecht says it is expensive to deploy staff into Africa and more so when they are caught up in strife. "It costs a few thousand dollars a day to keep them there and at present they are not productive. Even if they are keen to return, the chances are their families will not share that enthusiasm."

Celtel had not responded to requests for comment by the time of publication.