In South Africa, a tug-of-war over compensation between the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and veterans of the resistance struggle against apartheid has led to dramatic scenes.

As it became known on Friday night, the veterans detained the South African defense minister, her deputy and the minister in the presidential office in a hotel near Pretoria against their will on Thursday evening.

The three were only released after the police intervened.

56 people have now been arrested.

Claudia Bröll

Freelance Africa correspondent based in Cape Town.

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The members of the government met with a group called Liberation Struggle War Veterans (LSWV), an amalgamation of several veterans' associations.

As the minister in the presidential office, Mondli Gungubele, announced later, they could not come to an agreement by evening and had decided to adjourn.

“But when we wanted to leave the room, the veterans locked the door.

That's when we realized that we were held hostage. ”Defense Minister Thandi Modise said on Friday that she was not happy about the situation but did not feel at risk.

The group's spokesman denies the hostage situation

According to a police spokesman, the news was received at 7.15 p.m. that two ministers and one deputy minister were in a possible hostage situation. An elite police unit had gained access to the room. When attempts to negotiate had failed, the officials proceeded “tactically” and freed the hostages. No shots were fired. A spokesman for the group, however, denied being hostage. The three government representatives could have left the room at any time. The veterans merely asked them to “sit down with them” to arrange a meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa.

The alleged deprivation of liberty is the culmination of a long-running campaign by veterans for compensation.

At the beginning of the week, LSWV members demonstrated in front of the ANC headquarters in Johannesburg.

In order not to violate the Corona exit rules, they were allowed to spend the night there.

The building was later evacuated.

250,000 euros to each veteran

According to the spokesman, the group is demanding, among other things, a one-time payment of the equivalent of 250,000 euros to each veteran or their surviving dependents, as well as health insurance and transportation. In previous demonstrations, she had also called for land ownership, jobs, study grants and political say. A year ago, South Africa's president asked his deputy, David Mabuza, to set up a team and find a solution. Obviously, this has not yet succeeded. Mabuza did not show up for Thursday's meeting as expected.

The conflict with the military veterans is only one of many challenges for the South African ruling party. Local elections will take place on November 1st, in which the ANC aims to win back important districts such as Tshwane with the capital Pretoria. The former Nelson Mandela party is also in financial and operational difficulties. Recently she was unable to pay salaries and failed to submit the lists of candidates for the elections in good time. In addition, the party is deeply divided into supporters of the current President Ramaphosa and his predecessor Jacob Zuma.

The 79-year-old Zuma, who was recently allowed to leave the prison for health reasons, reported in the meantime via video message. He again called his prison sentence unconstitutional because it was imposed without a trial. He had been sentenced to 15 months in prison for disregarding the Constitutional Court for refusing to appear before a commission of inquiry into corruption affairs.

In the video message he spoke in his familiar deliberate manner, but did not appear ill.

"Something is going terribly wrong in our country," he said, "we are heading for a constitutional crisis that can easily degenerate into social instability." On Thursday, hundreds of devotees gathered in Durban for a prayer meeting for him and spent hours in the heat persevered in the hope that the former president would appear there.