South Africa: A Two-Edged Mercenary Ban

South Africa announced draft legislation Aug. 15 that would ban citizen involvement in foreign conflicts. The law aims to prevent South Africans from acting as mercenaries and private military contractors and would require citizens to obtain government permission to participate in foreign conflicts or risk losing their citizenship. While the draft legislation stems from a series of embarrassing mercenary and apartheid-era military interventions in other African countries, if it is passed it will hamper governmental and nongovernmental humanitarian interventions in Africa.