THE WIFE and children of Sir Mark Thatcher left South Africa last night to escape the furore that has surrounded the former Prime Minister’s son since his arrest last week for allegedly financing a botched coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea.
Diane Thatcher, 45, left the family’s multimillion-pound home in Cape Town at 5.20pm yesterday, with Michael, 15, and Amanda, 11. A black Land Rover packed with their luggage had already gone ahead to Cape Town international airport, from where, it was reported, they flew to Heathrow, arriving early this morning.
Mrs Thatcher was expected to meet with Lady Thatcher in London to discuss the allegations facing her husband before taking the children to Dallas, Texas, her home city in the United States.
Friends of the family said that Mrs Thatcher and her children were leaving South Africa for good. On Sunday they were seen bidding farewell to fellow members of the Meadowside Baptist Church in the exclusive suburb of Constantia. Michael and Amanda have already been enrolled at schools in Dallas.
Sir Mark, 51, remains under house arrest in Cape Town as he awaits a court appearance on November 25. He was detained on Wednesday by officers of South Africa’s elite Scorpions unit and charged with breaking the country’s anti-mercenary laws.
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Prosecutors allege that Sir Mark gave $275,000 to Simon Mann, the former SAS soldier who is alleged have organised the plot to topple the Government of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema.
South African authorities are considering an official request from Equatorial Guinea for permission to question Sir Mark. A spokesman for the South African Minister of Justice said yesterday: “We are still looking at intergovernmental relations between our two countries to see if the request complies. We can’t say how long this will take.”
Equatorial Guinea has already sought an international arrest warrant for Sir Mark and other Britons accused of involvement to install Severo Moto, the exiled opposition leader, as president of the oil-rich country.
Ron Wheeldon, Sir Mark’s lawyer, said that he would grant access to Sir Mark and insisted that he would be able to prove that he was not involved in any coup plot. “Our position is that if they want to send someone, then he is welcome,” he said. “We have nothing to hide.”
Two suspected mercenaries turned themselves in to police in Pretoria yesterday and were formally charged with contravening the Foreign Military Assistance Act, which bans South African residents from working as private soldiers abroad.
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Lourens Horn, 30, and Harry Carsle, 40, were released from jail in Harare, Zimbabwe, on Friday on being acquitted of charges of attempting to possess dangerous weapons.
They and 68 others, including Mr Mann, were arrested on March 7 at Harare international airport when an aircraft touched down to pick up the cargo of arms, such as anti-tank missiles, mortar bombs and machineguns. Mann was the only one of the accused convicted of the charge on Friday, and he faces up to ten years in jail when he is sentenced in a court in Harare next week.
The National Prosecuting Authority in South Africa said that there was an opportunity for Mr Horn and Mr Carsle to cut a deal with the State in return for details about the alleged coup.