China arrests Britons, South Africans for ‘terror’ videos

The group of nine Britons, 10 South Africans and one Indian national were on a month-long tour to explore “ancient China” and were detained at the airport of the regional capital Ordos just before 10am on Friday. Sooliman said the group – five South Africans, three Britons and one Indian national – also included a veteran of the African National Congress’ military wing, which was co-founded by Nelson Mandela.

It’s also been reported that Chinese authorities have been changing their reasoning for the detention of the travellers, alleging that some members were part of a terror group or a banned organisation or had watched “propaganda” in their hotel rooms. It said they were detained last Friday in Ordos, Inner Mongolia, and that no reason had been given at the time. Their tour operator realised something had gone “horribly wrong” on Sunday, two days later, the foundation said, when he hadn’t heard from them.

Relatives of those who have been detained have claimed that the 20 tourists were held in police cells, having had their phones and other communications equipment confiscated, and were unable to contact families or their respective embassies for 48 hours.

According to iOL News, three of the South Africans being held by the Chinese government are relatives of the CEO of Vodacom, Shameel Joosub.

A representative travelling with Ramaphosa could not immediately be reached for comment. China will guarantee the legal rights of relevant people in accordance with law, and will continue to provide necessary convenience and assistance to counselor officials of foreign embassies, ” the ministry added. No reasons were given for the detentions, according to the charity Gift of the Givers, which has been communicating on behalf of those who were held. A South African delegation, led by the country’s Deputy President, Cyril Ramaphosa, is now in China on a five-day trip.

China and South Africa pledged on Monday to collaborate on the development of ports, oil, gas resources and fisheries.

Gift of the Givers describes itself on its website as being inspired by Muhammed Saffer Effendi al Jerrahi, a master of Sufism, a mystical form of Islam.

He says at the moment they are going to take advice from the South African embassy in Beijing on what the nature of the charges are and what the next step would be.

The Gift of the Givers charity, in a statement on Wednesday said, “Following an intervention by both the South African and British governments in China yesterday there has been some movement regarding 11 of the 20 detained individuals”.