Special Episode

Toppling governments, political assassinations and cannibalism, these are just a few of the false accusations that have been levelled against South African private military contractors Executive Outcomes (EO). In the revised edition of Executive outcomes: Against all Odds, author Eeben Barlow sets the record straight, providing a chronicle of EO’s operations, his own experiences with the company and exposing the bad actors that threatened its existence and slandered its name with malicious conjecture.

Prior to starting Executive Outcomes, Eeben served in various conventional and covert units of the SADF including 32 Batalion and the controversial Civil Cooperation Bureau. Founded in 1989 as a training company providing services for South African Special Forces, EO soon evolved, gaining notoriety for the pivotal role they played in assisting the FAA to defeat UNITA forces in Angola, and later crippling the rebel RUF forces in Sierra Leone. As their prominence grew, so did the threat they posed to certain foreign and domestic interests who had more sinister objectives in mind than stabilising war ravaged African countries. With very few men and even less equipment, EO proved extremely effective in every theatre of battle, forcing the international community to take notice and question the status quo of peacekeeping in Africa. But, even though this was a force that had achieved what few national armed forces could, there was one enemy it could not slay. Eeben left Executive Outcomes in 1997 and was appointed as Chairman of STTEP International in 2009

As founder and former chairman, Barlow is able to provide more than just a soldier’s perspective on this daunting industry. Along with detailing operations in Angola, Sierra Leone and Indonesia, Barlow also recounts of truly bizarre requests from rogue agents and corrupt foreign leaders, as well as the various assassination attempts on his life. Everything is not as it seems and when it comes to the state of affairs in Africa, you should be prepared to have your preconceptions challenged.

His book is more than just a biography of a private military company. It is sobering perspective on the state of conflict in Africa and the masters it serves. As Africans solving Africa’s conflicts, the men of EO truly achieved great triumphs against all odds.

In this special episode of the Eensgesind podcast, we discuss some parts of Eeben's book, the involvement of STTEP in assisting the Nigerian army to drive out Boko Haram of Nigeria and Eeben addresses the increasing fragile political trajectory that South Africa is facing.

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