Did Mike Horn kill people in South Africa? “It was part of my life”, he reacts to the accusations

Is the past catching up with Mike Horn? The famous adventurer is known for his expeditions to the four corners of the globe, to places that men dare not brave. If its reputation is well established, new information may tarnish its image. Indeed, the Swiss channel RTS bring an investigative investigation into the military past of the 56-year-old man titled The dark side of the adventurer. “Why and how did he mysteriously land in Switzerland in 1990? With what elite unit did he really fight for the South African apartheid regime?“questions the public channel in its investigative magazine Present timeThursday, January 19.

Mike Horn: his sulphurous past resurfaces

Thus, the man born in South Africa on July 16, 1966 would have joined “voluntarily” the battalion 101 which acted at the time on the border with Namibia in order to impose the apartheid regime – his mission would have been to hunt down independence insurgents. Legislation establishing racial segregation was introduced in 1948 in South Africa and established the systematic territorial separation between whites and other ethnic groups in the country.

“Civilians were treated appallingly, killed”

Mike Horn would thus have been an actor in the violence of apartheid. Waal de Waal, his former superior, recounts this dark episode in the history of Africa as follows: “It was our job. We were considered the best counterinsurgency unit in the world. (…) We were shooting at each other, we were rolling over each other. In fact, they couldn’t run over us because they were on the ground. But we were on vehicles. And the driver’s weapon is his vehicle.”

Another witness gave a harrowing account of that terrible time. Namibian Supreme Court Justice Dave Smuts, then a lawyer, said: “Civilians were treated appallingly, killed. As were captured insurgents who were often murdered. (…) Battalion 101 itself sometimes operated completely outside the legality.”

Mike Horn expresses regret, but accepts this dark past

Approached for the documentary, Mike Horn tried to cover up the scandal. “It was so long ago…I have to look in my diary…I’m not sure I was there”, he thus advanced to the RTS. In his portrait drawn up by the show Present time on the RTS, he confides: “At that time, for me to be in a reputable unit was to play an active role in protecting South Africa. People think about hunting and killing. It’s not hunting and killingis to hunt people who will kill other people. It’s kind of like the police that I accepted it – not to kill people, but to prevent new elements from killing people I love.“

Was he traumatized by the violence that marked the apartheid period? “It was part of my life like going on an expedition or going to buy croissants, he replied to the RTS. That is to say, as soon as you want something to traumatize you, that’s where it traumatizes you for your whole life.”

Switzerland reacts to these revelations

After the broadcast of the documentary, Mike Horn will declare “regret having participated in these operations”while assuming “perfectly” his past. “I never supported the Apartheid regime, not only during my military obligations, but also once they were completed”he assured 48 hours later. It was when Nelson Mandela was released in 1990 that Mike Horn is said to have fled to Switzerland, where he has since lived and raised his two daughters, Annika and Jessica. He obtained Swiss nationality in 2011.

These new revelations challenged the Swiss executive. Thus, the deputy Jessica Jaccoud questioned this Tuesday the Grand Council of the State of Vaud, where the adventurer resides. The socialist asks him to take a stand and determine whether or not the star retains his status within the steering committee of Vaud Promotion as well as his title of honorary member.