Why everyone wants to hire South African mercenaries

That's the advert I spied last night while reading Slate... It certainly caught my eye!
Slate has this article that starts with another eye-catching quote:

"You know you've been in Baghdad too long when hearing Afrikaans at the pool is normal."

The article goes on to discuss the large numbers of South African mercenaries working in Iraq, and how the SA government is pressing ahead with legislation to tighten oversight of SA citizens working in war zones.
Remember the story a year or so ago about South Africans being involved in an attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea? Mark Thatcher (Maggie's son) was also implicated, and fled South Africa. The book "The Wonga Coup: Guns, Thugs and a Ruthless Determination To Create Mayhem in an Oil-Rich Corner of Africa" covers this and sounds like it might be a good read...