Mon séjour en Afrique du Sud (Cape Town)

Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota was scheduled to leave the country for Ethiopia on Monday night to hear a report by a technical committee studying the deployment of a peacekeeping force to war-ravaged Burundi, his spokesman said.

Sam Mkhwanazi said the technical committee, headed by Major General Jan Lusse of the SA National Defence Force's Joint Operations Division, would brief Lekota and the defence ministers of the two other troop contributing countries, Mozambique and Ethiopia.

Lusse's team had been briefed to determine the peacekeeping force's task and force level, the defence concept for the deployment as well as the sustainment of the operation and possible assembly points for the demobilisation, reintegration and disarmament of the warring factions.

Lusse earlier this month told Parliament that the African Union (AU) mission to implement a series of cease-fire agreements and political settlements in Burundi was expected to take about three years.

South Africa would send 514 troops, Ethiopia 900 and Mozambique 200, but details and time frames were still to be finalised.

The mission commander will be South African Major General Sipho Binda.

The peacekeepers will join a group of 43 AU military observers already in the country. The observers were from Gabon, Togo, Tunisia, Burkina Faso and Mali.

Mkhwanazi said should Lekota, and his Mozambican and Ethiopian counterparts accept the report, they would then brief their respective heads of government.

The African Commission, an AU organ, would then issue the force with a deployment mandate, after which troop deployments would begin.

Altogether 751 SANDF members are already deployed in Burundi, mainly in Bujumbura and surrounds, in a separate UN-endorsed VIP protection operation in support of the transitional government.

The mission, code-named Operation Fibre, was launched on November 1, 2001, and the soldiers are tasked with protecting about 78 Burundian political leaders who have returned from exile.

The SANDF team includes VIP protectors, guards, and medical and other support staff.

Meanwhile expectations remained high in Burundi that the force will deploy quickly.

Burundi vice president Domitien Ndayizeye said at the weekend that a South African peace mediator had assured him the peacekeepers would begin deploying this week.

The force was meant to have deployed last year already.

Deputy President Jacob Zuma, a Burundi mediator, on Saturday witnessed that country's two main political parties signing a political and security agreement in Pretoria.

The security pact was signed in Pretoria by Alphonse Kadege, president of the Tutsi-dominated Unity for National Progress, and Ndayizeye, who is also president of the Hutu-dominated Burundi Democratic Front.

Ndayizeye, a Hutu, is due to take over as president from Pierre Buyoya, a Tutsi, on May 1 in a transition designed to end an ethnic civil war which has claimed more than 250,000 lives since October 1993.

Maintaining the various ceasefires have proved to be problematic.

The mainly Tutsi Burundian army claims it was difficult to distinguish rebels bound by the agreements from fighters refusing to lay down arms.

Rebels, in turn, have accused the army of reckless shelling.

As a result, reports of ceasefire violations and continued fighting are common, while the death toll mounts.

South African troops are ready to take part in an African Union (AU) operation in Burundi and to assist a UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the ministry of defence told IRIN on Tuesday.

President Thabo Mbeki had said on Monday that he expected an African peacekeeping force made up of troops from South Africa, Ethiopia and Mozambique, to begin deploying in Burundi from next week.

Reuters reported that Mbeki, addressing a gathering of African church leaders in Midrand, north of Johannesburg, said the peacekeeping force was evidence of Africa's commitment to fix its own problems.

Defence ministry spokesman Sam Mkhwanazi told IRIN on Tuesday that South Africa already had about 750 troops deployed in Burundi guarding returned leaders taking part in the peace process.

However, he could not confirm the exact number of troops South Africa was to commit to the Burundi effort. However, previous reports said Ethiopia would contribute 900 troops, Mozambique 200 and South Africa a further 514 to the three-year peacekeeping operation.

The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) troops already in Burundi are deployed mostly around Bujumbura in a protection operation critical to the peace process being mediated by South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma.

Meanwhile, Mkhwanazi told IRIN that over 1,000 SANDF troops were assembled in South Africa's central Free State province awaiting their deployment to the DRC.

"We will be going in on the invitation of the United Nations as soon as they are ready to receive us," Mkhwanazi said.

There were already a few specialists deployed in the DRC. "We sent liaison officers and observers, military police, search and rescue people and communications specialists," Mkhwanazi said.

He added that it was important for South Africa to contribute troops to peacekeeping operations as "we cannot be a prosperous country in a sea of poverty [amid] neighbours who are troubled by instability and conflict".

Mkhwanazi said: "It is in South Africa's interests that we have peace and stability in the whole of the SADC [Southern African Development Community] region and the African continent. In the spirit of Nepad [New Partnership for Africa's Development] we need to be seen to be leading in solving our own problems."

With regard to recent reports that the SANDF may be over stretched by its troop commitments, he said: "The minister of defence is on record as having said that the SANDF is willing and able to fulfil all its commitments. As you know we have sent people to the Comoros to assist the democratic process there, we have observers and liaison officers in Eritrea and Ethiopia, we were able to deploy our first contingents in Burundi in a very short space of time.

"If we are asked [for further troop contributions] either by SADC or the AU, we will be able to fulfil our constitutional obligations," he added.

Text of interview with the South African National Defence Forces, SANDF chief, Siphiwe Nyanda, by Willie Bokala as published by South African newspaper Sowetan on 24 March

[Bokala] How far have you taken the process of integrating members of the former liberation forces, Bantustans and the conventional SADF [South African Defence Forces] into one SANDF [South African National Defence Forces]?

[Nyanda] That process will be over on 26 March. We are bidding farewell to the British assistance team, who were brought here to adjudicate and referee that process. It was a daunting task but I think it has been one of my major achievements. We had no models to work from, bringing together forces of the liberation movements, Apia, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), former Bantustans and the SADF of the apartheid times would never have been easy. But it is over. We are now one defence force.

[Bokala] So you are now looking at the way forward?

[Nyanda] We are involved in transformation, in fact it's now how we work in the new democracy.

[Bokala] How do you answer allegations the SANDF has failed to recruit white youth?

[Nyanda] That is not correct. In 1994, and because of integration, the force had swelled to 110,000 people, and our country does not need such numbers. We decided to downsize, meaning there was no recruitment drive for some time. After downsizing enough, I gave instructions for the process to begin and I said there must be a deliberate targeting of whites. I think 20 per cent of the recruits this year are white.

[Bokala] What about representivity in the higher ranks, with blacks saying whites still dominate?

[Nyanda] Yes, representivity in the force is still skewed, but there are explanations. Middle management is still mostly white colonels, and so on, but there are reasons.

[Bokala] What are they?

[Nyanda] It has always been a white defence force - the perception was of a fight between white and black people. Whatever was created for blacks was created in the Bantustans. There was a deliberate policy to keep blacks out of the armed services. They were recruited only for junior positions, to be troopers.

[Bokala] What is your take on allegations that the military academy's programme is also skewed to favour producing white officers?

[Nyanda] I have no such reports. I am not surprised there is racism at many other institutions. We have a culture that was in place even before the advent of the National Party in 1948. For people to expect racism to disappear overnight boggles the mind.

[Bokala] But foot soldiers still complain of racism in the camps.

[Nyanda] Well racism will always be there. There were incidents of people walking out of military camps in Angola and there were no whites there. We must be careful here. In the military some people were members of MK and Apia and had to be retrained and unavoidably most of the information and expertise imparted to them had to come from former members of the SADF.

They had the conventional know-how. Now what we are concerned about is producing a disciplined soldier. In MK people hated instructors. You can imagine that if those instructors were white there would have been allegations of racism. I am not saying there is no racism. How can you deny something that has been there for so many years? But I don't want any officer - black or white - to be soft because they are afraid of being called racist. We want to produce commanders who are going to demand discipline from others.

[Bokala] How is the HIV/AIDS pandemic affecting the force?

[Nyanda] It is as prevalent as anywhere in the country. Investigations we conducted show that the percentages are less than what is alleged.

[Bokala] What are our defence capabilities, particularly civil defence?

[N] We are stretched because we are used at all times. Our troops have been used in the fight against foot-and-mouth diseases, our doctors, nurses and paramedics have dealt with the outbreaks of many diseases including cholera and malaria. I am not in favour of being involved in routine crime operations of the SAPS.

They should only involve us in intelligence-driven operations which would need big capacity, and especially our expertise to contain. As a defence force our duty should be to protect the integrity of this country, its borders. We may think there is no threat to us now, but it is there.

If we don't work to bring peace elsewhere in Africa, what is happening there could easily spill over and affect us. If there is peace in the region, there will be peace for us as well.

South Africa's multibillion-rand arms deal is slowly strangling the defence force as capital spending squeezes out operational requirements.

Figures released in the latest national budget show the strategic arms

procurement package will consume a staggering 45,8% of the defence budget over the medium term.

Expenditure on the defence force's ageing and sickly personnel soaks up a further 34,7%, leaving only 19% for operational costs and other capital spending.

So though the defence budget will grow at an average rate of 13% a year, stripping out the arms deal payments shows that the force is dealing with an effective budget cut while facing increasing operational demands from African peacekeeping missions.

"There is a structural crisis building up which at some point is going to blow up in our faces," Institute for Security Studies director Jakkie Cilliers told the Mail & Guardian.

"The defence force cannot train, it cannot regenerate, it cannot replace more mundane equipment, such as uniforms and troop carriers. There is no money to retrench surplus troops, no money to replace key personnel, no money to fund operations.

"On top of this we now have a commitment to deploy an additional 1 300 troops in peacekeeping operations in Congo. For each one deployed you need two on rotation. This is going to stretch our capacity in terms of the numbers of combat-ready soldiers we can muster, given that so many are old, not fit or not trained.

"We could be severely embarrassed. What happens if there is another Lesotho? Are we going to send the cooks and bottle washers?"

The Department of Defence's own assessment is just as bleak. Its most recent yearly report sets out key strategic challenges to its capabilities: "There remains a mismatch between defence funding and the present force design. The latter is

neither affordable nor sustainable and is not harmonised with the strategic environment and ordered defence commitments ...

"The department continued to meet all its commitments despite severe

financial restraints. The cost of meeting defence commitments has, however, been high as funds had to be diverted from maintenance towards meeting operating costs, resulting in decreased serviceability levels."

One example cited in a recent parliamentary briefing was that the defence force did not have funds to maintain the relatively new Rooivalk helicopters it has purchased. Other weapons systems have been mothballed to save money.

And the new arms purchases will increase the pressure on operational budgets. At the same briefing Rear Admiral Kek Verster said the costs of the new weapons systems could be ascertained only when they arrived. He said the existing budget was unlikely to cover these costs.

The Defence Department report says the decline in serviceability of most of the South African National Defence Force's (SANDF) main weapons systems has been aggravated by the loss of key skills and the effects of ill-health. "This has seriously eroded the SANDF's conventional capabilities."

The report says the government has not yet devised a formula for planned retrenchments. "Consequently funds earmarked for operating were eventually spent on personnel.

"Inadequate remuneration, allowances, benefits and the continued pressure for the scaling down of operational capabilities result in low morale among members as well as a serious loss of operational and functional expertise."

Funding pressures are so bad that the generals have proposed reducing the army to a mere 23 000 troops, a figure that defence analyst Helmoed Roemer-Heitman dismisses as completely inadequate. "At those levels you may as well not bother to have a defence force at all. You may as well just have a gendarmerie."

The parliamentary joint standing committee on defence also rejected the proposal.

Furthermore, general health and HIV/Aids are also affecting force readiness. "The number of SANDF members unable to comply with prescribed health standards is increasing rapidly, thus reducing the operational capability of the SANDF and draining resources," the department's report states.

One defence source, who declined to be named, estimated that only about half of army troops met combat fitness requirements.

Retired major general Len le Roux, head of the defence sector programme for the Institute for Security Studies, says there is no crisis - yet.

"The new defence packages make up for a past gap in replacing equipment, but the defence budget has not expanded to the same extent. You can't fire the personnel, so there is only one area you can cut - your operational expenditure.

"It is obviously a bad situation. You have a defence force but you can't do things with it. You cut down on maintenance; you cut down on training, which is bad for morale. Having a soldier sitting around is the worst thing you can do. In retrospect it is clear that buying everything at once was not a good idea, but I think it was done in good faith."

Things were likely to get worse as the arms acquisition process unfolded before they got better, Le Roux warned. "All major acquisition projects tend to overrun your cost expectations. That will put further stress on the operational side."

Evidence of this was contained in the latest defence budget, which moved to double one air force expenditure line "to finance an incentive scheme to retain skilled personnel needed to service the new aircraft".

The budget also referred to additional spending being projected for outfitting the first corvette for ammunition, cryptographic equipment and other specialised technical equipment not included in the up-front cost.

The nine-month delay in the delivery of the corvette has also cost the navy money, including the cost of flying the South African crew to Germany. Though the contract makes provision for penalities up to a maximum of 5% of the cost, none has yet been paid. The penalties would go directly to the fiscus, not the defence force.

Exchange rate fluctuations and contractual price escalations have pushed the arms deal from R30-billion in 1998 to R53-billion in the latest official estimate. This does not include the four maritime helicopters that are being purchased.

"I don't think we can talk about a crisis, but I do think intervention is required," says Le Roux.

"We need a very transparent and open national debate about defence. We need to reassess where we stand in terms of today's realities, including the demands of peace missions into Africa, which were not foreseen.

Either we have to find more money, or we have to find other solutions."

Thandi Modise, chairperson of the joint standing committee on defence, said the defence force could not be expected to "deliver a miracle every year".

"During the period of phasing in the new equipment there are massive expenses. There is almost nothing left for the operational side - that affects morale ...

International deployment [on peacekeeping missions] is still largely under-funded. There is also no designated fund for transformation, for achieving representivity.

"There is no need for hysteria, but we do need to sit down and look at funding and perhaps we should re-look at force design."

In a bid to provide effective and professional logistic support to the South African Navy, the Defence Council of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) has approved the running and management of the transformation process of the Simon's Town Naval Dockyard by Armscor.

Announcing the move, defence minister Mosiuoa Lekota said the decision was necessitated to provide effective and professional logistic support to the Navy and also to utilise and manage the Dockyard's capacity on a sound economic and commercial basis.

'The transformation process will be jointly managed by Armscor, the Secretary for Defence January Masilela and the South African Navy and will be conducted in phases,' he explained in a statement.

It is expected that the running and transformation process of the Dockyard would commence on 1 April and would be completed over the next two years.

South Africa will deploy more troops in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in the next week, said a senior military official here Wednesday.

Briefing the South African National Assembly's defense committee in Cape Town, South African National Defense Force ( SANDF) Joint Operations Chief Director Major-General Jan Lusse said the advance team would leave on March 24, followed by the main group's first contingent on April 14 and the second on April 21.

They were currently being mobilized in Bloemfontein, but the national defense force was still awaiting the official transport movement plan from the United Nations, which is responsible for this.

The international DRC peacekeeping operation fell under the authority of the UN, and would now focus on disarmament, demobilization and reintegration, following the recent peace agreements reached between the warring parties.

Lusse said that South Africa's total contribution to this part of the operation entailed the deployment of 1,268 personnel. This consisted of an infantry group -- including headquarters 

and support staff - of 1,053 personnel, an engineer squadron of 175, a river-crossing ferry unit of 15, a well-drilling squad of 12, and 16 military police officers.

They would join the 148 specialist South African national defense force members already in the DRC. Rotation of the latest group would start in October, according to a report carried by South African Press Association. Turning to the African Union peace mission in Burundi to oversee the implementation of ceasefire agreements there, Lusse said the whole operation was expected to take about three years. South Africa would send 514 SANDF members, Ethiopia 900 and Mozambique 200, but details and time frames were still to be finalized. Altogether 751 SANDF members were already deployed in Burundi, mainly in Bujumbura and surrounds, in a UN-endorsed VIP protection operation in support of the transitional government. The mission was launched on Nov. 1, 2001, and the soldiers are tasked with protecting about 78 Burundian political leaders returning from exile. 

The SANDF members included VIP protectors, guards, and medical and other support staff.

Lusse said the SANDF had also deployed 12 personnel-military liaison officers, observers and support staff - in the UN/AU mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea, and a smaller group of liaison officers and observers in the Comores.

Responding to questions in Parliament, Cape Town this afternoon, Mr Zuma said the mission, comprising troops from South Africa, Ethiopia and Mozambique, would be deployed once logistical and political consultations had been finalised.

'A Multinational Military-Strategic Planning Team under the leadership of major-general Sipho Binda of the SANDF is working on the details regarding the deployment,' he explained, adding that the AU had deployed 35 military observers in Bujumbura.

He said the appointment of an Interim Chairperson for the Joint Ceasefire Commission (JCC), Colonel Samba, who is the Chief of Staff of the Mission of the United Nations in the Congo, (MONUC), would also take the peace process forward.

'The JCC will expedite the process of establishing assembly zones for combatants, and the demobilisation, disarmament and repatriation of armed combatants of the various parties,' said the Burundian mediator.

Asked whether other peace initiatives in the continent were bearing fruit, Mr Zuma said they were continuing to intensify efforts under the auspices of the AU and the United Nations.

'(This) to find peaceful and durable solutions to the various conflicts in the continent, mainly in Sudan, Comoros, Somalia, Western Sahara and Cote d'Ivoire,' he said.

The focus of the military on their primary function and the phasing out of the commando system ignored present realities in South Africa, and is ill-timed, according to the Institute for Security Studies (ISS).

In a document distributed during a New National Party seminar on the commandos on Monday, the ISS said the police lacked the capability to take on the role played by the commandos in rural areas.

"The territorial reserves provide the potential for the rapid expansion of the South African National Defence Force in times of crisis.

"They also complement the police in that they bring their own specialised expertise and capabilities into rural protection. These specialised capabilities may be lost."

The closure of the commandos would leave two gaps that had to be addressed urgently, the ISS said.

The first was a lack of a system to provide rear area protection during times of war and external conflict.

The second was the capacity of the SANDF to support the SA Police Service in rural safety and protection during peacetime.

The commandos also played an important role in disaster management and the maintenance of essential services.

The announcement came at a time when the general crime situation in the country would seem to call for more, rather than less, involvement of the SANDF in support of the SAPS.

The police's sector policing strategy could not in itself be a complete replacement for the commandos.

The SAPS was currently not planning to be able to execute all the functions of the commandos.

"It is only addressing the issue of rural safety. This is currently addressed within the Rural Protection Plan, with a partnership between the SAPS, commandos, and agricultural organisations.

"The commandos provide the bulk of the resources for this plan," the ISS said.

"The SAPS is already struggling to fulfil its obligation to fight crime in the country. The SAPS does not at present have the capacity to take on more tasks, as it is already stretched to the limit," the ISS said.

Two people, one of them a soldier, were killed in an accident involving three vehicles in Lenasia, south of Johannesburg on Friday, emergency services said.

Spokesman Malcolm Midgley said a military vehicle allegedly skipped a red traffic light on the corners of Nirvana and Flamingo streets around 6.30am and collided with a BMW.

The military vehicle, a light truck, was launched into the air on impact and struck the windscreen of a heavier truck before hitting a pedestrian.

The driver and passenger of the military truck, a man and a woman, were killed on impact, while the pedestrian was critically injured. The people in the other vehicles were not harmed.

Midgley said according to the SA National Defence Force the truck was from Dunottar on the East Rand and was en route to Bloemfontein. It was not immediately clear if the woman was an SANDF employee. She wore a military jacket over civilian clothes. Midgley said it was also not clear what the truck was doing in Lenasia. Both victims were in their 20s.

The injured pedestrian was taken to the Chris Hani-Baragwanath hospital in Soweto.

Outgoing Liberty chief executive Roy Andersen on Tuesday said he was taking a year out of executive life and scotched any suggestion that he was resigning from South Africa's most highly rated life assurance company to join ailing Sanlam. Andersen's name was bandied about Sanlam's corridors in the immediate aftermath of Leon Vermaak's sudden resignation from the struggling group in December. Sanlam has given no indication as to its future leadership strategy, leaving financial director Flip Rademeyer in the hotseat until a decision is taken.

Andersen announced his retirement from all positions within Liberty and Standard Bank on Tuesday morning. News of a big development at the group appeared to be the market before the announcement was made, as the share price plunged nearly six percent at the opening, a good 45 minutes before the first official SENS announcement was made.

But technical adviser in the JSE's surveillance department, Peter Redman, told Moneyweb that there was nothing obviously untoward around trade in Liberty before the 10am announcement, despite the big decline in the share price.

"It was normal basket trade, with not that many shares changing hands, the whole market was down at the time, so there's nothing to suggest the information was leaked," he said.

Andersen insisted that there was no parallel between his and Vermaak's resignations from their respective organizations, and said he was retiring soon after his 55th birthday to "smell the roses."

"I started thinking about this on the beach in December, and after nearly 16 years with Ernst and Young, the JSE and now Liberty, working seven days a week, it's time to take a break, and do the things I want to do."

Andersen intends holding onto his shares for the foreseeable future and is not encumbered by any restraints of trade or lock-ins. He and several members of his executive team were locked in around the time of the failed Nedcor bid for Standard Bank.

Currently the highest ranking civilian in the SANDF, with a rank of Brigadier General, Andersen is looking forward to continuing his close association with the country's armed forces, and following up on various other passions including military history, but he has no intention of writing his memoirs.

But he does intend attending the rugby world cup and going on a 4X4 trail of the Skeleton coast.

"I'm giving it a year, and then I'll decide if I want to come back as executive or non-executive, we'll just see how these things pan out."

Andersen declined to comment on his successor, Myles Ruck or to elaborate on the selection process that excluded any of his current management team from the immediate succession race. He also declined to speculate on the motive behind majority shareholder Standard Bank's decision to put its second most senior executive in the top job at the life assurance group.

Liberty founder Donald Gordon took the decision to appoint Andersen from outside the group at a time when the profile of the board was ageing.

Liberty's current board has the opposite problem-while it has a strong executive team, directors, other than Mike Jackson who is closer to retirement age, are younger and less experienced, thus necessitating bringing in new blood.

Defence minister Mosiuoa Lekota is to bid farewell to the British Military Advisory and Training Team (BMATT), in Pretoria, this afternoon.

The BMATT was requested by the South African government to assist in the integration of different forces in the country to form the SA National Defence Force (SANDF), after the first democratic elections in 1994.

The integrated SANDF includes those from the former homelands; Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda and Ciskei (TBVC), Umkhonto we Sizwe and other paramilitary groupings.

'Among other things, the team has been involved in training and assessing new members joining the SANDF,' said defence spokesperson Major Niko Allie.

BMATT has also been involved in the integration of military forces in various African countries such as Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland and Mozambique.

In Zimbabwe, BMATT with the assistance of the Zimbabwe National Army has trained basic recruits and junior officers of the Mozambique National Army at the ZNA Battalion Battle School at Nyanga and at the ZNA Staff College in Harare, Zimbabwe, since 1985.

Defence minister Mosiuoa Lekota is to bid farewell to the British Military Advisory and Training Team (BMATT), in Pretoria, this afternoon.

The BMATT was requested by the South African government to assist in the integration of different forces in the country to form the SA National Defence Force (SANDF), after the first democratic elections in 1994.

The integrated SANDF includes those from the former homelands; Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda and Ciskei (TBVC), Umkhonto we Sizwe and other paramilitary groupings.

'Among other things, the team has been involved in training and assessing new members joining the SANDF,' said defence spokesperson Major Niko Allie.

BMATT has also been involved in the integration of military forces in various African countries such as Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland and Mozambique.

In Zimbabwe, BMATT with the assistance of the Zimbabwe National Army has trained basic recruits and junior officers of the Mozambique National Army at the ZNA Battalion Battle School at Nyanga and at the ZNA Staff College in Harare, Zimbabwe, since 1985.

Deputy President Jacob Zuma has called on the intelligence community to come up with a definition of terrorism, saying they were better placed to accomplish such an act as the term was 'an area of debate internationally.'

Speaking during the launch of the South African National Academy of Intelligence in Mafikeng on Friday, Mr Zuma said the intelligence community ought to 'define more appropriately what terrorism was.

'More than ten years ago we were referred to as terrorists...I don't think the world has agreed on this issue,' he explained.

He added that there was a reliance on other countries when it came to a definition of the term.

On the academy, the Deputy President said it was an important part of government because 'given the kind of world we live in and the security challenges we face, we definitely need a high-class intelligence service in our country.

'In this regard I am specifically thinking of terrorism and other forms of violent extremism where intelligence has the obligation to collect information in a covert way.'

The academy, which was renamed after the late ANC stalwart Mzwandile Piliso, will take 50 students at a time including some of its staffers. Mr Piliso died in 1996 at the age of 72.

Previously called Khupe Campus, Intelligence minister Lindiwe Sisulu closed the previous academy two years ago, to allow for restructuring and refocusing of the intelligence department's training responsibility.

Late last year, the SANAI was established as a public entity to provide training to members of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), the South African Secret Service and related structures such as the National Intelligence Co-ordinating Committee (NICOC) and the Presidential Support Unit.

Training on national strategic intelligence will also be provided to the intelligence components of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) and the South African Police Service (SAPS).

The academy comprises a vocational and a research component and plans are underway to develop the structure into an institution of higher learning.

South Africa's army is struggling to attract white citizens to join up at entry level, a senior army offical said Tuesday.

White South Africans were generally well educated and more likely to opt for civilian employment rather than the army's less attractive remuneration, Chief Lieutenant-General Gilbert Ramano said.

"We need help with this," he told the National Assembly's defence committee.

Figures from the Department of Defence show there are about 75,000 members in the South African National Defence Force. The army makes up 60 percent of the SANDF.

At the moment, 92 percent of the about 47,000 army is black, six percent coloured (mixed race), and only two percent white. There are 14,951 black privates in the SANDF, 1,023 coloureds, 575 whites and 52 Asians.

At the same time, there was a surplus of white officers in the more senior ranks. Department figures show that at the Brigadier General rank in the SANDF, there are 56 Africans, three coloureds, 100 whites and one Asian.

"Programmes of fast tracking and empowerment are being followed to assist in rectifying this problem in the shortest time possible," Ramano said.

However, some progress has been made. For example, 31 percent of the current colonels are black, as opposed to 13 percent in 1998.

The SANDF went through a major integration and rationalisation process after the African National Congress took control of the government in 1994.

The ANC's Umkhonto we Sizwe troops were integrated with the apartheid government's South African Defence Force. Many white officers began leaving the SANDF after 1994.