Mon séjour en Afrique du Sud (Cape Town)

A Ladybrand farmer appeared in court on Thursday after he allegedly fired shots at two SANDF members patrolling the area, Eastern Free State assistant police commissioner Eric Nkuna said on Friday.

He said Coenraad Frederick Anderson, 41, of Haven Farm, Ladybrand, appeared in the town's magistrate's court on a charge of attempted murder.

The case was postponed to January 22 and Anderson was released on warning.

Nkuna said that on Tuesday at 5pm the SANDF members were busy with border patrols at the farm.

"At about 8.15pm they went to local farm workers' houses to ask for water as they were thirsty," Nkuna said.

After the alleged shooting incident, the SANDF members fled and reported the matter to their superiors.

Anderson was arrested on Thursday and police confiscated his .38 Special revolver.

The South African National Defence Force [SANDF] will withdraw from supporting the police and focus solely on defending the country's interests.

Present political thought was that soldiers should not be used to control the people who voted for the government that, in turn, employed those soldiers, said Lt-Col Robbie Roberts, officer commanding 71 Signals Unit in Goodwood.

Speaking at a special information session held on Saturday to explain the SANDF's new thinking about reserves, Roberts said it planned to raise a police force to take the place of the SANDF in law enforcement operations and once that was done, the SANDF would withdraw fully from this task.

This would spell the end of the old commando system, as it was these territorial units that mainly performed the law and order task, especially in the rural areas. "The reserves will be there to extend all the arms of the service," Roberts said.

"The signallers, as experts in combat communications, are now basically the new fifth arm of the service and we have to support all the other arms of service from the army, through the navy and the air force to the medical corps with training and personnel."

Roberts said the citizen force units, like his own, were fed by the national service system that was abolished in 1994. Before then, all white males had to perform national service of two years, after which they were passed on to a citizen force unit at which to complete their compulsory part-time service. When that system ended, citizen force units found the numbers of their members dwindled, as most people were no longer interested in serving in the military.

"We now draw volunteers from all races, but the problem we have is that many people think it is an easy way to find a job and get paid. We have to change that perception. To volunteer is to get paid only when you are called up to serve. We are not the permanent force," Roberts said.

He said the plan was to call for volunteers from the former SADF, as well as Umkhonto we Sizwe [Spear of the Nation, MK, former ANC military wing] and APLA [Azanian People's Liberation Army, former military wing of the Pan-Africanist Congress] in order to draw a potential leadership element of soldiers who had already been trained to some extent. Reserves would be considered in the same light as the permanent force for as long as they were called up to serve.

Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota launched Project Phidisa, the SA National Defence Force's anti-HIV/Aids programme on Monday, World Aids Day.

Lekota said the Cabinet wanted to keep "those who are HIV-negative - negative, while reaching those HIV-positive South Africans who are most in need of comprehensive clinical management of their illness."

Project Phidisa was "a clinical research programme of the South African National Defence Force and it aims to discover the best ways to manage infections with the HI Virus within the context of military service and the broader society.

"We will make better the lives of our soldiers and their families and we will also save lives," Lekota said.

The minister said Project Phidisa had brought together "a stellar collection" of collaborators: the SANDF, the United States Department of Defence and the United States Department of Health and Human Services "through the good offices" of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the (American) National Institutes for Health.

The partners have expanded the technical and scientific team at the core of the development of the research and they have included leading university scientists from South Africa and abroad.

Project Phidisa aimed to find answers to the critical problems of the use of antiretroviral agents in the clinical management of Aids.

Lekota said the research would: - Evaluate the effects of the HIV epidemic on the SANDF with an initial focus on treatment including treatment with antiretrovirals; - Provide treatment to qualified HIV-positive SANDF members and their dependants at six selected research locations; - Answer research questions relevant to South Africa on the use of antiretroviral therapy and other interventions to address diseases that impact on members of the military; and - Build capacity within the South African Military Health Service so that it can conduct research on other diseases of critical importance to military force preparedness.

Lekota said the SANDF was "a reflection of South African society and this work will be critical in defining the policy decisions for the country on HIV treatment."

The project will be implemented at 1 Military Hospital in Pretoria, 2 Military Hospital in Cape Town, 3 Military Hospital in Bloemfontein and in three rural six bays (Mtubatuba, Phalaborwa and Umtata).

Soldiers and their families served by these health centres will be eligible to participate.