Mon séjour en Afrique du Sud (Cape Town)

SA National Defence Force IN STATE SERVICE Business and other civil society institutions have had little to do with the modern SA military since the early 1990s. But that's set to change with the launch of the Council for the Support of National Defence.

The council will be chaired by Mvelaphanda chairman and empowerment kingpin Tokyo Sexwale, who is already an honorary colonel in the SA Air Force.

Other members of the council include business elder statesman Wiseman Nkuhlu; Imperial Holdings chairman Bill Lynch; Business Unity CEO Bheki Sibiya; and SA Foundation executive director Neil van Heerden. Ex officio members are the acting chairman of the Reserve Force Council, Maj-Gen Reg Modise, and the chief of Defence Reserves, Maj-Gen Roy Andersen (chairman of Sanlam and Murray & Roberts, and formerly CEO of Liberty Life and the JSE).

The aim of the council is to promote the SA National Defence Force's (SANDF) Reserve Force (RF) by encouraging part-time service, as well as building support in society for those who wish to serve in the military as volunteers.

Sexwale, a former Umkhonto we Sizwe commander, told the FM: "Among business, labour and communities, we want to help develop a sense of national pride in those who carry arms on behalf of the nation." There is certainly an attitude backlog to be made up. When compulsory military service for whites was ended abruptly in the early 1990s, few in the business community mourned. For close on two decades the old SA Defence Force (SADF) had called men up every year, either for 30 days or for the unpopular "three-month camps", often in Namibia and Angola. The impact on an economy already short of skills, as well as on individuals' career prospects, was considerable and therefore resented. And many black South Africans saw the old SADF merely as an agent of apartheid. Now, with a severely limited budget and no immediate national military threat, the strategy of the SANDF is to maintain a small core capacity that can be expanded by calling up the RF.

The RF should also benefit from the council's other role, which is to advise SANDF chief Gen Siphiwe Nyanda on "the creation of a climate and conditions favourable to RF service".

Andersen says the council is "part of the strategy to transform and reposition the RF - it's a building block in their revitalisation".

In the old SADF, the predecessors of the RF - the Citizen Force (CF) units and the Commandos - were topped up by men who had completed extended national service. They generally had an obligation to serve for another 10 years. A minority volunteered for further service, and the survival of the RF regiments has depended since the early 1990s on this hard core of enthusiasts.

With military service now voluntary, the number of training units has dropped. To supplement those who join the RF after service in the regular forces, decentralised basic training is also arranged through RF units. The first RF company trained under this system is now being evaluated at the Combat Training Centre (formerly the Army Battle School) at Lohatla in the Northern Cape.

Good progress has been made, to the point, says Andersen, that "consideration is being given to deployment of RF volunteers to the Democratic Republic of Congo".

Dramatic changes have also been effected in the naval and air components of the RF. In the navy, the old CF units have essentially been abolished and 20% of berths on ships have been set aside for RF members, which should stimulate interest. The air force is finding ways to maintain links with the civilian flying world.