Mon séjour en Afrique du Sud (Cape Town)

Eastern Cape police ordnance experts confirmed on Thursday that a 60 millimetre mortar bomb "normally used" by the South African National Defence Force caused the deaths of three people earlier in the week.

"We are looking at various possibilities as to how the device got there, including that it was picked up by people looking for scrap," said Grahamstown police spokeswoman, Captain Mali Govender.

On Monday, Justin Martin, 52, Johannes Kortrooi, 58, and five-year-old Leonardo Lottering died after the mortar bomb exploded outside a house in Ghost Town, Grahamstown.

An unnamed eight-year-old boy remained in hospital with "serious shrapnel" injuries.

It is believed the mortar bomb came from the 6 South African Infantry Battalion (6 SAI) base situated on the outskirts of Grahamstown.

Govender said three inquest dockets have been opened, and an investigation launched under the Explosives Act.

Govender said the military at the army base had previously reported that holes had been dug under the perimeter fence by local residents in search of scrap metal.

She said once the investigation was concluded the question of liability and who, if anybody, was responsible for the explosion, would be determined.

Govender warned the public, particularly children, not to touch or play with unfamiliar parcels or devices.

Attempts to get hold of 6 SAI base were not immediately successful, as were attempts to get answers around liability from defence headquarters in Pretoria.

Mercenaries could soon be prosecuted under the about-to-be amended Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Act, Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula said on Wednesday.

"We are finalising the amendment of the Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Act to ensure that we will be able to prosecute those people who are found to have violated that particular act by participating elsewhere in the world in areas of conflict," Nqakula said.

Briefing reporters on progress made by the justice, crime prevention and security cluster of departments, Nqakula said a draft amendment bill would be submitted to Cabinet and piloted through Parliament soon.

"There are quite a number of them who come from police, who come from the SANDF (SA National Defence Force) who have gone to Iraq among other places to participate in what is happening there."

While some were only security guards protecting installations, others were more involved.

"We have information that others are involved in actual fighting in the actual conflict."

Expounding on the bill, deputy justice minister Johnny de Lange said its drafting had been complicated.

A host of related matters had to be looked at, including the exact definition of a conflict area.

"What we have done... is looked at all the legislation pertaining to how we regulate our citizens participating outside the country, maybe in peaceful armies but also of course in conflict situations. And having reviewed that legislation we found a whole lot of loopholes or at least where the words of the legislation could have various interpretations thus making it difficult for law enforcement... and if we go to court, making it difficult to achieve the necessary prosecution," said De Lange.

Nqakula said the number of South Africans in Iraq and other war zones was not known, but investigations were underway.

"We don't have numbers even to deal with the situation in Iraq. There are investigations that we have started with respect to people we know are involved in the actual fighting in Iraq and at the right time those people will be arrested and prosecuted."

He said authorities wanted to close loopholes in the law before taking action so that they could be confident of successful prosecutions.

De Lange said South Africans wanting to serve in "peaceful armies" abroad would have to apply for permission. Permission was only valid for as long as the army was not at war.

Nqakula and De Lange said, however, policing agencies would not be sent abroad to "kidnap" mercenary soldiers and bring them home for prosecution.

"At some point they are going to come back to the country and we are going to deal with them when they come back," Nqakula said.

The firm Marcusevans is to organise a conference in Sun City (South Africa) from 14 to 16 September entitled Defense Electronics Logistics Technology Africa (Delta). This initiative is intended for professional servicemen and should draw delegates from the armies of several countries on the African continent as well as the officials of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) who will be on their home ground. Speakers who have already confirmed their presence include General Louis M. Fisher, commander of the Botswana Defence Force, retired General Len le Roux from the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), and General Afonso Neto from Angola.

SANDF to be left off Armscor board Parliamentary committee decides defence force should not be player and referee in arms purchases Parliamentary Editor CAPE TOWN - The chief of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) and the secreatry of defence are to be precluded from serving on the board of the arms procurement giant Armscor to prevent potential conflicts of interest.

Parliament's defence committee yesterday approved two amendments to the Armscor Act, passed by Parliament last year, that will remove both the head of the defence force and the secretary for defence (the top civilian official in the defence department) from the Armscor board. A conflict of interest between the then head of procurement at the defence department, Chippy Shaik, and his connection with bidding companies close to his brother, Schabir Shaik, lies at the heart of many allegations around the R53bn arms deal. The role played by Armscor in the deal has also been questioned following government's November 1999 announcement that it would buy planes, helicopters, corvettes and submarines over a 12-year period.

Moves to bring in these amendments predate the recent conviction of Shaik for fraud and corruption and the decision to prosecute former deputy president Jacob Zuma on two counts of corruption. In a letter to the committee, tabled yesterday, requesting the exclusion of the secretary, Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota said the original Armscor Bill of 2004 had provided for the two officials to be left off of the Armscor board. This was because a potential conflict of interest existed where the SANDF chief was able to determine the requirements of the force as well as the supplier who should provide them, he said.

Lekota said that when Parliament approved the bill last year, however, it was decided not to exclude the two officials. "After cabinet had approved the amendment I became aware that the secretary for defence is in a similar position to the chief of the SANDF," the defence minister said in the letter. "The secretary for defence, if he continues to sit on the board of Armscor, cannot be accountable for ensuring the efficient and effective utilisation of funds the department transfers to Armscor and also be accountable in terms of his membership of the board. It is inappropriate for the secretary for defence to be both referee and player." Committee chairman Kader Asmal put Lekota's request to the committee. The amendment was approved unanimously. African National Congress MP Mnyamezeli Booi said that the SANDF chief and the defence secretary should "lean back and take a sober view and they cannot do that if the are part of the process". The changes now need to be approved by the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces.

Afin "d'être en règle avec leur conscience" les Autorités Allemandes viennent de reconnaître que les exactions commises par les troupes allemandes contre les peuples Herero, Nama et Damara dans le Sud-Ouest Africain, actuelle Namibie, peuvent être qualifiées "de génocide" ; les campagnes militaires allemandes ont en effet exterminé près de 90 000 personnes avant 1908.

La Namibie a été colonisée par l´Empire Prusse devenue l´Allemagne.

Members of the South African military have to undergo mandatory HIV-testing to qualify for deployment on international peace missions, and if found to be infected with the HI virus are denied deployment.

HIV-tests are part of the military's routine predeployment health assessments, during which soldiers are tested for a number of chronic diseases.

Initially the government decided to exclude HIV-positive soldiers from international deployment, based on the assumption that the disease would develop more quickly in stressful working environments, such as military missions.

However, after complaints were made, the government has been requested to revisit the policy.

"It is our goal to have HIV-positive soldiers make their own decision if they want to be deployed or not," Brigadier-General Pieter Oelofse of the South African Military Health Service told PlusNews.

He commented that in some cases an HIV-infected soldier might be healthier than his HIV-negative colleague, depending on the progression of the disease, and added "This issue a moral challenge for us."

According to the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), around 23 percent of its personnel are HIV-positive.

The SANDF implemented an AIDS mitigation programme in 2004, with financial support from the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). The intervention provides a range of services to soldiers and their families, including voluntary counselling and testing (VCT), palliative care, and other support services.

SANDF noted that 76 percent of soldiers were aware of the AIDS programme, and almost half its employees had received HIV/AIDS education and training; more than 80 percent of soldiers had tested for HIV on either a voluntary or mandatory basis.

As a result, Oelofse claimed, members of the military had shown a "significant decrease of overall risk behaviour".

Last year the SANDF launched a clinical research initiative, Project Phidisa, which provides antiretroviral treatment (ARV) to HIV-positive soldiers and their dependants at six hospitals, which include both military and public institutions.

The three urban research sites are located in Pretoria, Cape Town and Bloemfontein, while the rural sites are situated in Phalaborwa in Limpopo province, Mtubatuba in KwaZulu-Natal province and Umtata in the Eastern Cape province.

So far, more than 2,700 SANDF members and their families have undergone CD4-count tests to establish their eligibility for ARVs, and 771 soldiers and their dependants are receiving treatment.

"We had members [of the military] with no hope, but through ARVs they have their lives back," Colonel Xolani Currie told IRIN. He added that attitudes to HIV-positive people were changing in the SANDF, as "people begin to see that HIV/AIDS can be treated like any other chronic disease".

However, there were concerns over low disclosure rates, drug adherence and data accuracy. "We are still sailing a rough sea," he acknowledged.

Eventually the SANDF expects to provide ARV treatment at all of its 65 clinics across the country, and in the near future also plans to establish a laboratory repository and molecular laboratory at one of its military hospitals.

A six-strong South African National Defence Force team was leaving for the Ivory Coast on Friday, military authorities said in a statement.

The six were going to prepare the way for a 40-member SA Military Advisory and Monitoring Team that was to follow.

"This deployment is in reaction to a request by the President of South Africa, Mr Thabo Mbeki, to the Minister of Defence, Mr Mosiuoa Lekota, to assist with the facilitation of the peace process in Cote d'Ivoire," the SANDF said.

"While deployed in Cote d'Ivoire the team will assist Mr Sopuka, the Special Envoy appointed by President Mbeki, with the mediation of the peace process."

The team's tasks will include liaison, planning assistance, monitoring and verification tasks and maintaining a presence at 11 disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration sites.

More than 300 members of the SA National Defence Force are to take part in a joint peace-support exercise with other Southern African Development Community (SADC) member countries in Botswana later this month.

The exercise is to be conducted from June 16 to 26 near Maun in northern Botswana.

The Botswana Defence Force has invited the SANDF and the forces of other SADC countries to participate in Exercise Thokgamo, the SANDF said in a statement on Tuesday.

It would be aimed at "developing a common understanding of military inter-operability", as well as fostering mutual trust, respect and co-operation between the respective defence forces.

It would also seek to upgrade "operational means and methods" of multi-national peacekeeping.

"Exercise Thokgamo will be conducted in a spirit of learning and observing," the statement read.

"This exercise will strengthen multi-national cohesion between South Africa and other SADC countries."

L'armée sud-africaine livre aujourd'hui une véritable "guerre" au HIV-sida qui touche 23% de ses effectifs et handicape sa capacité à participer à des missions de maintien de la paix à  l'étranger, a affirmé un médecin militaire mardi au premier jour d'une conférence nationale sur le sida à Durban (est).

"Au plan de la santé militaire, nous menons une guerre, une guerre humaine. Nous sommes confrontés à un ennemi terrible - le virus HIV et le sida", a déclaré le général de brigade Pieter Oelofse, directeur des services médicaux de l'armée sud-africaine.

A R300 million agreement on HIV/AIDS research in the military was signed in Pretoria last week by SA Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota and US ambassador to South Africa Jendayi Frazer.

The agreement will boost the medical research capacity of the SA Military Health Service and advance Project Phidisa, a collaboration between the two countries on biomedical research (SouthScan v19/24).

The project is focused on improved clinical management, psycho-social support, and the development of effective family-oriented care for HIV-affected military families. It is currently conducting trials of a number of HIV treatment drugs.

From its inception the project, based at the main military hospital in Pretoria, has been effectively funded by the US, which is concerned at the capacity of African security forces operate with their ranks depleted by AIDS.

Lekota has said that between 17 and 23 percent of the SANDF is infected with HIV (SouthScan v19/17), but unofficial sources say the figure for troops is closer to 25 percent.