Mon séjour en Afrique du Sud (Cape Town)

Battle-hardened veterans previously deployed in Burundi, those who cut their teeth in Iraq and Afghanistan, or toughened up on the misty hills of Scotland, will join in battle again next year – this time at Ladysmith.

The annual Swartkop Challenge will bring together the toughest of the tough from the SANDF, the Ladysmith SA Police Service, the Natal Carbineers, the Royal Navy and the British Army.

The navy team will be celebrating the centenary of a high-profile British field gun event.

The challenge re-enacts the running of field guns up Swartkop Mountain (between Winterton and Ladysmith) by members of the British navy during the Anglo-Boer War, in 1899.

Swartkop was the only place where the 12-pound field guns were dragged up the mountain during the war after they were sent from HMS Terrible on the last train to Ladysmith. The army took one look at the terrain around Swartkop and said the only way to get them to the top would be to build a road. The navy rose to the challenge, saying it could manhandle the guns to the top . . . and it did.

In the first years of the event – which started in 2003 – the challenge took place on Swartkop, but due to its isolated setting, it was later decided to move the event to Wagon Hill near Ladysmith.

One of the organisers, Charles Aikenhead of Campaign Trails, said a team of dedicated field gunners from HMS Collingwood would be coming to South Africa next year.

He explained that, in 1907, the first Brickwoods Trophy gun run was launched. Nowadays 18 British service teams compete for the much sought-after silver trophy donated by Brickwoods Brewery.

Those who participate are allowed just six weeks to practise before the event, which is staged in June each year.

However, the Brickwoods run takes place on flat ground, so the naval contingent from HMS Collingwood will have a chance to test its skills in a totally different environment on Wagon Hill . . . hopefully giving it the edge when competing in England later in the year.

“The involvement of the Royal Navy in the siege of Ladysmith and the South African War is mentioned at every gun run, so this opportunity for the sailors of today to visit the town is particularly poignant,” said Aikenhead.

In 2005 the Royal Highland Fusiliers drew the original field gun up Swartkop.

At that time they expressed their intention to return on alternate years as part of their adventure training and battlefield education between their active service involvements in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Training

This Scottish Battalion has, according to Aikenhead, been training its fittest men in the misty hills outside Edinburgh.

Apparently the rocks there, Aikenhead said, are comparable with KwaZulu-Natal, and the men are pulling a variety of vehicles up those hills in anticipation of the challenge.

For their part, the South Africans, who have been deployed in Burundi, are determined not to be put to shame, especially on their home turf.

The South African National Defence Force has incorporated members of its weightlifting team into its squad, so weight and power should be in ample supply, even though pulleys and tackle will be used to rush the gun up the hill. The need for this has been queried in the past, but for safety reasons will again be used this year.

Aikenhead said new kids on the hill in 2007 would be a SAPS team from Ladysmith, eager to prove that fitness, strength and teamwork are police service viritues.

The Natal Carbineers, who competed last year, are also due to return to take up the challenge. Meanwhile, the Natal Field Artillery, which competed in the inaugural 2003 event and in 2004, have expressed its intention of competing in future events.

Regimental Sgt-Maj Mick Rumble said, “We were the first-ever champs of the Swartkop gun run and we have permission to participate again, but we don’t want to overtax our guys, as we are committed to several exciting events in 2007.”

During the event (on March 31 and April 1) there will be displays by the Dundee Die-Hards, 17th Lancers, Miniature Cannon Club, and Oranje Vrijstaat Artillerie Corps, among others.

Selebi warns new recruits at SAPS Legal Affairs Correspondent MORE than 3000 police recruits completed their police training programme last week as the police service continues with its drive to increase its numbers.

The South African Police Service (SAPS) aims to boost the number of personnel from 153000 in the 2005-06 financial year to 178910 in 2008-09, as it improves the management and conduct of border control and rural protection. Police are now taking over the responsibility of rural protection from the South African National Defence Force.

Provision has been made over the next three financial years to fund the police service adequately to perform border functions and to take over the role and functions of the SANDF commandos.

The service has also been allocated R260m over the next three years to increase the number of about 30000 police reservists to 80000 by 2009.

National police commissioner Jackie Selebi told the new police graduates in the Pretoria West training college at a passing-out parade at the weekend to defend themselves in any way possible against police -killers.

There are elements that want to kill members of the police force, so I urge you to defend yourselves with whatever means at your disposal, Selebi said. Other recruits graduated from the Oudtshoorn, Philippi, Chatsworth and Bisho training centres last week. Police training, which lasts for two years, is structured into three phases. The first phase involves a six-month basic training programme at centres around SA. The recruits then undergo training for six months as student constables, spending 12 weeks working in community service centres and another 12 weeks working outside the centres. In the third phase, the students complete 12 months of in-service training before they become police officers.

We want to know who flew, where, why and at what cost – demands DA

Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota has ordered that each and every flight chartered for senior politicians and VIPs during the past two-and-a-half years must be investigated.

Lekota said yesterday that a ministerial committee of inquiry would probe the government’s hiring of private jets.

The investigation will scrutinise all flights chartered by the department between April 27 2004 and December 10 this year, amid allegations that the South African Air Force has a critical shortage of pilots and technicians.

The committee will be headed by a renowned businesswoman, advocate Kgomotso Moroka, who was also involved in the 2002 Myburgh Commission into the rand’s exchange rate. She will be assisted by retired South African National Defence Force General Benno Smith.

The committee will review the department’s entire process of chartering aircraft and decide whether it is costing the taxpayer too much money. It will also ask whether hiring private planes is a security risk.

This comes in the wake of several recent “gravy plane” flights – which have soared to as much as R10-million – taken by Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.

Lekota, however, maintains that she did not decide on her travelling arrangements.

“I am deliberately placing the Department of Defence in the dock,” Lekota said. “It is the department that carries the sole responsibility and right to transport VIPs, and decide on the kind of transport used and the cost.”

Speaking in Pretoria, Lekota revealed that every travel request received by his department (within the timeframe) would be retrieved and scrutinised, as would each and every flight chartered.

Although he did not give a deadline for the committee’s report, he said that after it got off the ground in early January, it would take two to three months.

When asked by The Star whether the report would be made public, revealing crucial information about how many flights had been chartered and at what cost, Lekota said it would not, adding that only the report’s executive summary and recommendations would be communicated to the public.

Although the Democratic Alliance welcomed the commission, it said it was worthless unless the report was made public and debated in parliament.

“What should be so secret about their travels? We want to know who flew, where they flew, why and at what cost,” said DA spokesperson Roy Jankielsohn, adding that it would be easy for the committee to cover up any wrongdoing, such as hiring planes for private use, if the report was not released.

Lekota said there would be “not a single question that will not be raised”.

When asked about reports that Mlambo-Ngcuka had requested to be flown around in luxury, Lekota lashed out at the allegations, calling them unjust and untrue.

Asked about Mlambo-Ngcuka’s recent flights, Lekota said: “You (the media) are concerned about one or two flights. I am not chasing a little sensational story which means nothing tomorrow. I’m concerned about the whole system and all the flights that have been taken.”

Lekota described Mlambo-Ngcuka’s latest international flights, which cost around R4,5-million, as shocking, irregular and out of proportion.

Responding to a question on whether the commission would look at the necessity for the purchase of another plane for Mlambo-Ngcuka, Lekota said “nothing is impossible”.

The findings would allow the public to decide whether there had been illegal or corrupt acts to provide a gravy train to certain individuals, he added.

Lekota explained that his department was responsible for transporting the president, deputy president, former presidents and VIPs, some ministers and senior SANDF officials.

He said that anyone with information could approach|the commission. New revelations could result in the commission’s mandate being altered.

The commission has been mandated to:

nScrutinise the whole system (processes and procedures) employed by the department in chartering aircraft and determine whether the system is efficient and cost effective; and

nReview the processes and procedures of the department in respect of the chartering of aircraft for transporting VIPs between April 2004 and now.

The defence force’s price tag for transporting VIEs would continue to rise as long as the air force’s capacity deteriorated, the Democratic Alliance warned yesterday.

“The SAAF faces a major crisis owing to shortages of pilots and technicians, as well as a lack of maintenance of airfields,” DAB defence spokesman Roy Jankielsohn said in a statement.

He was commenting on the continuing controversy over Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka’s chartered flights for official business, because there were no pilots available to transport her on the SANDF Falcon 900 jet.

Airfields at major SAAF |bases were in a state of disrepair, including at Waterkloof, because of lack of maintenance, Jankielsohn said. It appeared that air force funding was the main reason for their deteriorating|capacity. Between 2004 and October 2006, a staggering 535 technicians and 70 pilots had resigned from the SAAF, Jankielsohn said.

“The SANDF’s exit mechanisms, designed to get rid of white individuals, together with racial quotas for senior positions, is to blame for this situation.”

The SAAF now faced a crisis |of who would fly and service not only VIP jets, but also the 24 Hawk lead-in fighter trainers, 26 Gripen advanced light fighter aircraft, eight Airbus A400m aircraft, four maritime helicopters, 12 Rooivalk helicopters and the various other aircraft that were costing taxpayers billions of rands over the next few years, Jankielsohn said.

The Defence Ministry has effectively taken the fall for Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka’s latest gravy plane fiasco, announcing it had “sole responsibility” for her air transport arrangements.

Announcing an inquiry into the matter, Minister Mosiuoa Lekota said all decisions on air transport for both the president and the deputy president were “the sole responsibility of the Department of Defence”.

In addition, it has now emerged that the inquiry will be broadened to examine all Mlambo-Ngcuka’s air travel between January 1 and December 10 this year.

Mlambo-Ngcuka is in the midst of another storm, this time relating to the chartering of a plane owned by IT billionaire Mike Shuttleworth.

This after the Swiss plane chartered for her trip to the UK at a cost of R4.55million broke down on Monday and another had to be chartered.

She is also reported to have travelled to Australia recently on a plane hired for R3m,while another official trip to Portugal and Ireland involved the hiring of plane owned by businessmen Raymond Ackerman and Aaron Searll.

Mlambo-Ngcuka is entitled to fly in the SANDF’s Falcon 900, but there is said to be a shortage of available VIP pilots.

Mlambo-Ngcuka’s spokesman Thabang Chiloane said her use of commercial flights “depends on defence’s security clearance”.

She plans to remain in South Africa over the holiday season, unlike last year when she travelled to the United Arab Emirates.

That trip sparked the start of her gravy plane woes.

An inquiry into Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka’s latest “gravy plane” fiasco has been broadened |to include all her air travel for the year.

Mlambo-Ngcuka is in the middle of another storm, this time relating to the chartering of a plane owned by IT billionaire Mike Shuttleworth.

This comes after the Swiss plane chartered for her trip to the UK at a cost of R4.55million broke down on Monday and another had to be chartered.

The deputy president is also reported to have travelled to |Australia recently on a plane hired for R3million, while another official trip to Portugal and Ireland involved the hiring of planes owned by businessmen Raymond Ackerman and Aaron Searll.

Mlambo-Ngcuka is entitled to fly in the SANDF’s Falcon 900, but there is a shortage of available VIP pilots.

Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota announced at the weekend that a board of inquiry would look into his department’s chartering of the Swiss plane.

It would also include the alleged leaks to the media amid security concerns.

Yesterday, Lekota’s office announced the inquiry would now span the period between January 1 and December 10 this year.

Mlambo-Ngcuka plans to remain in South Africa this holiday season, unlike last year, when her holiday to the United Arab Emirates began her “gravy plane” woes.

In a statement, the Defence Ministry reiterated that it was responsible for the deputy president’s air travel.

In his reaction, DA defence spokesperson Roy Jankielsohn said the defence force’s price tag for transporting VIPs would continue to rise as long as the air force’s capacity deteriorated.

“There is a crisis in the SAAF that has once again been highlighted by the hiring of an aircraft for R4.55million to take the deputy president to the UK, while the SAAF has already acquired aircraft at a huge cost to do so.”

He said the SAAF faced a major crisis because its airfields, including Waterkloof airfield, were not maintained properly.

Between 2004 and October this year 535 technicians and 70 pilots had resigned from the SAAF, he said.

“The SAAF now faces a crisis of who will fly and service VIP jets, 24 Hawk lead-in fighter trainers, 26 Gripen advanced light fighter aircraft, eight Airbus A400m aircraft, four maritime helicopters, 12 Rooivalk helicopters and various other aircraft that are costing taxpayers billions of rands.

“The lack of funds and the loss of skills mean that our air force is operationally ineffective. The SANDF’s exit mechanisms, designed to get rid of white individuals, together with racial quotas for senior positions, are mostly to blame for this situation.”

The most modern military hardware would mean nothing if there were no individuals to operate it or technicians to service it, Jankielsohn said.

“The government must take responsibility for spending billions of rands on military hardware that the SAAF does not have the capacity to utilise effectively.

“The few remaining resources that the SAAF has will either have to be used for transporting VIPs or maintaining combat readiness. It cannot do both,” he said.

Mlambo-Ngcuka’s spokesperson, Thabang Chiloane, yesterday said he was not able to comment on the issue as it was a defence force responsibility.

He said Mlambo-Ngcuka’s use of commercial flights “depends on defence’s security clearance”.

Meanwhile, Jankielsohn’s colleague, DA MP Gareth Morgan, said the view that Mlambo-Ngcuka was being set up to fail because she was a woman was absurd and illustrated a tendency to blame the misuse of public funds on conspiracies.

“There appears to be a growing trend in the government and its related institutions to explain away the facts by pointing to conspiracies.”

He was reacting to a statement by the Commission on Gender Equality, which earlier this week questioned whether Mlambo-Ngcuka was being set up to fail.

Morgan said R4.55million of taxpayers’ money had been spent transporting Mlambo-Ngcuka to London because the Department of Defence could not organise more suitable transport arrangements on time.

It is not clear why the deputy president was not able to travel on a commercial flight since she had flown to London on a commercial airliner a year ago.

The cash-strapped South African National Defence Force cannot afford |Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka’s |R4.55-million flight, according to Thandi Tobias, the National Assembly’s defence committee chairman.

“We are watching developments very closely. We are very worried what will happen if the (Defence) Department is forced to pay the R4.55-million with the financial situation it is already in,” she said yesterday.

The Auditor-General would no doubt give the SANDF another qualified audit “just when we thought we were getting the books on the right track”, she said.

Tobias was responding to reports that the Deputy President had flown to the United Kingdom in a jet chartered from Switzerland at a cost of millions.

Lekota, as Defence Minister, is responsible for providing President Thabo Mbeki and Mlambo-Ngcuka with air transport, courtesy of the South African Air Force for official business.

Lekota did not authorise the cost of the trip.

Tobias said she would be taking a keen interest in what the board of inquiry – established by Lekota to investigate the chartering of the plane – would recommend.

“We can’t afford to have another qualified audit, especially of that amount. And whether we like it or not the Auditor-General is going to give us another qualified report for unexplained expenditure,” Tobias said.

Lekota’s spokesperson Sam Mkhwanazi yesterday was unable to say as yet who would head the board of inquiry, noting it would be difficult to find an available advocate this close to Christmas.

But he said the board’s composition – that was expected to follow a paper trail to who ultimately authorised the hiring of the plane – should be announced this week as per Lekota’s wishes.

He said the terms of reference had also not been established yet but could not rule out that it may also look into the leaking of information to the media from Defence Force sources.

But he restated Lekota’s apparent approval of such information being highlighted by “whistle blowers”.

Meanwhile, Mlambo-Ngcuka, who is expected to arrive back in South Africa from London early tomorrow, is apparently very upset by the allegations that she knowingly spent |R4.55-million to hire a plane.

“She has been very upset by the national reaction, especially when she has been trying so hard not to do anything wrong,” said her spokesperson Thabang Chiloane from London.

The Deputy President, who flew to Marseilles in France and then to Edinburgh, Scotland, for meetings with university vice-chancellors and investors on matters relating to the government’s Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative, claims she had no hand in the travel arrangements.

Lekota has also said Mlambo-Ngcuka herself was not at fault.

Mlambo-Ngcuka, who then flew to Gatwick airport south of London for further talks with the South West Teachers Training College, is reportedly trying to establish training programmes or “twinnings” in order to promote Business Processing Outsourcing, which forms part of the Asgisa programme.

“The plane seats about 10 people and only essential staff accompanied her – there was nobody catching a free ride or anything,” Chiloane said, describing the allegations against the Deputy President as “unfair”.

However, Mlambo-Ngcuka has been criticised for similar flights twice before. Last year an Air Force plane was used to transport her and her family for a private holiday in the United Arab Emirates.

Earlier this year she again made headlines when she took a 13-minute plane ride to a golf tournament at the nearby Sun City resort.

Mlambo-Ngcuka had to charter a flight last week, after the SANDF did not have sufficient pilots available to fly her to France and the UK.

The Freedom Front Plus said yesterday the fact that there were not enough pilots available in South Africa to fly the South African Air Force’s presidential jets was proof of the “total collapse as a result of government’s affirmative action and transformation policies”.

“The FF Plus asked the Minister of Defence last year in Parliament about the sufficiency of suitably trained black pilots for the presidential jets and was assured by the minister that there was one qualified pilot and a further four in training. “It is, however, not known how many of the pilots in training completed successfully since last year,” FF+ spokesperson Pieter Groenewald said.

The air force’s affirmative action policy had also come under fire earlier this year, when it became known that the three top students in training – who were white – were not allowed to proceed with further training as fighter pilots, Groenewald said.

“The events point to a disregard for the South African taxpayer in that cost are incurred due to the Defence Force,” he said.

Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota has leapt into another “gravy plane” storm, declaring his outrage at the spending of R4.5 million to ferry Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka to Britain. He has announced a board of inquiry will investigate what happened.

“The amount of money allegedly paid is a shocking thing . . . It does not seem correct to me,” Lekota said in Pretoria yesterday. It was “irregular and way out of proportion with reasonable standards”.

He added that, in spite of the extraordinary high costs associated with this trip, neither the acting chief of the SANDF, Lt-Gen Solly Shoke, Defence Secretary and accounting officer January Masilela, nor the ministry was approached for formal approval of the expenditure.

Lekota was reacting to media reports yesterday that Mlambo-Ngcuka had undertaken another so-called gravy plane trip, this time to the United Kingdom at a cost of R3 million, because of a shortage of suitably trained pilots in the South African Air Force.

Pilot shortage But Lekota said the cost was actually R4.55 million.

The flight had apparently been chartered because all available VIP pilots, flying eight-hour shifts, had been assigned to fly President Thabo Mbeki to the Democratic Republic of Congo and the United States.

The deputy president is entitled to use the Air Force’s Falcon 900, but did not because of the pilot shortage. Suggestions are that, because of the holiday season, the only plane that could be chartered was in Switzerland. The plane will return to Switzerland once Mlambo-Ngcuka has returned to South Africa.

On Wednesday she flew to the UK to drum up support among |business leaders in Scotland and England for South African growth initiatives. She is expected back in the country tomorrow.

Lekota yesterday reiterated at a news conference that the Department of Defence was exclusively responsible for transporting the president and his deputy.

“The presidency has no say whatsoever in such a decision. Therefore any attempt to suggest that either the staff of the presidency or the deputy president herself is to blame, must be rejected with the contempt it deserves.”

A board of inquiry, headed either by a senior advocate or someone with legal experience from |outside the department, would be constituted to find out what |happened, who was responsible for “this glitch”, and to present a report to him as soon as possible “so I can act on the matter”.

Lekota welcomed the whistle-blowing role played by the media, saying it would enable the ministry, Defence Secretariat and the chief of the SANDF to do a thorough clean-up of what was clearly an unacceptable practice.

He also said the source of the information would be sought out.

“If someone in the department did not like what was happening, that person had two routes . . . but if he felt it would jeopardise himself then there must be another way to ensure this is stopped,” he said.

‘Upset’

Mlambo-Ngcuka, he said, was “extremely upset” about the latest debacle.

She had offered to use commercial flights, but this was |contrary to the law “so I would never allow that”.

Besides, he said, had she used commercial flights she would not have met her appointments.

“Attempts to create the impression that the deputy president is in search of extraordinary treatment or is corrupt is part of what I would like examined. I want to find out who in the department is |working to create this impression,” he said.

“We have nothing to do with the procurement of the transportation and we welcome an investigation to find out what is happening in |that department,” said Mlambo-Ngcuka’s spokesman, Thabang Chiloane

EARLIER this year, peacekeepers from the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) serving in Sudan took part in the largest capitulation of our national forces since Tobruk 64 years ago. Thirty-two South African soldiers, deployed as part of Operation Cordite, were ambushed and disarmed by about 200 Sudanese militia. In return for their freedom, they negotiated the handover of four vehicles, 34 assault rifles, three machine-guns, several radios, their flak jackets, and thousands of rounds of ammunition. Not a shot was fired, and the South Africans drove away in one remaining vehicle, unscathed but disarmed.

While this constitutes a victory for the negotiating skills of the young lieutenant leading the group, this is little better than a disaster for the reputation of South African peacekeepers and an indictment of the conditions under which they have been expected to carry out their tasks.

The African Union Mission in Sudan (Amis) is the only external military force allowed in Darfur. Even though it is viewed as insufficient to contain the violence in the western Sudanese province, proposals to allow a larger, better-equipped United Nations (UN) peacekeeping force, as proposed for September 2006, have not been implemented due to continued Sudanese government intransigence. Instead, the mandate of Amis has been extended until this month while diplomats try to find an acceptable solution.

Under UN Security Council resolution 1564 of September 2004, Sudan was given an ultimatum to accept the African Union (AU) force or face sanctions on their oil industry. The 7000-strong Amis was deployed to "closely and continuously monitor, liaise and co-ordinate ... at all levels" with the 10000-strong UN mission in Sudan charged with monitoring the January 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed in Nairobi between the Khartoum government and the southern-based Sudanese People's Liberation Movement. Amis was also mandated to assist with securing the delivery of humanitarian assistance and the return of refugees.

The Status of Forces Agreement, a nonnegotiable requirement in multi-national operations such as Amis, within which the rules of engagement are embedded, has been concluded between the AU and the Sudanese government, regulating the conduct of the deployed force. The terms of this agreement explains why the SANDF troops were patrolling in soft-skinned vehicles without air cover, armour and heavy firepower, when relatively safe, armoured Casspirs remain lined up outside Pretoria with a place to go but no agreement to allow them to be deployed in Sudan.

The reason why there is not a tougher mandate -- and, indeed, why there is no UN agreement on what to do about Darfur despite the enormous and continuing loss of life in the province -- is simply that the UN Security Council cannot engineer a tougher consensus among its members.

As of the middle of this year, SA had almost 3500 peacekeepers on duty in Africa. These are made up 1518 (of a total of 2432) in Burundi on Operation Fibre where they have been since 2004, 1389 (of 16802) in Operation Mistral in the Congo, six in Operation Espresso as part of the 3845 military and civilian UN personnel monitoring the ceasefire between Eritrea and Ethiopia, 432 soldiers as part of Cordite, and the 74 assisting with security sector reform and the reintegration and training of forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo under Operation Teutonic. Until recently there were also 46 troops in the Ivory Coast bolstering President Mbeki's peace-brokering efforts.

There are a few basic principles that must be adhered to when deploying troops in the spectrum of peace missions, from war-fighting on one end to peace-building on the other. Peacekeepers have a mission to protect, as the leitmotif goes. Yet their first responsibility is to protect themselves. Preventing the humiliation that befell the South African forces in Darfur requires not putting them in harm's way without the means to protect themselves. If the military is going to be employed in support of a peace mission, it has to be given the tools and the mandate to do its job. If the political agreement does not allow this, then do not send them.

Second, effective use of military formations in peace-support operations also requires identification of decision points and ongoing assessment and reassessment of the changing military role at these junctures. Politicians and the public alike have to think beyond military tools in reacting to threats to stability and security. As former UN secre-tary-general Dag HammarskjA¶ld observed, "Peacekeeping is not for soldiers, but only soldiers can do it."

When the circumstances alter, the military's role and utility must be re-assessed. For example, the Burundi mission has shifted on the spectrum from peacekeeping to peacebuilding. It is unclear what the SANDF's role should be in this evolving context, and whether, indeed, it is best equipped of all government agencies to take the leading role.

It also demands understanding the military's role as the interface between government and civilian agencies. How might the military best contribute to stabilising the often anarchic nature of the situation wherein vested institutional, personal and political interests drive governments and nongovernmental bodies alike to operate in war-torn environments? And it also requires judging the most appropriate moment for the military's exit from operations.

Third, military deployments in support of political solutions are not, in themselves, an end state. In many postconflict environments there will be, almost by definition, little or no governance, infrastructure, functioning services including the provision of medical facilities, fuel supplies, sanitation, water, and electricity. Postconflict peacebuilding is a long-term process, demanding resources beyond the military and its capabilities, and is invariably as fraught as the politics and reconstruction needs of the country into which it is deployed. This explains why -- from Afghanistan to Burundi and Somalia to Congo -- external agents need always to prioritise their goals and set their sights low. Put differently, in complex processes of peacebuilding and state-building, there is a need to think small. Small is beautiful.

Putting young soldiers in harm's way to support political processes will always be a difficult decision. But adherence to these principles reduces the risks of failure, casualties and capitulation.

The SA National Defence Force spends 14 times more on peacekeeping operations outside South Africa than it does on supporting the SA Police Service's fight against crime within the country, the Democratic Alliance said on Monday.

According to replies to parliamentary questions submitted by the DA, the SANDF spent R793,3 million on peace support operations during 2005/06, while only R55.5 million was spent on operations in support of the SAPS, DA defence spokesman Roy Jankielsohn said in a statement

"It is of great concern that while South Africa is in desperate need of all the resources it can get in the fight against crime locally, the SANDF, whose vital secondary task should be to support the SAPS, are putting most of their resources into protecting foreign citizens.

"While it is important that South Africa is involved in supporting peace on the African continent, ensuring peace and security in South Africa should however be the government's first priority.

"While up to 3000 SANDF troops and even some SAPS members are abroad at any given time protecting foreigners, South Africa is being ravaged by crime," he said.

Cross-border crime was also a huge concern, and an area where the SANDF could support the SAPS.

"The SAPS are not adequately equipped or staffed to carry out the required borderline control... Our territorial integrity is being violated by criminals and our security forces are more concerned about the security of foreigners."

Jankielsohn said it was time government recognised South Africa was involved in a "low-intensity war", in which criminals armed with automatic weapons were robbing, raping and killing citizens.

Two former SA Defence Force (SADF) soldiers were arrested for protesting in full military uniform outside the Lenz Military Base near Lenasia on Monday.

Another five protesters -- some also in camouflage uniform -- are thought to have also been arrested when they went onto the base to speak to the commanding officer.

The protesters claimed they were "unfairly dismissed" when the SADF was integrated with the PAC's military wing, the Azanian People's Liberation Army, and the African National Congress's armed force, Umkhonto we Sizwe in the mid-1990s to form the SA National Defence Force (SANDF).

"The government started dismissing members (of the SADF) to create space for other members (cadres of the former armed wings)," said protester Jackson Motaung.

The government had told them that, even though they were young at the time, it did not want them because "we were apartheid soldiers, we were killing them", said another protester, Aaron Mohalane.

In the past 13 years they had held protest marches and conveyed their grievances to former defence minister Joe Modise, Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota, former president Nelson Mandela and President Thabo Mbeki.

"I haven't been working since 1995," said Charles Motloung, one of the men in uniform. "Selling stuff by the street, that's how we survive," he said.

"Not even the Metro Police will take these people... We have to feed children and everything," said Motaung.

"We have followed all the right channels," he said. Now, "we do or die for this thing".

"They are not taking us seriously," said Mohalane.

The protesters threatened to first wage a campaign similar to that conducted for Mandela's release, failing which they would "disrupt the country".

Although there were only 13 protesters outside Lenz, they claimed 20 were under arrest inside -- including the two uniformed protesters and the five-man delegation.

They alleged that their sit-in began on Sunday inside the base, but that they moved off the premises at the suggestion of a newspaper photographer who asked them to pose outside.

A number were arrested when they returned later to fetch their bags, they charged.

While their group might be small in number, the protesters said they had the backing of pockets of similarly disgruntled ex-soldiers in all nine provinces.

They also had the support of serving soldiers who claimed they were being discriminated against and that the SANDF did not represent a truly integrated force.

Ministerial spokesman Sam Mkhwanazi contacted Sapa not to comment on the issue, but to inquire whether the protesters were really wearing full uniform.

He explained that the uniform of the SADF was no longer a military uniform.

The wearing of a full military uniform would "cause problems" whether by serving member of the SANDF -- not allowed to do what the protesters were doing -- or someone not in the military -- who might have obtained it illegally.

He was still trying to gather information about the protest and would probably issue a statement later in the day, he said.

Lenz Military Base's commanding officer, a Colonel Mbatha, who refused to give his first name or to comment, explained to the protesters that their action, ten metres from the base, was in "a restricted area".

They agreed to move down the road when he told them it was unlawful to protest within 500 metres of military bases and explained that access had to be ensured.

Military police escorted the protesters away.