Mon séjour en Afrique du Sud (Cape Town)

Hundreds of South African soldiers are accused of killing, torturing and assaulting the people they are supposed to protect – and taxpayers are footing the bill for their legal defences.

South African National Defence Force (SANDF) members are accused in 287 serious criminal cases.

The most recent list of recorded cases includes 26 involving murder, 22 attempted murder, 15 assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, 25 common assault and 31 reckless and negligent driving.

The alleged offences could also cost the taxpayer just under R1 billion in civil claims.

The SANDF’s legal services division has acknowledged, in correspondence that has been leaked, that its failure to finalise civil claims involving South African peacekeepers in Burundi has become “an embarrassment”.

Among the claims is one by a Burundian state witness, Dobeye Jean Damacene, for an air ticket he bought to testify at the trial in South Africa of Flippie Venter, accused of raping and murdering a teenage sex worker while serving as a sergeant in Burundi.

While 37 of the criminal cases against SANDF members are on record as having been withdrawn or ending in acquittal, documents suggest that the SANDF has lost track of what has become of 125 cases recorded by its legal services department. The last court date noted was four years ago.

About 13 cases – three of them involving murder charges and one, culpable homicide – are listed as “dormant”. In 58 cases, the charges are not listed.

According to its 2006 financial statements, the Department of Defence is also facing civil claims for R978 million and claims for motor accidents involving R3.7m more.

Most of the 149 civil claims relate to allegations of unlawful arrest and violence against.

If there was ever a name to aptly describe South Africa, Cuckooland would be a good one.

Here we are in our 13th or so year of democracy and what do we have to show for it? BEE, more money reaching people, a vibrant emerging middle class, schools improving. Our greatest achievement, however, according to the powers that be, is the halving of violent crime statistics.

That’s the first clue as to the origin of the name Cuckooland. Are they really serious? Do they think we don’t have eyes? This place is controlled by a government of total denialists! “What crime? Aids is just a fallacy. Nothing wrong with Eskom.”

Foreign governments are going to issue a serious warning on travelling here. Can you imagine how many tourists are going to be robbed during the World Cup? They’re not all going to hire tour guides to keep them safe.

The newest alarming rumour is that Prince Harry is forbidden to visit South Africa anymore as he’ll be safer serving in Iraq with his unit! When asked whether the SANDF could assist the police with crime busting, a spokesman uttered this astonish-ing explanation: “It does not form part of the defence force’s portfolio.”

I’m sure that this image is hurtful to patriotic South Africans, but I’m afraid that unless the President and MPs wake up from Rip van Winkel mode, we will continue to be known as the folks from Cuckooland.

Thieving officials 'cross the line of decency' Cape Correspondent CAPE TOWN Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka yesterday criticised officials who stole from the poor, accusing them of corruption in the highest degree, a level of immorality which cannot be tolerated and must be rooted out.

She said at a South African National Defence Force (SANDF) Moral Regeneration Movement conference that it was unacceptable for public servants to underperform and worse to cheat and steal from the state. Development was not only about society's material needs but also about healing from within. While government created safety nets to deal with extreme poverty, providing social grants and child support grants was unsustainable. We have to make unconditional commitments to pensioners and categories of disabled people but for others we must facilitate an exit to economically sustainable activities, without taking away the safety nets from those who need them. But more needed to be done, as there were still unacceptable numbers of South Africans unemployed and living in poverty, she said. The work we do in poverty alleviation is morally correct. It shows that we are a caring and moral state. Members in uniform such as the SANDF and police had to live by the highest possible standards, exhibiting a higher public service ethos, spirit and public morality.

Anything less is traumatising to society because our people need standards, they need heroes, they need people to look up to, and they need role models and mentors. Protectors of society could not abuse or present a danger to society. Just as health workers have to care and bankers cannot be robbers, chief financial officers cannot be caught with their hands in the cookie jar, so are you in that special category who must be guardians of good values.

Disgracing one's uniform and profession takes away not only from the dignity of the affected member but hurts the collective image of even the innocent, so we cannot stand by and allow it.

It is everyone's duty to protect the image of the force, to whistle-blow, and if you do not you become part of the problem, said Mlambo-Ngcuka Officials who stole from feeding schemes or gave substandard ser-vice, especially to the poor, crossed the line of decency, she said.

South African National Defence Force (SANDF) members have a responsibility to protect the image of the force and to "whistle blow" on cases of corruption, says Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.

The Deputy President was delivering the keynote address at a conference on Tuesday, organised by the SANDF on the Moral Regeneration Movement (MRM).

The MRM is a longstanding national campaign that falls within the purview of her office.

"It is everyone's duty to protect the image of the force, to whistle blow and if you do not, you become part of the problem. Members must be trustworthy," Ms Mlambo-Ngcuka said.

"We must respond to whistle blowers by making necessary follow ups to issues they raise until they reach their logical conclusions."

She added that it was imperative for a Moral Regeneration programme to be implanted in government departments "to build the character of our people through positive values."

Key members of the MRM were present at the conference, including its chairperson, former Tshwane Executive mayor, Father Smangaliso Mkhatshwa, as well as a number of prominent academics and religious figures from all religious communities in South Africa.

The Chaplain-general of the Department of Defence, Brigadier-General Marius Cornelissen, as head of the Chaplain Service which represents a cross-section of religious communities in South Africa, presented a background to the conference, which was opened by the Deputy Minister of Defence, Mluleki George.

The Deputy President extended the responsibility of guarding against corruption to all civil servants, adding that it was also unacceptable for them to perform as they deliver services the poor can claim as a constitutional right.

Corruption, she added, occupies an even higher level of immorality, especially when committed by civil servants on whom the poor rely heavily to provide the services vital to an improved life.

"So officials who steal from feeding schemes or give sub-standard service, especially the poor, cross the line of decency.

"There is a moral crisis when officials forge documents in order to access money earmarked for Child Support Grants when they do not qualify to do so," the Deputy President said.

The work of the state in poverty alleviation and protecting the most vulnerable in society is morally correct, she said, but at the same time she warned that the extent to which people have reached for security through applying for government grants is "not sustainable".

Beneficiaries of social grants in South Africa have increased from 2,6 million in 1994 to 9,7 million by June 2005, she said. By April 2005, over 5,6 million children were receiving social grants, with about 4,2 million receiving the Child Support Grant.

An additional R19 billion was allocated for the 2005/06 financial year period for the extension of the Child Support Grant to children under the age of 14 years, she said.

"However, this trend is not sustainable,"she warned, adding that while government must make an "unconditional commitment to pensioners and categories of disabled people, for others we must facilitate an exit to economically sustainable activities".

South Africans, she said, "have a shared moral responsibility to share wealth".

Another important element in the moral regeneration of the country is the National Youth Service, which needs to "touch base" with as many as two million young people in South Africa.

The MRM has produced a draft Charter of Positive Values to guide its work.

This encompassed respect for human dignity and equality; promoting freedom, the rule of law and democracy, improving the material well being of the majority and economic justice and enhancing family and community values.

The charter also highlighted upholding loyalty, honesty and integrity, ensuring harmony in culture belief and conscience, showing respect and concern for all people and striving for justice, fairness and peaceful co-existence.

Hundreds of South African soldiers have been accused of killing, torturing and assaulting the very people they are supposed to protect - and taxpayers might have to fork out almost a billion rands in civil claims.

South African National Defence Force [SANDF] members are the accused in 287 serious criminal cases, recorded incidents of murder, shooting, assault and torture.

An investigation by The Star has also revealed that the most recent list of recorded criminal cases against army members includes 26 charges of murder, 22 of attempted murder, 15 of assault with grievous bodily harm, 25 of common assault, and 31 of reckless and negligent driving. And the army's own legal services division has admitted in correspondence leaked to The Star that its failure to finalize civil claims made against South African peacekeepers in Burundi has become an embarrassment.

While 37 of the criminal cases against SANDF members are recorded as withdrawn or ending in acquittal, army documents suggest that the SANDF has lost track of what happened to a staggering 125 cases recorded by the army's legal services department. At best, the last recorded court date for these cases is noted four years ago. Some 13 cases - including three of murder and one of culpable homicide - are listed as "dormant", while in 58 of the cases, the exact nature of the charges is not listed.

One of the claims, made by Burundian state witness Dobeye Jean Damacene, is for an air ticket that Damacene paid for in order to testify in the trial of Sgt Flippie Venter, who is accused of the rape and murder of a teenage Burundian sex worker. According to the Defence Department's 2006 financial statements, the army is facing civil claims of 978m rands [about 134m dollars], with motor accident claims amounting to an additional 3.7m rands [506,000 dollars].

Disturbingly, the vast majority of the 149 civil claims against the army involve alleged unlawful arrest and violence against members of the public -some of which claimed the lives of their victims. In addition to four civil claims against the army for murder, two of which the army indicated it would settle, the Defence Department is currently facing 14 claims related to "shooting incidents", including two in which civilians were paralysed. Another seven cases relate to the deaths of civilians, allegedly at the hands of army members, while a further 59 claims are related to assault committed by soldiers.

The SANDF was today due to host the second day of its moral regeneration conference in Cape Town. The conference comes days after the Defence Department incurred the ire of opposition parties by advertising for applicants with "no record of serious criminal offence". SANDF spokesperson Sam Mkhwanazi later stated that the wording of the advertisement had been made in error.

In November last year, Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota told parliament that, between April 2005 and September 3, 891 crimes - allegedly committed by SANDF members - were reported to the army's military police agency. These offences, which add to the agency's 3,377 unfinalized cases carried over from 2004/2005, are believed to include 400 cases of sexual offences and the theft of military equipment. Although the army's legal department usually provides legal assistance to SANDF members who have been criminally charged in civilian courts, it has refused requests for legal assistance in 12 cases -the majority of which involved incidents of alleged torture and assault.

In one of these cases, a sergeant stands accused of killing a member of the public during an interrogation. An SANDF inquest found the sergeant responsible for the civilian's death, and he was charged with murder, but it is not clear what happened to the case against him.

Mkhwanazi said the Defence Department was investigating what had happened to the cases unearthed by The Star.

"Particularly in light of the moral regeneration conference, we take these issues very seriously. Where a member is found to be guilty, we will deal with them."

Hundreds of South African soldiers have been accused of killing, torturing and assaulting the very people they are supposed to protect -and taxpayers might have to fork out almost a billion rands in civil claims, the Johannesburg daily The Star reported on Wednesday.

South African National Defence Force members are the accused in 287 serious criminal cases, recorded incidents of murder, shooting, assault and torture.

An investigation by The Star has also revealed that the most recent list of recorded criminal cases against army members includes 26 charges of murder, 22 of attempted murder, 15 of assault with grievous bodily harm, 25 of common assault, and 31 of reckless and negligent driving.

SANDF spokesperson Sam Mkhwanazi said the Defence Department was investigating what had happened to the cases unearthed by The Star.

According to the Defence Department's 2006 financial statements, the army is facing civil claims of R978-million, with motor accident claims amounting to an additional R3,7-million.

A cabinet minister has called for conscription to be reintroduced to keep the youth off the streets, ensure they are disciplined and do not turn to crime.

However, his views appear to be out of step with his own party, the ANC, as well as government policy.

A government source said last night it was not under discussion in the ANC or the government.

The conscription call was made by Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana in a statement issued by his office yesterday. Repeated attempts to get clarity were unsuccessful.

Apartheid South Africa abandoned conscription for whites in August 1993. The SANDF is made up of volunteers.

Mdladlana said army conscription could be a perfect way to instil discipline in young South Africans “and full appreciation of the importance of the hard-won freedom”.

The statement said that the minister, in making the proposal, was quoting from the ANC’s strategy and tactics document.

“Conscripting our young people would not only help inculcate discipline, but also make them understand better the importance of defending our hard-earned liberation.

“The worrying trend whereby our youths are involved in armed robberies and other violent crimes that are ravaging our country could be reversed once they join the army,” Mdladlana said.

However, the ANC’s strategy and tactics document adopted by the party in Mafikeng in 1997, and updated in Stellenbosch in 2002, appears to make no reference to conscription.

Mdladlana’s spokesperson, Zolisa Gigabi, could not be reached for comment.

ANC spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama said there were several commissions at the ANC’s recent conference and that he was not sure whether it had been raised in any of the commissions.

“I don’t have any information at the present moment,” he said, referring queries to the party’s political committee, which is revising the strategy and tactics document.

However, a government official who wanted to remain anonymous said that conscription was not being discussed either in the government or the ruling party.

“There are no discussions, as far as I know,” he said.

The official said the confusion might be related to the drafting of a revised strategy and tactics document for this year’s ANC national conference.

Final amendments were made to the document yesterday. It will now be forwarded to branches for discussion.

The official said the issue under discussion related to the expansion of the national youth service, to ensure young South Africans had more access to skills and jobs.

A system similar to community service for doctors had also been mooted on a wider scale.

The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) could be called on to help expand South Africa's antiretroviral-treatment programme, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka suggested on Tuesday. There is "a role" for the force in helping roll out treatment because it is such a labour-intensive activity, she told a defence force-organised moral-regeneration conference in Cape Town. At the end of last year, the Health Ministry announced that more than 235 000 people were receiving free ARVs, up by about 60 000 from mid-year. The Treatment Action Campaign estimates that another half a million people still need to go on to treatment. Mlambo-Ngcuka heads a ministerial task team on HIV/Aids, and chairs the South African National Aids Council. She told the conference that unacceptable numbers of South Africans still live in poverty and deprivation and the rest of the country has to fight this inequality. Sharing the wealth of the nation is a moral responsibility.

"The will to share is what is at stake here," she said. The work that South Africa is already doing in poverty alleviation shows that it is and can be a moral and caring nation, yet more can be done. The country's forces in uniform, the defence force and police, represent "refuge and trust". That uniform is an identity that says its wearer can be relied on, "so we cannot allow a few bad potatoes to change that". "They have to be exemplary, helpful and must be seen to be going he extra mile in whatever they do without seeking to enrich themselves unjustly."

COSATU will tomorrow march to the Department of Defence’s offices in Cape Town to highlight what it calls a purge of former uMkonto weSizwe (MK) and Azanian Peoples Liberation Army (Apla) forces in the SA National Defence Force.

The federation’s Western Cape organiser, Mike Louw, said the march will be in a form of “a military-style drill through the city to highlight the crisis in the SANDF.

“This crisis has seen the old white management of the defence force try to purge the ANC and PAC military men,” he said.

“The army’s insistence that Defence Force unions cannot join Cosatu is unconstitutional. The Constitutional Court declared in 1999 that prohibiting defence force members from public protests violated their right to freedom of expression ,” he said.

Louw said the “old guard” in the army did not want to transform the service.

He said it was a myth that the apartheid-era army was a professional outfit and that today’s problems were a result of integration of the MK, Apla and forces of the former homelands.

“The old guard does not want to share the resources and experience. Instead, they bicker about affirmative action, even in the case of black officers who are studying and were not part of the liberation forces,” he said.

He said Defence Minister Mosioua Lekota was sweeping the problems under the carpet.

Louw said the military police had tried to stop the march.

SANDF spokesman Sam Mkhwanazi was not available to comment.

A senior SANDF general has denied all allegations that he indecently assaulted a deputy minister’s former personal assistant in her Swedish hotel room.

Describing the allegations as “lies”, Inspector General of the SANDF, Major-General Mxolisi Petane, told the military court in Thaba Tshwane yesterday that he accidentally bumped former Deputy Defence Minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge’s personal assistant as he put on his jacket in her hotel room. “I apologised to her for doing that after she had said ‘no, no, general’.”

The complainant disputed this, saying: “There is no way that he could put on his jacket while he put his arms around my waist.”

Instead, she said, she could feel his whole body – from top to bottom – pressed against hers, but was unable to tell the court if Petane was sexually aroused or not.

Petane, the defence force’s Inspector-General, is accused of fondling the complainant’s breasts and indecently rubbing his body against hers in a Stockholm in October 2003, when he was South Africa’s military attache to that country.

He has pleaded not guilty to sexual harassment and indecent assault charges.

Petane told the court that he had breakfast with the complainant and they later went to her room to look at gifts which the South Africans had brought for their Swedish counterparts during the defence talks.

The court heard that Madlala-Routledge did not confront Petane about the incident.

“Myself and the South African Ambassador to Sweden accompanied the deputy minister, her husband and the complainant to the airport in Stockholm and there was no mention of the incident in the hotel room,” said Petane.

He said he only became aware about the sexual harassment complaint when he was due to fly to South Africa to bury his uncle after the deputy minister’s visit.

Earlier, the complainant told the court that Madlala-Routledge would not tolerate any form of unprofessional behaviour.

Petane’s legal representative Major Sabelo Magaga told the complainant that nothing had happened between her and his client.

“That is why you did not immediately report the incident to the former deputy minister,” said Magaga.

The complainant repeated her evidence that the defence talks between the South African delegation and their Swedish counterparts would have been cancelled if she had informed Madlala-Routledge about the incident. “I realised the urgency of reporting the matter and rushed to the South African Embassy in Stockholm to inform my office manager about the incident,” she said.

The complainant – who used her sister to demonstrate to the court how Petane allegedly held her – said she chose to use the telephone at the South African Embassy “because it was not convenient to use the deputy minister’s cellphone”.

“One does not ask a minister or deputy minister to use their cellphone,” the complainant said.

Magaga said Petane touched the complainant by mistake while putting on his jacket which was in her hotel room.

The complainant disputed this telling the court that Petane fondled her breasts, but did not hurt her.

“He violated me,” she said.

The complainant’s office manager, Buddy Ntsong, told the court he got to know about the incident when she phoned him on October 15.

Ntsong said the complainant was calm, contradicting her earlier statement that Ntsong realised that she was upset and had consoled her.

He told the court that the complainant told him that she could not tell the Madlala-Routledge about the incident because she was scared it could cause friction between the two parties.

“I told her that this was a personal matter and she could deal with it as she deemed fit,” Ntsong said.

He said he had previously used a minister or deputy minister’s cellphone. “I have never encountered any problems,” he said.

The case has been postponed to next month.

It is clear to any military observer that the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) is in trouble.

There are enough good officers, non-commissioned officers (NCOs) and soldiers to allow it to turn itself around. But that will require a clear decision on what is necessary, and the willpower to follow through.

First, we must focus on the primary function of the SANDF – to provide combat forces that can execute missions briskly and efficiently, with the absolute minimum of casualties. Everything else is secondary.

Second, we must bring back the fundamental principle of command. The Chief of the Army is the chief, in charge and responsible.

The officer commanding a battalion is in command, in charge and responsible. Such officers must be trusted, allowed and required to command, not regarded and treated as some sort of supermarket floor walker with no authority or discretion. If they fail, replace them.

Third, we must reinforce this by putting the administrators back into their proper place. Staff are there to support and assist commanders, not to control or command them.

Fourth, we must implement an absolutely ruthless focus on competence, integrity and discipline. Soldiers of any rank must be worthy of respect and trust.

Fifth, we must stop talking of “human resources”. We must talk and think of people. Soldiers are people. They have lives, concerns, peculiarities and preferences.

Sixth, we must focus more strongly on education and training, particularly field training for the SA Army, operational flying training for the SA Air Force, and operational sea training for the SA Navy. The supporting services and divisions must do the same, which will require some additional funding.

Seventh, we must optimise the SANDF for its operational functions, not to suit administrators.

The SA Army is already heading there. The SA Air Force could, with profit, look to group its units in operationally coherent wings.

The SA Navy, with a different set of needs, could revive the flotilla system.

Eighth, we must find a way to enable the SA Army to stand down some units to allow them two years to stabilise and train up to full operational standard. These can then be deployed, while others are stabilised and brought to operational standard. The dangerous, self-destructive habit of deploying ad hoc units must be broken.

Ninth, we must review our officer corps. We should establish a real military academy that educates and trains career officers; a university entrance system for those requiring a technical or other specialised education (the Military Health Service is already doing this); a bursary system that funds tertiary education after a short-service tour; and a direct entry system for graduates. We must also develop an attractive, medium-term service system.

Tenth, we must review our NCO corps. We must provide them with a proper career path, one that will give young NCOs frequent promotions without too much responsibility too soon, and senior NCOs real challenges worthy of their experience and maturity.

We must also develop a bursary and vocational training system to enable NCOs to find a second career if they leave the military.

Eleventh, we must review the Military Skills Development System. It is a good idea that has not been taken far enough.

The two-year system means that the military does not get enough real service in return for the training, while the soldiers do not receive enough vocational training to have a trade when they leave. A five-year system would allow a useful period of active service and full trade or career training.

Twelfth, we must find a place for soldiers who cannot or do not want to be promoted or cannot continue in the rank and file for reasons of age and fitness but do not want to leave.

The 13th point I wanted to emphasise is that the SANDF must insist that the government remembers it has a duty not to misuse it. An obvious issue is the “over-stretch” caused by operational deployments that exceed capacity.

It also has a duty not to abuse the military. Obvious issues are under-funding that makes proper training and maintenance impossible, and political pressure that interferes with appointments and promotions.

And finally, the SANDF must insist its design meets the government’s strategic demands

To base the SANDF’s strength and design on the budget the National Treasury might deign to disburse, and then demand more than it can safely deliver, is to set it up for strategic failure.

l Helmoed Römer Heitman is the southern African correspondent for Jane’s Defence Weekly.

The SANDF Inspector General, Major-General Mxolisi Petane, has denied allegations that he indecently assaulted a deputy minister’s former personal assistant in a Swedish hotel room.

Describing the allegations as “lies”, Petane told the military court in Thaba Tshwane yesterday that he accidentally bumped into former Deputy Defence Minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge’s personal assistant while putting on his jacket in her hotel room.

“I apologised to her for doing that after she had said: ‘No, no, general.’”

The complainant disputed this, saying: “There is no way that he could put on his jacket while he put his arms around my waist.”

Petane is accused of fondling the complainant’s breasts and indecently rubbing his body against her on October 2003 when the two were in Stockholm for defence talks.

Petane said he became aware about the sexual harassment complaint only when he was due to fly to South Africa to bury an uncle after the deputy minister’s visit.

Petane’s legal representative, Major Sabelo Magaga, put it to the complainant that nothing had happened between her and his client.

“That is why you did not immediately report the incident to the former deputy minister,” said Magaga.

The complainant repeated her claim that the defence talks between the South African delegation and their Swedish counterparts would have been cancelled if she had informed Madlala-Routledge about the incident.

“I realised the urgency of reporting the matter and rushed to the South African Embassy in Stockholm to inform my office manager about the incident,” she said.

Magaga said Petane had touched the complainant by mistake while putting on his jacket which was in her hotel room.

The complainant disputed this, telling the court that Petane fondled her breasts.

“He violated me,” she said.

The complainant’s office manager, Buddy Ntsong, told the court he learned about the incident when the complainant phoned him on October 15.

Ntsong said the complainant was calm, contradicting the complainant’s earlier statement that Ntsong realised that she was upset and had consoled her.

He told the court that the complainant told him that she could not tell the Madlala-Routledge about the incident because she was scared it could cause friction between the two parties.

“I told her that this was a personal matter and she could deal with it as she deemed fit,” Ntsong said.

The case has been postponed to next month.

Free State agriculture expressed its concern on Thursday at the continuing closure of military commandos by the SA National Defence Force.

"... We are worried," said the commercial farming body's security spokesman Kobus Breytenbach.

It had asked the SANDF to keep the commandos in place until a workable alternative was established.

"Approval was given at national level...," he said.

Breytenbach said the ongoing closures showed that the authorities were not serious about stopping crime in rural areas.

THE South African National Defence Force Union (Sandu) wants the Constitutional Court to decide once and for all whether the defence minister must engage with collective bargaining.

The union's application for leave to appeal concerns the interpretation of section 23(5) of the constitution, which gives all trade unions, employers' organisations and employers the right to engage in collective bargaining. The application for leave to appeal arose out of three separate cases which were disposed of by the Supreme Court of Appeal in a single consolidated hearing last May and in two judgments in August. All these cases revolved around the interpretation and application of the right of SANDF members to engage in collective bargaining.

These cases also wanted to ascertain whether the duty to engage in collective bargaining was derived from the constitution itself, or from the regulations or constitution of the Military Bargaining Council.

The appeal court ruled that section 23(5) of the constitution imposed no constitutional duty on employers to engage in collective bargaining with trade unions but merely protected trade unions from legislation which interfered with collective bargaining.

The court also ruled that there was no duty on the SANDF to bargain with Sandu, under the constitution or under the regulations of the Military Bargaining Council. It also ruled that the Sandu was not entitled to invoke the right to fair labour practices without challenging the constitutionality of the regulations.

In the application to the Constitutional Court, the union challenges the interpretation of section 25(3) in the appeal court judgment, which did not impose on public employers a duty to bargain with trade unions.

The union is also appealing against six regulations which the appeal court ruled were consistent with the constitution. One of the regulations prohibits a military trade union from affiliating or associating with any labour organisation or military trade unions in other countries.

"The absolute prohibition against association with any military trade unions in other countries deprives military trade unions of the benefits of drawing on the experience and expertise of trade unions who operate in the military environment elsewhere," Johannes Griesel, an attorney acting for the union, said in an affidavit.

Another regulation denies union representatives the right to represent members in grievance or disciplinary proceedings and military court proceedings. The union said this limited its members' rights to fair labour practices, just administrative action and fair criminal trial rights.

Dirk du Toit, an attorney for the SANDF, said the defence force could not risk having divided loyalties, with soldiers affiliated to other trade unions. The constitutional challenge was therefore unfounded, he said.

Soldiers' union takes on top brass Military personnel go to Constitutional Court to get right to collective bargaining International Affairs Editor WHETHER soldiers should have full labour rights has yet to be fully resolved more than 10 years after a military union was established. Earlier this week, SA's largest military union again took the defence department to the Constitutional Court, this time to gain the right to collective bargaining.

Few countries allow their armed forces to belong to trade unions, and even fewer allow collective bargaining. Only Sweden gives its military the right to strike.

Apart from in SA and Australia, military unions are not found outside Europe. In Europe, the number has risen over the past 30 years. Membership of the European Organisation of Military Associations has risen from seven bodies in 1972 to 32 associations from 22 countries.

One of the most recent associations to be launched is the British Armed Forces Federation which campaigns on a variety of issues, including increased pay for personnel taking part in combat operations.

Globally, the extension of rights and the changing workplace, as well as the changing nature of warfare, are forcing militaries to adapt their management of employee relations. In modern warfare, particularly counter-insurgency, low-ranking officers are making crucial decisions and senior officers are well aware of how important it is to listen, rather than to give orders.

SA's Constitutional Court gave military personnel the right to belong to trade unions in a 1999 decision. However, the South African National Defence Union (Sandu), the largest military union in SA, this week asked the Constitutional Court to decide whether there existed a duty by the defence force to engage in collective bargaining. There is dispute about whether this was a right that was implied in the 1999 decision and lower courts have given contradictory judgments on this.

Had the court addressed a wider range of issues, the turbulent relationship between the SANDF and Sandu may have been avoided, say observers.

Sandu represents about 26000 of the SANDF's total uniformed strength of 65000. It draws its members from ranks up to colonel and across all races. Another union, the South African Security Forces' Union, has a membership of 12000, short of the 15000 required for recognition by the SANDF. One of the leading authorities on military unions, Lindy Heinecken, associate professor in the sociology and social anthropology department at the University of Stellenbosch, says relations between the SANDF and Sandu have been antagonistic and confrontational from the outset. The unions have had to rely on the courts to gain concessions, rather than on collective bargaining, she says.

It is an us-versus-them attitude from both unions and the defence force, says Heinecken, who with Richard Bartle has edited a recently published book, Military Unionism in the Post Cold War era: A future reality? The SANDF is still rigidly authoritarian which has made dispute resolution more cumbersome, she says. Another reason for the animosity, she says, is because Sandu operates as a trade union and less like a professional association, as do most overseas military unions.

Unions are widely viewed in many defence forces as inimical to running a well functioning military. Open dissent and questioning of commands can amount to insubordination or mutiny. But with the emergence of rights-based cultures, the military has had to respond differently. They have often done so with the creation of channels to address grievances, such as an ombudsmen. Like professional associations, military unions often hold informed views on such issues as equipment, training and quality. Military unions are also restricted by military law and discipline.

Heinecken claims military unions can help build consensus and provide an effective mechanism for the resolution of grievances. They can also help avoid clashes and instil discipline. The example of an effective and co-operative armed forces union is the one in Germany, she says. Neither Sandu nor the SANDF were available for comment yesterday.

The presidency and the departments of defence and foreign affairs are among those who have been asked to make submissions to a government-appointed committee probing the hiring of private jets for top government officials.

Already two weeks into the job, head of the two-person inquiry Advocate Kgomotso Moroka said she hoped to wrap up the inquiry by April.

She said charter companies which had won tenders with the department of defence had also been invited to make submissions, while those charter companies who believed that they should be hired could also send in reports.

Moroka said she and her assistant, retired South African National Defence Force General Benno Smith, were essentially “reviewing departmental processes and procedures” to see whether these had been adhered to.

The inquiry comes after last year’s furore over the millions spent on chartering planes for Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.

Her “gravy plane” woes started at the end of 2005 with her costly and controversial holiday to the United Arab Emirates. The outcry reached a climax when it was found that it had also cost about R4.5 million to charter a flight for Mlambo-Ngcuka to the United Kingdom last year.

At the time, Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota described it as “shocking, irregular and out of proportion” and subsequently instituted the inquiry.

However, Lekota was quick to come to Mlambo-Ngcuka’s defence, saying she was not responsible for her travel arrangements. He also ordered all flights chartered for senior politicians and VIPs between April 27 2004 and December 10 2006 be investigated, after allegations that the South African Air Force had a critical shortage of pilots and technicians.

Lekota’s department is res-ponsible for transporting the president, deputy president, former presidents and VIPs, some ministers and senior SANDF officials.

The presidency and ministries of defence and foreign affairs used the service most frequently, Moroka said yesterday. She said she and Smith were working through defence force documents related to the case and expected to complete the process in April, thereby meeting the three month deadline set by Lekota.

She said depending on the submissions received, oral hearings might be held, but only as a means of clarification, and stressed that the committee’s work was not public.

She said what happened after they had wrapped up their work was up to Lekota.

“Even if I find any wrong-doing I can’t pass any judgment,” Moroka said.

A woman allegedly groped by the inspector-general of the SANDF did not report the incident to her boss for fear of sparking a diplomatic incident.

The woman, who cannot be identified, yesterday told the military court in Thaba Tshwane that she was scared of reporting the alleged incident involving Major-General Mxolisi Petane, who was the military attaché to Sweden at the time.

The woman has accused Petane of groping her breasts and rubbing up against her in a hotel in Stockholm in October 2003.

She accompanied former Deputy Defence Force Minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge to Sweden for defence talks.

She testified that she believed that had she told Madlala-Routledge and action was taken, it would have led to the cancellation of the defence talks.

The military court heard that Petane – a prominent former MK member – met the woman when she arrived with Madlala-Routledge in Sweden in October 2003.

Petane – who has pleaded not guilty to the charges – invited the woman to have dinner with him at a restaurant and the two of them later had breakfast in the hotel where they stayed.

The woman said she accepted Petane’s dinner invitation because she believed their encounter would be purely business.

She said that Petane behaved in a caring and professional manner during breakfast.

“But on our way back to the room he made a comment which I found strange.

“He asked me ‘how is my love life?’ ”

“I ignored the comment and we proceeded to my room,” the woman said. She told the court that while in her room Petane, “in a very swift movement”, pressed himself against her from the back and put his arms around her waist.

“He put his hands underneath my jacket and touched my breasts. This came as a shock to me. I asked him what he was doing and moved away. He said he was sorry.”

She told the court that she was extremely upset and went to the SA embassy where she phoned her office manager Barney Ntsoeng.

“I was shocked by the incident, but I had to pull myself together because I had to do a job.”

Earlier, Petane failed in his bid to have presiding judge Captain Sannie Masota recuse herself.

He complained that he would be prejudiced because of interference in the case by Madlala-Routledge.

Masota said: “There is no suggestion from the former deputy minister on what decision should be taken by the court in this case.”

Madlala-Routledge – now the deputy health minister – in November expressed concern that Petane was promoted to the rank of major-general (from brigadier-general) in contravention of military policy.

The United Nations Security Council voted unanimously on 6 December to establish a regional peacekeeping force for Somalia and to promote negotiations between conflicting elements in the country. Funding for the force was to be voluntary. In agreeing to a regional force and turning over responsibility for establishing the force to the African Union, the council took account of African sensitivities, which call for African solutions to African problems.

That is where the difficulties start. Is Somalia ready for peacekeeping? Probably not. Where will the African troops come from? A good question. The Transitional Federal Government of Somalia , which is generally characterised as "fragile", has, with the aid of Ethiopian troops, succeeded in dislodging the Union of Islamic Courts , and driving its leaders and forces very quickly into the southern corner of the country.

Soon after Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Gedi moved from his government's interim capital in Baidoa to Mogadishu, popular resentment of the presence of the Ethiopian forces in Somalia started to manifest itself.

Conscious of this problem, the Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi indicated that his forces would withdraw from Somali "within two weeks". If this happens that quickly, who will step in to fill the vacuum their departure will leave? No regional peacekeeping force can be assembled in two short weeks. What is the alternative? The warlords? Back to square one.

The reality is that individual members of the Islamic Courts' forces cannot be contained in the south and will probably move among the civilian population to mount an insurgency.

Somalia has long had a turbulent history. Since independence in 1960 it has fought a war with Ethiopia over possession of the Ogaden region. Ethiopia won. General Mohammed Said Barre, who took power in a military coup in 1968, ruled until 1991. Since his overthrow, the country has been without a functioning central government. It descended into anarchy and violence.

Outside attempts to restore normality and establish a central authority failed. Between 1993 and 1995 various UN-approved operations to restore order and to feed the starving population were launched. None succeeded and the UN withdrew. After the shooting down of a US helicopter and the dragging of the bodies of US servicemen behind trucks through the streets of Mogadishu - the story told in the movie Black Hawk Down - the international community left the country to its own devices.

Since then Somalia has been under the control of a number of warlords, whose fighters roamed the streets in bakkies with machine guns mounted on the back - "technicals", in local parlance.

A new element came on the scene in February 2006 when the Islamic Courts began taking control of the southern part of the country, including the capital, Mogadishu, which they reached in June. They imposed a restrictive, conservative social order, reminiscent of the Taleban, on the areas they controlled, but brought a degree of peace.

The transitional government's action - which commenced in December 2006 with support from Ethiopian troops - concentrated Islamic Courts leaders and forces in the south of the country. The US used the opportunity to "eliminate" leading al-Qai'dah figures who they believed were operating from there.

Regrettably, their action did not contribute to moving Somalia towards a solution to its own problems. It invited a predictable response from al-Qai'dah , supporting and encouraging Islamist elements and created an opportunity for those who are hostile to the US to emphasise the loss of civilian lives in their condemnation of the US action.

It has had the further effect of associating the transitional government with the US and making it appear to side with forces considered "anti-Islamic". The speaker of the interim parliament, who had fallen out with the prime minister over his peace overtures to the Islamic Courts movement, has just been sacked.

All this will delay and complicate any possible political solution to the country's larger problems. Although a regional grouping, the Inter-Governmental Authority for Development met recently in Nairobi and created the framework for a peacekeeping force, to be known by the acronym of Igasom. The problem is to find troops. Which countries might supply troops? The neighbouring countries do not qualify. They have their own interests to promote or they are already involved in domestic or regional responsibilities or conflicts. Uganda and Sudan initially indicated a willingness to provide troops, but they have since backed away. And advisedly so.

The force needs 8000 troops, who are being sought from countries like South Africa, Tunisia, Zambia, Algeria, Mozambique, Tanzania and Rwanda, none of which directly border Somalia. South Africa has already opted out because of its existing commitments in five other peace operations. Its attention has been focused on the problems in the Great Lakes region: Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ivory Coast. Peacekeepers have been serving there, on the Ethiopia-Eritrea border and in Darfur. Somalia has not been high on South Africa's agenda.

However, the attack on the Islamic Courts' forces by Ethiopian troops in support of the transitional government created an entirely new situation requiring the urgent attention of the international community.

As a country that sees itself as having a role in the improvement of governance and the elimination of conflict in Africa, South Africa identifies itself as a participant in an effort to restore proper governance to Somalia. It would also want to prevent further hostilities through peacekeeping and in the UN Security Council.

But the cold reality indicates otherwise. The responsibility for the political aspects of conflict resolution has been taken by the regional inter-governmental body, and South Africa's intrusion in the region would be neither expected nor welcome.

The decision on how to respond to the AU request for South African troops was left to the SA National Defence Force. The SANDF announced this week that it did not have troops available to take part in the mission.

But at the end of the day, the decision must be a political one. The politicians will have to decide whether they wish to find young South Africans who would be exposed to a dangerous situation in Somalia when their presence is not likely to provide the peace and stability that the world and Africa seek.

Until the leaders of the political factions there agree to start negotiations on the future of their country, and until a formal ceasefire has been concluded, there is no role for peacekeepers. Sending in troops now would be exposing them to the wrath of the warring parties, and to the same fate as their UN predecessors in the early '90s.

More troubling is "Whither [as received] African solutions to African problems?" when one of the key African problems is that so many African states interfere in other states in conflict. This happened in the DRC - with Zimbabwe, Angola, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Namibia all becoming involved on one side or the other.

Now Somalia has entangled Eritrea, Egypt, Ethiopia, Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Libya and others. How can an African peacekeeping force be mustered to intervene in a conflict in that kind of context?

That is the big, relevant question for Africa's leaders: how can the behaviour of states be changed to ensure that conflict does not invite freelance interference that precludes peacekeeping intervention?

Le ministre Sud-africain de la Défense, M. Lekota a manifesté mercredi, à Pretória, en Afrique du Sud, l'intention de visiter l'Angola en Mars prochain, pour le renforcement des relations bilatérales de coopération, dans le domaine de la Défense.

M. Letoka a tenu ces propos lors de l'audience qu'il a concédé à l'inspecteur général des Forces Armées Angolaises (FAA), le général Rafael Sapilinha "Sambalanga", qui séjourne en Afrique du Sud, en visite de travail depuis lundi.

La délégation d'Inspection générale des Forces Armées Angolaises (FAA), conduite par son titulaire, le général Rafael Sapilinha, qui séjourne à Pretória depuis lundi, a visité mercredi, la base centrale logistique de l'Armée Sud-africaine.

Dans cette importante base militaire de fourniture et support logistique des unités opérationnelles des quatre branches militaires de ce pays, notamment, la Force Terrestre, la Force Aérienne, la Médecine Militaire et la Force Navale (Marine de Guerre), le général Sapilinha, accompagné de son homologue sud-africain, le Lieutenant-général Mxolisi Petane, a été informé du fonctionnement du système organisatif logistique des troupes.

Selon les explications d'un officier de l'armée de terre, le gouvernement central sud-africain a une logistique active pour maintenir le support total et efficient de ses soldats.

La délégation angolaise a également visité la fabrique d'armement Denel Land Systems, spécialisée à la fabrication d'équipement d'infanterie et d'artillerie.

Au cours de la visite, qui termine samedi, la délégation angolaise a été reçue par diverses autorités du gouvernement de ce pays, notamment de l'Etat-Major de la Marine sud-africaine et par l'inspecteur général des Forces armées.

Le général sapilinha est accompagné par les attachés militaires de l'Afrique du Sud accrédité en Angola, le colonel S.B. Baartman, et celui d'Angola en Afrique du Sud, le Lieutenant-général Fernando João da Rosa "Petty".

Ce jeudi, la délégation angolaise se rendra à la ville du Cap, pour une visite de 48 heures, pour inspecter les installations du chantier naval de la Marine de Guerre sud-africaine et la prison de Robben Island, où l'ancien président Nelson Mandela avait été emprisonné pendant 26 ans.

SANDF peacekeeping mission to Somalia could provoke extremist backlash against South Africa itself, experts warn

South African peacekeepers could face their most perilous mission so far if the government agrees to send them to Somalia as part of the United Nations-approved African peacekeeping mission to the country, Igasom. They could become the target of angry Islamists or provoke the hostility of al-Qaeda elements outside Somalia, commentators have warned.

The proposed mission raises the spectre of the last international military intervention in Somalia, which was sent to enforce the delivery of food aid to starving Somalis but ended up fighting pitched battles with a recalcitrant warlord, Mohamed Farrah Aidid. On June 5 1993, his forces killed 24 Pakistani peacekeepers.

On October 3, the United States launched a helicopter raid in Mogadishu to capture Aidid’s lieutenants. Aidid militias downed two Blackhawk helicopters and killed 18 American soldiers in the ensuing battle. Between 700 and 1 500 Somali militias and civilians also died.

The episode, dramatised in the book and the movie Black Hawk Down, prompted both the US and the UN to withdraw from Somalia and deterred international military intervention in Africa for years.

Now the international community is preparing to enter Somalia once again under the banners of the UN, the African Union and the northeast African organisation Igad (Intergovernmental Authority on Development).

Last week the AU’s peace and security council conveyed a request for South African troops to Ayanda Ntsaluba, the director-general of foreign affairs, according to Ronnie Mamoepa, the department’s spokesperson. He said the cabinet would consider the request.

President Thabo Mbeki seemed to be hinting that South Africa would join the mission when he wrote in his ANC Today internet newsletter on Friday that “for the sake both of Somalia and our continent as a whole, Africa has no choice but to come to the aid of this sister African country”.

The AU is scrambling to muster enough African troops to man the planned Igasom (Igad’s Peace Support Mission for Somalia) mission to take over from Ethiopian troops now maintaining a semblance of order in the country. The Ethiopians helped Somalia’s fragile transitional federal government rout the forces of the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) two weeks ago.

Now the AU wants the Ethiopians to get out as soon as possible, as they are starting to provoke a backlash that may develop into a full-scale, Iraq-style insurgency by the defeated Islamists. But the AU and others do not want the Ethiopians to leave without replacing them with a theoretically neutral multinational African force.

Experts warn that South Africa should think twice before committing troops to the Igasom mission. Extremist factions in the UIC with links to al-Qaeda have vowed to launch a jihad against any international force entering the country to prop up the transitional government. Ayman al-Zawahiri, number two to Osama bin Laden in al-Qaeda, has urged Muslims in Somalia to launch an insurgency against the transitional government that could embroil anyone seen to be supporting it.

This week’s US air strikes against fleeing Islamic militias, designed to kill the al-Qaeda leaders the US believes masterminded the bombing of US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998, have also inflamed feelings. Mbeki and Dumisani Kumalo, South Africa’s ambassador to the UN, have said the US raids have complicated the efforts to find peace.

Hussein Solomon, the head of the Centre for International Political Studies at the University of Pretoria, said it would be a “bad, bad move” for South Africa to contribute troops to the Somalia mission, adding that participation could compromise South Africa’s neutrality in the eyes of al-Qaeda. “There are some who might see this as South Africa joining the ‘infidel’ agenda,” he said.

Nick Grono, vice-president of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, said that al-Qaeda elements regarded Somalia as a “target of opportunity for a jihad and to overthrow the crusaders”. However, he said it was ”probably overstating” the case to suggest that South Africa’s participation in the Igasom mission would increase the chance of an al-Qaeda attack.

Nonetheless, South African troops and the rest of the Igasom mission would face the danger of attack by Islamic hardliners in Somalia if the force did not enter the country as part of a deal that included an agreement by the transitional government to engage in negotiations with the UIC.

In the absence of such a deal, Igasom would be perceived as going in to prop up the transitional government and would become a target. So far transitional government leaders have expressed reluctance to negotiate with the UIC.

Grono said that South Africa could and should play a critical role in Somalia now. It should demand, as a condition for its contribution of troops to Igasom, that there should be an agreement for political negotiations between the transitional government and the UIC. Kurt Shillinger, a terrorism expert at the South African Institute for International Affairs, said that as South Africa was serving on the UN security council it would be well-placed to influence the language of the resolution authorising the Igasom mission.

DEFENCE FORCE Mission impossible WHAT IT MEANS SANDF troops are too thinly spread SA should focus on specialised functions The SA defence force appears overextended in its African peace missions SA troops serving in peacekeeping missions on the African continent may already be severely overextended, limiting the assistance they can offer in the war-torn Sudanese province of Darfur.

With about 3000 personnel serving on six missions on the continent, this amounts to at least two brigades or half the land force being deployed outside SA. This, says Festus Aboagye, head of the peace missions programme at the Institute for Security Studies, puts too much pressure on SA's armed forces. In its 2006 budget review the department of defence admits that the 3000 members in external peace support missions is more than three times the number envisaged in the 1998 defence review.

SA was among the largest contributors from Africa to the 19000 troops under the UN (known as Monuc) that oversaw the recent elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). But there is little indication of when the UN is planning to reduce troop numbers. In an interview ahead of the first round of voting in July, the head of peacekeeping operations in the DRC, Jean-Marie Guehenno, said the international community had made a great effort in the DRC and it would be a pity to put that investment at risk by foolishly withdrawing too quickly without co-ordinating with the Congolese.

Speaking at a roundtable discussion at Unisa last year, defence minister Mosiuoa Lekota said SA also had a bilateral agreement with the DRC, supported by Belgium and the Netherlands, which involved the training and integration of combatants in the police and armed forces.

SA's first post-1994 peace mission into Africa was in Burundi in 1999, when the spectre of the Rwandan genocide five years earlier still haunted the continent.

Describing the Burundi intervention as a watershed in peace support, Lekota said that had the African Union (AU) troops not intervened ahead of the UN, in all probability Burundi would have gone the way of Rwanda, where about 800000 people were massacred. Being one of the few well-trained and relatively well-resourced armies on the continent, the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) is called on often to be part of an African peacekeeping force in troubled states.

About 800 troops are still in Burundi and military observers and staff officers are attached to UN missions in Eritrea, Ethiopia and Liberia. SA is also part of the tiny AU contingent trying to hold the peace in Darfur as the Khartoum government haggles over whether the operation should become a UN mission.

In the financial year to the end of March 2006 the department of defence spent almost R800m on what it terms peace support, of which the DRC intervention cost about R390m, Burundi R340m and Sudan R70m. Because these missions fall under the auspices of the UN, some of these funds are recoverable, though reimbursement can be slow in coming.

Still, government has budgeted more than R2,5bn in spending on African peace missions over the next three years according to its medium-term budget review: about R1,1bn each for the operations in the DRC and Burundi and R250m for the Sudan peace mission.

The Sudan exercise is emerging as the most critical for Africa. The UN says the situation in Darfur remains volatile.

More than 200000 people are estimated to have been killed in Darfur since 2003 because of fighting between government forces, allied militias and rebel groups. Another 2m have become internally displaced or been forced to flee into neighbouring Chad. The AU's peace & security council extended the mandate of the current AU peace mission in Darfur, known as Amis . However, the UN and nongovernmental organisations had to temporarily relocate their nonessential staff from the North Darfur provincial capital of El Fasher amid heightened security concerns because of recent clashes between militia groups and other armed movements.

The UN estimates that a mission in Darfur would be made up of about 17000 troops and 3000 police officers.

Aboagye says that if SA is to be effective in peacekeeping on the continent, it should focus its contribution on specialised fields such as logistical support, engineering and training. It would appear that defence department thinking is moving towards such a position. In his address to academics and diplomats last year, Lekota said an SA analysis of the threat to security posed by a changing security environment suggested that the main threats were essentially of a nonmilitary nature.

All this indicates that we are continually shifting the boundaries of the role of the SANDF in peacetime Africa, Lekota said.

As we consolidate our role as peacekeepers, we need to hone our range of skills to meet the requirements of developmental peace missions. With the UN mandate in Burundi having ended last month, SA and other peacekeepers were winding down operations and preparing to leave.

Since the mission was first deployed in 2004, the Central African country has held its first democratic elections in 12 years, installed a new national government and disarmed and demobilised nearly 22000 combatants.

Assistant secretary-general for peace-building support Carolyn McAskie, who previously served as the world body's top envoy in Burundi, noted that though most blue helmets were leaving, the new UN Integrated Office in Burundi would continue the process of peace consolidation.

Last week the UN said the situations in the DRC and C'te d'Ivoire, as well as instability in the Middle East, would dominate the security council's work in January.

SA has assumed a two-year tenure as one of the 15 members of the security council and has said that Africa will remain its priority.

Meanwhile in C'te d'Ivoire, the SA government has withdrawn its mediating efforts in the civil war between the government and rebel forces in the north of the country after three years of efforts to create a lasting peace. This came amid continued criticism by France of SA's efforts as critics suggested France needed to protect its interests in the country. In an interview with Ivorian national assembly president Mamadou Koulibaly last month, it emerged that the country was in favour of SA mediation in the civil conflict, but France pushed for SA's expulsion.

The French are not as interested in a positive outcome or the cessation of hostilities. France is mainly interested in her own commercial interests, said Koulibaly.

In the light of reports of a crisis looming in the navy, Helmoed Römer-Heitman examines the problems facing the SANDF

Bad news makes good news stories, and the SA National Defence Force has generated its share of those. Before examining some of the underlying critical problems, it is worth bearing in mind that there is good news.

While the defence force is undoubtedly in trouble, it still functions, and has performed extremely well under pressure.

The SA Air Force’s rescue of 14 000 people during the 2000 floods in Mozambique comes to mind.

In 2001, the SANDF deployed a battalion-strength protection force to Burundi with less than two weeks’ notice, and last year the army provided an ad hoc battalion with something like 72 hours’ notice for deployment to the Comores.

Both of these would be credible achievements for any defence force. For its part, the navy is bringing its new ships into service rather more smoothly than some other navies with similar projects.

The defence force is still functioning and able to respond to demanding challenges. The problem lies in the word “still”, because it faces severe problems that will prove catastrophic if they are not addressed soon, comprehensively and vigorously. Failing action, South Africa will have an entirely hollow defence force, with a veneer of capability that barely conceals an echoing emptiness.

The core problems all relate to personnel, because thoroughly trained and experienced people are the critical element of a defence force. Doctrines and tactics can be adapted to meet new challenges, and equipment can be acquired or upgraded. But there is no way to get around a lack of properly trained and experienced people.

The five critical problems that the defence force faces in that regard are normal peacetime personnel turnover, operational overstretch, severe under-funding, poor discipline and political pressure to achieve “representivity” at any cost.

First, the problems of peace. A strong economy causes retention problems for any defence force. Military service offers challenges, excitement and retirement benefits, but does not pay well, demands frequent moves and involves risk.

Most civilian careers pay better, offer a stable home life, and carry no risk. In times of peace, people join, serve for a time and move on. Pilots and technical personnel are the most difficult to retain, having very marketable skills.

These normal attrition factors have been aggravated first by the cuts following the end of the border war, which caused people to doubt their future in the services, and then by voluntary severance packages taken up by the very people the defence force needed. With them went critical expertise, experience and general institutional memory.

Secondly, the defence force suffers from considerable “overstretch”, with too many peace support commitments relative to deployable strength.

An ideal rotation would be six months every three years. A one-in-four rotation can be safely sustained for a while. If the operational tempo is any higher it begins to cause serious damage. Units cannot train up properly, individuals cannot attend promotion courses, equipment is not properly maintained and family life is badly disrupted.

The reality is that many soldiers are deployed for six months in 18, and some specialists for six months in 12. That is not sustainable. After a few years of carrying the load and watching others promoted past him – often those not competent or fit to be deployed – the soldier will leave the service, taking expertise and experience along with him.

Thirdly, the defence force is badly under-funded. The government has bought equipment for the air force and navy, and projects are in hand for the army. But it has not provided the funding for adequate training and maintenance.

Frequent and intensive training is essential if a defence force is to be effective. Army battalions and brigades must conduct manoeuvres, pilots must fly, ships must spend time at sea. That is the only way to become competent and to learn to work effectively with each other. The harder and more frequent the training, the easier the fighting, and the fewer the casualties.

The defence force does not train adequately. The reason is quite simple: too little money. The price of this is going to be paid in casualties.

In the interim, this is also causing people to leave, pilots because they do not get to fly enough, naval personnel because they are frustrated by being alongside, and not a few in all of the combat services because they do not intend to be deployed on missions for which they lack the training.

Too little money also means that the defence force does not maintain equipment and facilities properly, with the predictable results.

Fourthly, discipline has suffered. That is partly because many white, coloured and Indian officers and NCOs are reluctant to discipline black subordinates lest they be accused of racism, and partly because many black officers and NCOs are reluctant to do so because they are wary of the response and because they suspect they will not be supported by their superiors.

This is not just a case of sloppy saluting. On a recent visit to defence headquarters, I was trapped inside because no one was on duty at the security gate after 5.30pm.

Try to find another country where that could happen. At a practical level, sloppy discipline also results in sloppy training and poor maintenance. The final result will, once again, be casualties.

These four problems are not unique to South Africa, nor are they insurmountable.

l The common retention problems of peace can be addressed with a little determination and imagination.

l The “overstretch” problem by providing the funds to expand the army to a strength that matches its commitments.

l The under-funding by providing the funds to allow proper training and maintenance, which is readily affordable.

l The discipline issue needs only a clear decision to support officers and NCOs.

Then there is “representivity”. The problem here is not the concept that the defence force should broadly reflect the population. That is obvious. The problem lies in the attempt to achieve this quickly at the cost of competence. This article looks only at the impact on the officer corps, but the problems also apply throughout the defence force.

The first challenge came with the formation of the new National Defence Force. The primary problem was that few MK and Apla officers had training or experience relevant to a regular army, let alone an air force or navy. That demanded “affirmative action”, which envisaged giving preferential access to promotion courses to members with potential, and some “fast-tracking” through the normal career path, cutting a few corners where it was safe. It did not envisage appointing and promoting incompetents; nor was it envisaged as lasting for ever.

Unfortunately the combination of representivity and the affirmative action pro-cess has turned into a seemingly immortal monster that overrides rational thought.

That is primarily a result of political pressure. It is not what the service chiefs want; it is not what the late Joe Modise envisaged; nor is it what Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota wants. It is the result of politicians listening to the bleating of the incompetent, inept and lazy who see no other chance of advancement.

To quote from a 1999 interview with Lekota in Jane’s Defence Weekly: “The temptation to speed up promotion by fair means or foul must loom large. But I would hope that we will avoid that.

“To have someone placed in a command appointment who is not properly trained and qualified would be like putting people into an aircraft flown by a half-trained pilot. It would border on criminality to entrust the lives of men and women in a war situation or in a peacekeeping operation to under-qualified leadership.”

More recently Lekota has argued that the time for affirmative action has passed; but he was shouted down by the politicians and others.

This drive for representivity at any cost leads the defence force to shoot itself in both feet: the air force cannot select the best-suited pilots for fighter training, but must select the best-suited black pilots.

The army must have 40% female students in every course, regardless. The navy is under pressure to produce black captains of ships, regardless of whether they have the experience to do the job well.

The battlefield, the sea, and the laws of physics that govern flight are all relentless and unforgiving equal-opportunity killers. You foul up, you die. Regardless of gender and race. Experienced soldiers understand that, and they have two simple requirements of their officers: competence and integrity. They could not care less whether their officers are male or female, black or white or polka-dotted.

The choice is not between white officers and black officers. The choice is between those who have the competence and integrity to carry the president’s commission as officers, to be responsible for the lives of their subordinates, and those who do not. That should be an easy choice to make.

That will not result in a white officer corps. It will result in an officer corps that is both competent and representative.

l Helmoed Römer-Heitman is an independent defence analyst, and SA correspondent for Jane’s Defence Weekly and several other periodicals.

Scorpions and British police reportedly join forces after allegations that Modise adviser was paid to favour BAe

A former adviser to the defence ministry, now in the arms-manufacturing, supply and export business, is being investigated by Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) for allegedly receiving substantial kickbacks from BAe Systems – the British company that won the contract to supply South Africa with 24 Hawk 100 trainer jets.

Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported yesterday that businessman Fana Hlongwane, a former adviser to defence minister Joe Modise, who died in 2001, was being investigated for receiving “substantial payments” from BAe Systems.

Hlongwane was reported to have been in a position to influence who would be awarded the £1,5 billion (about R21 billion) contract. It was won by BAe, although BAe charged nearly twice the price of a rival Italian bidder for its aircraft. The investigation centres on claims of substantial payments to Hlongwane while he was Modise’s adviser. At the time, Hlongwane was also a director of the parastatal arms company Denel, and of Osprey, a company BAe named as its agent handling commissions paid in South Africa.

Questions were raised about the aircraft-acquisition component of the arms deal when Modise changed the formula by which the winning bidder would be chosen. BAe and Saab won the bid to supply the Hawks and 28 Gripen fighter jets.

BAe has acknowledged that it paid tens of millions of pounds in secret commissions to win the bid. The company originally intended to pay 12 percent of the contract price in commissions, but agreed to cut that back to 7 percent – more than £100 million – following questions from the British authorities underwriting the deal.

BAe made a substantial donation to the ANC after the contract was signed.

Hlongwane is a former Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) high command member. He was part of the high command delegation that testified before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission about the ANC armed wing’s actions in South Africa during the struggle to end apartheid.

Hlongwane – once wined and dined by Tony Yengeni’s co-accused, Michael Woerfel, the former European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company South African representative – is reported to own most of Ivema, a company that “provides innovative and specialised solutions for defence, security and humanitarian aid clients”. He is also a part owner of a military vehicle company, Uri.

Hlongwane employed former South African National Defence Force chief General Siphiwe Nyanda, who since his departure from the SANDF has been an Ivema board member and security consultant, as the chief executive officer and managing director of Ngwane Defence Group, launched by Jeff Radebe, the transport minister, at last year’s Africa Aerospace and Defence expo.

Ngwane is a majority black-owned and controlled South African company run by former MK and SANDF commanders. Its main focus areas are military vehicles, small- and medium-calibre weapons, security and humanitarian aid.

According to Business Day, Ivema is one of the companies comprising Ngwane, along with Milkor Marketing, design company IAD, Midrand-based rifle-maker Truvelo Manufacturers, grenade-launcher maker Sonoro, and Uri.

Hlongwane could not be reached for comment yesterday.

According to the Guardian report, the Scorpions were handling a “mutual legal assistance” request from the SFO to investigate Hlongwane’s financial accounts in relation to the 1999 deal.

Allegations of corruption related to the controversial multibillion-rand arms procurement process were earlier lodged against Modise. These included that Modise had received a £500 000 bribe from BAe and $10 million from a German consortium contracted to sell submarines to South Africa.

While the Scorpions claimed not to know of a joint investigation with the SFO into Hlongwane’s role in the arms deal, the SFO would neither confirm nor deny the report yesterday. Scorpions spokesperson Makhosini Nkosi said yesterday that he was not aware of any “mutual legal assistance” between his organisation and the SFO. He said he had never heard of Fana Hlongwane before.

Patricia de Lille, who produced a dossier of evidence supporting allegations that ANC politicians and business people were involved in irregularities around the arms deal, welcomed the SFO probe. She said she would travel to Germany soon to give information to prosecutors investigating claims of corruption in the supply of warships to South Africa by Thomson CSF and Thyssen Krupp.

The Guardian reported on the South African investigation soon after the British government abruptly halted an SFO inquiry into bribes allegedly paid by BAe to Saudi royals. It reported that British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Britain’s security would be endangered if the investigation continued.

The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) is facing a number of serious dilemmas that will require decisive political intervention if further decay of its capabilities is to be prevented in 2007.

Currently the SANDF is expected to maintain a combat-ready conventional force that is able to utilise billions of rands of conventional military hardware – but that hardware is still being purchased. At the same time, it is involved in peace-keeping, with up to 3 000 personnel abroad at any given time.

Furthermore, the SANDF cannot ignore its responsibility towards maintaining security at home, with thousands of illegal immigrants crossing the borders of the country, rampant cross-border crime, and an internal crime wave that the South African Police Service (SAPS) is unable to curb.

Then there is the responsibility that the South African Air Force (SAAF) has regarding transporting VIPs both internally and abroad, as well as regular pleas for assistance during natural disasters.

Clearly the SANDF does not have the capacity to cope with these demands for the following reasons:

l The SANDF has experienced an exodus of expertise over the past few years due to racial quotas and an inability to compete with the private sector. Between 2004 and October 2006, a staggering 535 technicians and 70 pilots have exited the SAAF. Furthermore the military health services face shortages of 617 qualified health practitioners.

l Budgetary and personnel shortages make it impossible for the SANDF to effectively utilise the billions of rands worth of military equipment procured as part of the strategic defence procurement packages, or controversial arms deal.

l Many bases are in a state of disrepair. There are no funds available to carry out the necessary repairs and to do regular maintenance to buildings and equipment to prevent further decay.

l Peace support has become a political priority for the SANDF during President Thabo Mbeki’s regime, above homeward security or combat readiness. R793 276 000 was spent on peace support by the SANDF during the 2005/6 financial year. During the same year, a mere R55 million was spent in support of the SAPS at home. South Africa has a role to play in assisting with peace efforts in the rest Africa. Billions of rands have, however, been spent on peace support operations over the past few years, while many South Africans are facing poverty, unemployment and rampant crime at home. These peace-support operations appear to be attempts to boost President Mbeki’s image abroad for a possible post-South African presidency job.

l There is also growing and legitimate concern over the health of troops.

While the Minister of Defence, Mosioua Lekota, indicates that HIV in the SANDF is 23%, the last comprehensive health assessment was carried out in 2000. There are no accurate statistics on the health of troops, which is crucial for their deployment. Furthermore, troops are ageing every year. Exit mechanisms meant to renew the SANDF have concentrated mostly on racial quotas and not on age or health as expected.

l The Auditor-General’s report for 2005/6 once again identified serious managerial problems in the Department of Defence. The management and control of stock at base level and on peace support missions appears to be one of the most serious of these. Many losses due to negligence, fraud and theft have occurred as a result of this. Too little attention has been given to the qualifications in the Auditor General’s reports over the past few years.

The problems and possible solutions in the SANDF are both political and managerial in nature. There appears to be little political will to tackle serious management issues.

Politicians will have to decide what they require of the SANDF in 2007.

This crucial decision will have to become part of a review of defence policy that will ultimately require parliament to make the necessary legislative interventions.

Currently the SANDF does not have the resources to maintain a long-term combat-ready conventional force as required by the policies that initiated the arms deal. Quite simply, the SANDF cannot afford to do all that is required of it with its current human and financial resources. The government cannot continue to follow a lacklustre attitude towards the Department of Defence. South Africa requires a minister of defence who is in touch with domestic socio-economic demands and able to determine priorities regarding the role of the SANDF in the future.

He or she will have to have the political will to initiate innovative defence policies. More common sense and less politics will be required to create a professional, well-disciplined, and effective force.

l Jankielsohn is the Democratic Alliance spokesman on defence.

The SA Navy is losing skilled personnel at an alarming rate, as sailors with technical qualifications are lured to the private sector, while so-called “lower-deck lawyers” destroy discipline and morale among those who remain.

Navy sources in Simon’s Town have revealed that a shortage of skilled personnel is hampering the efficient running of the service, in-cluding its new ships, and that levels of discipline have taken a nosedive among sailors who stay.

The navy declined to provide figures, but one senior source said 147 skilled personnel had resigned since the end of October.

And a military union official alleged that 256 juniors had been retrenched in the past three months.

Senior navy sources have criticised the quality of recruits attracted to the service, saying that many who joined were hunting for a job rather than a career.

A navy spokesman, Commander Brian Stockton, admitted to the Cape Argus that skilled personnel were being lured away by better salaries and working conditions in the private sector and that sailors from the various warships had demanded to live ashore rather than aboard their ships.

Officers and senior non-|commissioned officers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Cape Argus they felt they were without a future in the service and were unable to apply proper discipline for fear of a backlash from juniors.

The chief of the navy, Vice-Admiral Refiloe Mudimu, has confirmed in a statement that the loss of skilled naval personnel to the private sector is a concern.

Mudimu said the problem was not unique to the SA Navy, but was felt throughout the SA National Defence Force.

“With our advanced technologies, we are looking for students particularly with mathematics and science, but then so is the rest of the country,” he said of the navy’s recruitment strategies.

“But I am satisfied that we are attracting the right kind óof our recruit into our Military Skills Development Programme.

“This is the feeder system into the navy as well as the bolstering of the defence reserves.

“In that regard, I am more than satisfied that we are achieving our aims.”

He denied the exodus was a new phenomenon, saying 2006 had been no different to any other year.

Xolani Jacobs, general secretary of the SA Security Forces Union in the Western Cape, al-leged that the SANDF as a whole, including the navy, was continuing to retrench staff, including black soldiers.

Retrenched staff were not even being given the full 30 days’ notice to leave their posts in some cases, he said in a statement.

In the navy, 256 people had been told to leave by the of 2006, he claimed.

Jacobs said black staff were being retrenched due to the influence of “white colonels” who dominated the SANDF’s middle management and undermined “black generals”.

A senior NCO said several of his highly experienced and technically qualified shipmates had already taken retrenchment packages or found other jobs.

He remained in his job, however, as he was trained in administration, but felt his future was bleak in the service.

Most senior NCOs had families and responsibilities and could not afford to lose their jobs or move out without security, he said.

He claimed 147 senior, skilled sailors had resigned since October.

Navy sources who spoke out about discipline claimed that the unionising of sailors lay at the heart of disciplinary problems.

They said a lack of “prompt action” against ill-disciplined staff was rooted in resistance, which at times turned violent. This was led by so-called “lower-deck lawyers”, sailors who instigated others to claim rights not allowed under the Military Discipline Code.