Mon séjour en Afrique du Sud (Cape Town)

There is increasing pressure on South Africa to take up the role of post-conflict reconstruction in conflict areas, Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota said on Thursday.

He said the country's commitments internationally would see an increasing number of obligations on the SA National Defence Force (SANDF).

Lekota was speaking at the arrival of the SAS Charlotte Maxeke in Simon's Town on Thursday.

The vessel is the second of three new submarines acquired by the SA Navy as part of the strategic defence package.

The submarine, named after the founder of the Bantu Women's League forerunner of the ANC Women's League, arrived from Germany where it was built.

"It is our opinion that the contribution of extra-continental roleplayers in this arena [post-conflict reconstruction] would continue to reduce, leaving the obligation to South Africa, the Southern African Development Community and the African Union," Lekota said.

An SA National Defence Force soldier has been found dead outside his living quarters in Kpandruma in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Defence Department said yesterday. Rifleman Jameson Masia (30), of Middelburg in Mpumalanga, was part of the SA Task Force deployed in the volatile eastern DRC in support of the UN peacekeeping operation. There were no signs of injury and the cause of his death was unknown. – Sapa

The Nelson Mandela Foundation has threatened legal action against those illegally exploiting the former president’s name and image. “We reiterate Mr Mandela’s own words – his image and name are not for sale,” foundation CEO Achmat Dangor said yesterday. “We have recently noted a disturbing trend where Mr Mandela’s name and image are being used, without authorisation, to sell products and services.” Purveyors of those unauthorised goods and services were “law-breakers, profiting from the image of a valuable national asset, albeit a human one”. – Sapa

Five armed men, posing as Telkom employees, have robbed a Rosebank, Johannesburg, house of R2 000 and a vehicle. Gauteng police said yesterday the gang, carrying shovels, brandished firearms at the owner of the house before tying him up with electrical cables. No shots were fired. – Sapa

Two men were in a critical condition after being shot in a scrapyard near the Malvern police station in eastern Johannesburg yesterday. ER24 spokesperson Werner Vermaak said that according to one of the men, someone came into the scrapyard and opened fire on them. The wounded men were in “such a state” they did not know if there was more than one shooter or if the person was a man or woman. – Sapa

A 29-year-old man was shot dead when he tried to tackle an armed robber at his Kagiso home on the West Rand. He had parked his bakkie in his yard on Tuesday night when he was attacked by four armed men. The man handed over the bakkie keys and one of the robbers went into the house. He was taking a TV set when the owner’s brother woke up. A struggle ensued between the two, with the brother being overpowered. The attacker then called to his accomplice to shoot the man. The gang fled in the bakkie, taking the owner of the house with them. He was later found unharmed in Snake Park.

A 1bn rand missile deal has been signed between South Africa and Brazil, the Denel Group said on Wednesday.

Spokesman Joe Makhafola said Denel Dynamics - a subsidiary of Denel - launched the latest generation of the A-Darter air-to-air missile programme developed for the South African National Defence (SANDF) and the Brazilian Air Force.

"The co-development of the missile not only brings much-needed skills, training and technology transfer to the country, but also reinforces the South-South cooperation initiated by President [Thabo] Mbeki and his counterpart," said Makhafola.

The launch took place during the Latin American aerospace and defence exhibition, which ended on the 20 April in Brazil.

"The A-Darter missile is vitally important to the aerospace cluster in equipping the aircraft of both air forces," said Makhafola.

The missile would also guarantee a credible deterrent for the SA Air force and would maintain and expand the local capabilities in the field over the next 15 years.

He said the contract would have "a very positive spin-off" for local defence companies.

"One of Denel's macro strategies is to secure privileged access to a guaranteed minimum portion of South Africa's defence development and procurement spend."

At least 200 engineers would be employed over the duration of the contract with a focus on increasing the number of young engineers being attracted to Denel.

Makhafola said 10 Brazilian Air Force members had begun work on the programme at the Denel Dynamics plant.

"They will be supplemented by a further 20 people from the Brazilian defence companies," he said.

He said future export contracts of another R2bn were expected in the next 15-year period.

Acting on behalf of the SANDF, a contract was signed by Armscor on the co-development of the missile, he said.

Denel Dynamics is the missile and unmanned aerial vehicle division of Denel (Pty) Ltd.

South African soldiers providing humanitarian relief aid to flood-ravaged Mozambique have helped save thousands of lives. The 70 soldiers deployed to that country over the past four weeks ensured that more than 2.4 million litres of purified water was distributed to 120 000 people displaced by the flood waters.

The floods caused by heavy rainfall in Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, Angola and Malawi saw the Mozambican authorities being forced to open the sluice gates of the Cahora Basa Dam flooding the low lying areas along the Zambezi River.

According to the Mozambican Disaster Management Services (INGC), the volume of water released from the Cahora Basa Dam was greater than that which caused the devastating floods of 2000.

Stationed in tented bases in the Mozambican province of Caia, SA National Defence Force (SANDF) troops worked flat out with the Red Cross, United Nations Humanitarian Air Services and Mozambican authorities to prevent the outbreak of waterborne diseases.

Using specialised water purifying stations, SANDF engineers purified 100 000 litres of water a day, said operational commander Colonel Ronnie Jonsson.

“This water,” said Jonsson, “along with food and other relief supplies were distributed by the South African Air Force to more than 20 displacement camps scattered around the country.”

One of the primary focuses of the operation was to distribute fresh water and food as quickly as possible to those in need.

“Because most roads and other transport infrastructure were badly affected by the flooding, helicopters were needed to land in the inaccessible areas,” he said.

The two Oryx helicopters, Augusta helicopter and Casa 212 transport aeroplane had flown nearly 350 hours delivering desperately needed supplies.

Jonsson said that the aircraft had delivered 523.5 metric tons of food along with 2.41 million litres of purified water to displaced people in resettlement camps.

The relief work will be continued until next week, he said, when they would cease with the operation and hand over the remaining logistical work to the United Nations World Food Programme.

Rod Penhall, UN Humanitarian Air Services chief air transport officer, said the SANDF and the SAAF had provided a major capacity to the relief operation.

“If it had not been for those deployed from South Africa, providing relief aid to those displaced by the floods would have been extremely difficult,” he said.

Combing of the different organisations assets had ensured that the aid had been delivered quickly and effectively, he added.

Penhall, who praised the SANDF and SAAF for their well co-ordinated effort, said relief support from the UN would continue until all the roads had been opened and the transport infrastructure restored.

“Once this happens people can be returned to their homes and can start their lives over again,” he said.

José Dambiro, INGC’s Caia regional director, praised the South African Government for its help, saying the aid received had gone a long way in saving the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.

“If it had not been for South Africa’s help we could have been looking at a very different scenario, especially here in Caia which is one of the worst affected areas.

“If we had not received South Africa’s help when we did, a lot of people could have died,” he said.

The provision of helicopters and transport planes had ensured the speedy distribution of relief aid.

Dambiro said there were more than |20 000 families of 107 000 displaced people still being accommodated in assembly camps who were receiving relief aid and farming equipment.

“Once the water has subsided, these people will return to their provinces where they will be given small farms so that they can start their lives again,” he said.

A member of the SA National Defence Force who allegedly set his girlfriend alight appeared briefly in the Mmabatho Magistrate's Court on Tuesday.

Isaac Mhone, 34, of Moshawane Village near Mafikeng was arrested on Sunday after he had allegedly poured paraffin on his girlfriend and set her alight.

This followed an argument between Mhone and girlfriend Mommy Gaanakgomo, 28.

He is also alleged to have set fire to the shack they shared after locking her inside.

Gaanakgomo managed to break the door and run for help. Neighbours put the fire out but she was already burned on her face, buttocks and thighs.

She was receiving treatment at the Klerksdorp Hospital.

The case against Mhone had been postponed to April 18 for a bail application. He was remanded in custody.

An SANDF corporal and his accomplice -- hired by a Pietermaritzburg taxi boss to kill a rival taxi operator -- received life sentences in the city's high court on Tuesday.

The late Jika Joe Dlamini, a taxi boss, paid Corporal Xolani Manyoni, 33, and Richard Mathobi, 35, an RDP contract worker, R3000 each to kill a rival, Simphiwe Kansas Mkhize.

Mkhize was shot and fatally wounded before his family at his Pietermaritzburg home in May 2002.

Acting Judge Raj Badal berated Manyoni, saying that as a trained soldier it was his duty to uphold the law and protect people.

"Instead you became a hired killer and together with others followed Mkhize around until he was finally cornered and shot. You did it for money. There are no substantial and compelling circumstances to depart from the prescribed life sentence."

That he did not fire the shot that killed Mkhize did not help him as he was part of a gang that set out to kill.

The court found that Mathobi fired the fatal shot.

Badal told him: "You and others went to Mkhize's home and lay in wait for him. When he arrived home you greeted him like a friend and he responded. Then you shot him in cold blood in front of his children. I cannot imagine anything worse than seeing your father shot. You deprived a mother of a son, a wife of her husband and children of their father."

Former co-accused Bhekizitha Bhengu, also a soldier, who was charged with conspiring with Dlamini, Manyoni and Mathobi to kill Mkhize, absconded and was still being sought.

Defence experts had long warned that the chopper would prove – dare we sayit – a turkey, writes Michael Schmidt

It was a case of Rooivalk Down when Denel failed late last Friday in its desperate bid to rescue its aviation business after Turkey rejected the attack helicopter in favour of a European competitor.

Defence experts had long warned that the Rooivalk would prove – dare we say it – a turkey, when pitted against the competition: the not-as-agile Franco-German Eurocopter Tiger and, especially, the rather light Anglo-Italian AugustaWestland Mangusta A129 International (the Russian Kamov KA 50/2 Black Shark is still at the prototype stage).

This is because the Turkish armed forces fly several other AugustaWestland models, so the synergies with the Mangusta appeared obvious.

Not so, said Jane’s Defence Weekly writer Helmoed-Römer Heitman: the Rooivalk’s engine is the French-made Super Puma/Cougar powertrain – and Turkey also flies a lot of Cougars. In fact, he said, the Rooivalk was a superior attack helicopter to the Mangusta – which appears to be in line to win the bid – because it is a “faster, more agile, longer-range and more robust aircraft”.

If so, why did the Rooivalk lose this $2-billion (R14,2-billion) deal to supply Turkey with up to 50 attack and reconnaissance helicopters? Politics and poor marketing? Heitman asked.

“In the 1990s, South Africa cancelled a whole bunch of export permits to Turkey because [then deputy defence minister] Ronnie Kasrils got upset when Turkey arrested a PKK leader [Abdullah Ocalan] and sentenced him to death.

“This was criminally stupid because Turkey was also interested in the Rooikat [armoured fighting vehicle], in our ground-based air defences and mine- protected vehicles in vast quantities. It was a breach of contract, a betrayal that in Turkish eyes made us appear unreliable.”

And yet the Rooivalk has lost out time and again. It was notoriously used by the British a few years back as a bargaining chip at the Farnborough air show to reduce the cost of American Apache attack helicopters.

“Also,” Heitman said, “there is the fact that the Rooivalk has been around for 15 years and is still not operational, partly because the bottom dropped out of the defence budget as it made its appearance, and because the SAAF itself wanted all the money spent on its fighter jet programme instead.”

The SAAF is now well on its way to making its 28 Gripen multi-role fighters operational, but with only 12 Rooivalks in service with 16 Squadron in Bloemfontein, its close air-support and ground-attack capabilities are limited, Heitman believes.

The inevitable eventual deployments of the Rooivalk in such roles as part of our African peacekeeping missions required another 12 Rooivalks so that at least 16 are hot-to-go, while others are in maintenance or being used for training.

The Rooivalk is not the only arrow in Denel Aviation’s quiver: it has especially high hopes for its fifth-generation A-Darter air-to-air missile (Brazil has expressed interest) and for its Seeker II aerial unmanned vehicle, a class of remotely piloted drone that was all the rage at last year’s Africa Aerospace and Defence Exhibition in Cape Town (probably because Israeli UAV targeting had proved so pin-point accurate in the war on Lebanon a few months earlier).

And yet, despite Denel CEO Shaun Liebenberg putting on a brave face when announcing the failure to secure the Turkish deal – saying “we still believe Rooivalk is a world-class helicopter” and that collaboration with Turkey would continue in missile, munitions, artillery and landmine-clearance technologies – it certainly will raise the overall operational expense to the SAAF of flying the Rooivalk.

It has also emphasised that while the South African defence sector has produced excellent products, notably its mine-protected vehicles such as the Rooikat, its artillery systems such as the G5 and G6, and its avionics, during the apartheid era it largely followed the “Japanese model” of building technical capacity by reverse-engineering what others had already invented. Examples include:

l The Cheetah-C jet fighter, which the Gripens are replacing, was simply an Israeli Kfir with a few South African avionics and a different radar and engine, disguised to sidestep the arms embargo;

l The Oryx helicopter, which is essentially a French Puma with a better engine;

l The R-1 rifle was based on the old Belgian FN, while the R-4 and R-5 assault rifles were knock-offs of the Israeli Galil – and they, ironically, all based their basic gas-operated mechanism on the trusty AK-47.

And still, despite presenting a rather “ramshackle” appearance to potential foreign clients like Turkey, as Heitman put it, Denel soldiers on. This is despite having posted a loss of R1,6-billion in 2005 (of which the Rooivalk accounted for a third) and having to be propped up with a R1,5-billion bank guarantee and a R2-billion recapitalisation at taxpayers’ expense.

In June last year, Denel entered into an agreement with Swedish arms firm Saab to create a new “aerostructures” company to be initially 80% South African-owned and 20% Swedish-owned – with the Swedes investing R66-million over the first two years and Denel four times that amount.

Based at Denel Aviation’s facilities at O R Tambo International Airport and with 600 staff, the new company is expected to generate an initial annual income of R200-million from work on Saab’s Gripen, as well as the Airbus 400M transport, AugustaWestland helicopter and Hawk lead-in-fighter trainer programmes for the SANDF – plus doing work for Boeing.

But though Denel and Saab trumpeted the deal as one that would see great skills-transfer to the beleaguered South African defence industry, with 600 Denel staff being the beneficiaries, defence analyst Leon Engelbrecht cynically quipped in his unauthorised, unpublished Guide to the SANDF that “Denel existed to keep people employed, not to arm South Africa”.

Last month, Denel announced it had entered into partnership with German optics company Carl Zeiss, forming Carl Zeiss Optronics (Pty) Ltd, in which the Germans will have a 70% stake and Denel 30%. With an initial capitalisation of R60-million over three years, the new company would produce optical and optical-electronic systems primarily for the security and defence sector.

But Heitman said last year that the overall trend of foreign buy-in meant both the erosion of South Africa’s strategic edge and the downgrading of its industry from a systems-level supplier to that of a component supplier.

International participation on building systems component by component is the way the entire world’s arms industry is going (except the Americans, who are largely self-sustaining). Yet Denel’s other big coup last year, the R36-million deal to produce 129-million brass cups for British firm BAE Land Systems, demonstrates Heitman’s point: instead of producing actual ammunition, Denel was reduced to producing only the brass cups, the first and most basic stage in manufacturing cartridges.

A related argument could be made regarding Denel allowing the United States to produce our world-beating long-range base-bleed artillery ammunition under licence: though Denel creams the royalties, the knowledge (like that of our helicopter air filters that saved Desert Storm aircrews in the first Gulf War) has gone west and will eventually be reverse-engineered there without any benefit accruing to South Africa.

Heitman said one 16 Squadron Rooivalk pilot with experience on the Apache said the South African chopper beat the American competition hands down. But it will take more than the confidence of combat pilots to get the Rooivalk – and Denel – flying again.

South Africa is sending 64 policemen to the Caribbean to help with security at the Cricket World Cup, National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi said yesterday.

The contingent, led by Deputy National Commissioner André Pruis, would be deployed until April 29 to provide operational assistance for the Super Eight stage, semi-finals and finals in Grenada, St Lucia and Barbados, Selebi said.

The group leaves on Sunday.

It includes members of the special task force and national intervention unit, bomb disposal experts, detectives, hostage negotiators, crime scene investigators, explosives experts, dog handlers and a command and control group.

Selebi’s spokesperson, Sally de Beer, said they would be accompanied by 13 soldiers from the SANDF and 7 Medical Battalion.

The police and troops would be involved in the sweeping of venues, airports and harbours, VIP protection and crowd management, and would be available for emergencies not only at the cricket venues, but in any of the Caribbean countries.

Selebi said he did not want to discuss the cost of the deployment, but said none of the members would be living in five-star accommodation.

“They will be sleeping in tents and doing their jobs,” he said.

Selebi said that by offering assistance, South Africa could later ask for the same in return, especially with the 2010 Soccer World Cup just around the corner.

Some South Peninsula residents are up in arms at the mess left by participants in the SA National Defence Force's 46km route march through the area.

Waste left behind by the marchers included plastic energy drink bottles and blue plastic water sachets.

The "Friendly Forces" march, the seventh of its kind, took in some of the Peninsula's most scenic tourist routes, including the section from Scarborough along Plateau Road - opposite the entrance to the Cape Point section of the Table Mountain National Park - and along the False Bay coastal road from Smitswinkel Bay to Miller's Point and Simon's Town.

"Clearly these 'unfriendly forces' have no respect for a clean environment!" said one angry resident, who supplied photographs of the litter to the Cape Argus but asked not to be named because he has professional links with the SANDF.

The march was organised by the SA Navy, which has apologised for the mess.

Lieutenant Commander Prince Tshabalala, acting media liaison officer for the Simon's Town Naval Base, said they had organised a team of cleaners to pick up all the litter during and after the route march.

"Every effort was made to leave the area as clean as possible.

"Unfortunately, some items could have been placed out of sight of our sweeping party.

"This is also the first time in the seven years of the race that we have received a complaint of this nature.

"However, the complaint is seen in a positive light and we will be increasing the effectiveness of our cleaning up in future," Tshabalala said.

The complainant said a number of local residents, including those from Murdoch Valley near Simon's Town, had gone out themselves to pick up litter left behind by the marchers.

"Many of them were saying 'gee whizz, but these people have been messing!"' the complainant said.

He pointed out that the organisers of the Cape Argus Pick 'n Pay Cycle Tour were able to clean their route, which covers part of the same area, immediately after the event.

"Later isn't good enough - it should have been done immediately," he insisted.

In revelations that could further damage SA's [South Africa] international reputation, a top-secret forensic investigation has shown that defence procurement agency Armscor has been selling hundreds of millions of rounds of surplus small arms ammunition into the open market in conflict with government policy.

South Africa has for years been seen as a leader in the crackdown on small arms proliferation, particularly after its voluntary destruction of all land mine stocks and a 1997 cabinet decision to destroy all surplus small arms ammunition.

The revelations of the ammunition sales follow hard on the heels of SA's much-criticised foreign policy positions on Burma and Zimbabwe as well as ongoing allegations of corruption in the arms deal.

The November 2005 forensic report by First Consulting, hired by defence secretary January Masilela after reports of allegations of irregularities at Armscor, also reveals a breach of national security in the export of Ratel infantry assault vehicles with top-secret codes and algorithms in place when radios should have been removed from the vehicles before export. Armscor CEO Sipho Thomo and two other officials were suspended over the Ratel affair but have since been reinstated.

The sale of millions of rounds of 7,62mm and 5,56mm (for AK-47 and R-4 and R-5 rifles) to Industrie Spreewerk Lubben (ISL) in Germany, ostensibly for destruction and onward sale to companies in the US, has seen the US market flooded with military and police surplus ammunition from South Africa. Apparently the ammunition is openly advertised on the internet.

The report contains a litany of allegations over Armscor officials exporting the ammunition on the basis of expired end-user certificates for Guyana and of authorisation for re-export being given by Armscor officials bypassing the National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC).

The top secret report, of which Business Day has a copy, has been circulated to only two people, Masilela himself and Gen J Ledwaba, the head of the Military Police Agency.

In all, there were eight exports of ammunition to Germany from 1998-2000. The original rationale was that ISL would "demilitarise" the ammunition but the end-user certificate was changed to allow the re-export of the ammunition.

First Consulting rep-orted that notwithstanding a cabinet decision in 1997 that surplus ammunition should be destroyed, " Armscor continued to sell surplus ammunition in the open overseas market".

The cabinet decision allowed government-to-government sales but the sales by Armscor were to private companies.

"In conclusion, the contracting permit application was made with an intention to mislead the NCACC to approve the permit without revealing all relevant factors with regard to the demilitarisation and re-export of surplus South African National Defence Force (SANDF) ammunition.

"An authorisation to re-export surplus SANDF ammunition "as is" was later sent to the German authorities by an Armscor official," the report says.

The allegation of surplus SANDF ammunition flooding into the USA led to the NCACC calling for an investigation.

"Our investigation revealed that regulatory and procedural processes were blatantly violated.

" It is proposed that the present staff and members of the committees be re-evaluated, educated and vetted.

"Further, those who in any way are guilty of any indiscretion or criminal liability must face the full wrath of the criminal justice system."

At time of going to press Armscor was considering a response.

More than 4000 unexploded weapons collected after the Malhazine armoury blasts will be destroyed at Moamba in Mozambique on Monday, Vista News reported.

In its online Monday edition the daily Noticias said that more than 4000 unexploded arms which were collected from townships near the armoury would be destroyed in Xinonanyeleti area of Moamba district, west of Maputo.

The paper said the exercise set to take place just before midday would be carried out by the Mozambican army (FADM) assisted by specialists from the SA National Defence Force (SANDF).

The [destruction] which would start at 11.30am, could be extended for some days.

The ministry of defence had said that the exercise would be carried out under “strict security measures.”

The ministry had also called on the residents of Moamba district not to panic when the blasts started.

Malhazine armoury, the FADM’s main armoury, went up in smoke on March 22 when what the army termed “obsolete” arms exploded, allegedly from intense heat.

The explosions which went on for more than three hours resulted in the death of 102 people and an injury to more than 500.

More than 40 still remain hospitalised, while five children have been referred to South Africa for specialised treatment.

More than 750 families lost their homes and properties and most of them are housed in tents while other continued to sleep in the open.

President Armando Guebuza declared three days of national mourning and named a commission of inquiry, expected to report this week.

Critics and foreign military analysts have blamed blasts on negligence.

THE Army’s General Support Base known locally as Natal Command closed at the weekend.

But while the closure represents a reduction in the army’s footprint in the city, several other smaller units will remain at the historic beachfront site.

And this means that movie mogul Anant Singh’s envisaged film studio is not about to become a reality soon.

“It is just the General Support Base Durban (GSBD) unit that is closing, not the entire base itself,” explained Lieutenant-Colonel Chris Craig-Mackie, the acting commander of the unit.

The official closure and de-commissioning of the seven-year-old GSBD took place at a special Sunset Parade last week when the last commander, Colonel Peter Kobbie, told the assembled gathering that the duties of the base would be temporarily handed over to Army Support Base in Ladysmith. “This move was necessary to meet the needs of a dynamically changing SANDF and the South African Army’s 2020 vision of repositioning itself within the SANDF as a self-supportive force preparation organisation,” he said.

New support elements will eventually replace GSBDs to give specific support, he explained.

The GSBD took over the core support functions of Natal Command Headquarters, which closed in 2000, providing logistical, and other support (such as vehicles and rations) to various Army, Air Force and medical units around the city.

The idea of the unit was to “render general support to its allocated clients so that they in turn could focus their resources and effort on their core business”.

The unit, which once had a strength of 1 100, now has 693 personnel, including 239 civilians – and all have been relocated to other units around the province. Only some 200 army staff will now be employed at the beachfront base. Other units may move in, said Craig-Mackie.

As for the plans to turn the site into a film studio, Craig-Mackie said that in terms of the Deed of Grant agreement with the city (which owns the land), the defence force had exclusive use for as long as it needed it.

“We are happy to be here and don’t have to get off at all,” said Craig-Mackie.

However, he said that the army understood the council’s requirement for the site – it has sold the 18ha site to Singh for his studio – which was in the interests of the bigger picture in Durban.

The remaining units at the beachfront base did have plans to move to the Bluff’s Military base and Merebank, where there was a satellite support base, but they did not have the funds to finance the re-location themselves at the moment, he said. It was envisaged that the move would be financed by the sale of Salisbury Island, home of the Naval Station Durban, to Transnet.

The island was to be used for future expansion projects for the port.

An army depot, a GSBD satellite, which had occupied about three-quarters of Salisbury Island, had already closed.

It is understood that one option for Salisbury Island is that it could become a car terminal, according to recent media speculation. Sources said that geo-technical surveys are currently being carried out on the soil, and a final decision on the use of the land will be based on these findings.

Navy spokeswoman, Captain Lisa Hendricks, said that while the sale of Salisbury Island had not yet been finalised, there were no plans to close the naval station.

A decision on whether the station would move had not yet been made, “if in fact it will be moving at all”, Hendricks added.

Following the dramatic transformation of South African civil society in the post apartheid era, the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) literally has had to reinvent itself, changing its mission and attempting to integrate diverse personnel into a cohesive whole. The present study examines the success of these efforts through select perceptual measures reflecting the extent of integration. A survey of 2,212 personnel from various units of the South African military showed significant differences in empowerment by race and gender. Female personnel reported lower levels of goal internalization, delegated responsibilities, job involvement, and organizational commitment compared to male personnel. Black African personnel reported lower levels of perceived control, competence, delegated responsibilities, and consultation by superiors while exhibiting higher levels of goal internalization and job involvement than white personnel.

Follow-up interviews provided insight into the underlying dynamics of the integration process and potential explanations for the results.

Following the dramatic transformation of South African civil society in the post apartheid era, the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) literally has had to reinvent itself, changing its mission and attempting to integrate diverse personnel into a cohesive whole. The present study examines the success of these efforts through select perceptual measures reflecting the extent of integration. A survey of 2,212 personnel from various units of the South African military showed significant differences in empowerment by race and gender. Female personnel reported lower levels of goal internalization, delegated responsibilities, job involvement, and organizational commitment compared to male personnel. Black African personnel reported lower levels of perceived control, competence, delegated responsibilities, and consultation by superiors while exhibiting higher levels of goal internalization and job involvement than white personnel.

Follow-up interviews provided insight into the underlying dynamics of the integration process and potential explanations for the results.