Mon séjour en Afrique du Sud (Cape Town)

The SANDF will undergo a major shake-up, army chief Lieutenant-General Solly Shoke said yesterday. At the annual state of the army briefing at Thaba Tshwane military base, Shoke said red tape was slowing down its 2020 Vision on how technology can best be used in the transformation and preparation of the army.

Shoke said the shake-up would start at army headquarters. “I want fewer commanders. The command span is too wide, with resources and assets too spread out. To be flexible we need to see it functioning smoother without red tape….”

Shoke said instead of outsourcing to private companies, they would ensure the military had capacity to deal with whatever situation arose.

The SA Air Force has lost dozens of top engineers and technicians in just a few months, with 10 senior technicians resigning in one week to go to Australia.

The 10 technicians were offered jobs by an Australian aviation agency. This comes after 20 aircraft engineers were poached by the same agency earlier this month.

Technicians at Ysterplaat air force base say that if management doesn’t come up with a solution to the problem soon, the SAAF could lose all its top technicians by December.

A technician with 20 years’ experience, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said morale was at an all-time low at all of the country’s air force bases. He said “everyone” was talking about leaving the force for more benefits and higher salaries.

“Morale is low, and the Australian Air Force’s recruitment team will be in the country in two weeks to recruit even more staff.”

The source added that although pilots and technical personnel enjoyed their jobs, conditions had worsened over the past five years.

“Top management’s attitude, the mass retrenchment of skilled technicians in the late 1990s and the hiring of inexperienced senior personnel are just some of the reasons. Crime and the cost of living are the secondary reasons why people want to leave.”

The source said senior technicians were paid “peanuts”, and were going home with just over R9 000 a month.

“Technicians in exactly the same post in Australia go home with anything between R19 000 and R28 000 a month.

“The government shouldn’t be moaning that such a lot of skilled people are leaving the defence force; they should rather be reviewing their salary scales.”

In April, SA’s military top brass warned that the rate at which soldiers, sailors, pilots and technicians were being poached from the SANDF posed a serious threat to the country’s security.

Last week the chief director of the SA Navy’s maritime strategy division, Rear Admiral Bernhard Teuteberg, admitted the navy was struggling, mainly because technicians were being poached by international companies.

But the former head of the SA Navy’s mechanical operations in Simon’s Town, David Nathan, said the skills shortage was created by the retrenchment of nearly 1 000 skilled engineers in the 1990s.

The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) is to undergo a major shake-up, army chief Lieutenant General Solly Shoke said yesterday.

Speaking at an annual state of the army media briefing in Thaba Tshwane yesterday, Shoke said the army would do away with red tape which was slowing down its 2020 Vision project.

The army’s 2020 Vision looks at how technology can best be used in the transformation and preparation of the army for any task it may be required to deal with, including deployments against threats or disasters.

Announcing his plans, Shoke said the shake-up would start at army headquarters.

“I want fewer commanders because the command span is currently too wide, with resources and assets too far spread out.

“We need to have our resources and assets brought together so that we can function properly and better as an army.

“The army must be flexible, and to be that we need to see it functioning in a quicker and smoother manner without all this ridiculous bureaucratic red tape and huge structures which are slowing us down,” he said.

Citing examples of the way the army was being inhibited, Shoke said that instead of outsourcing certain functions to private companies and individuals they would ensure that the military had the capacity to deal with whatever situation arose.

Asked if this was the reason the special works unit had been established instead of relying on the often inept Public Works Department, Shoke said: “The works unit is vital for the SA National Defence Force.

“The current facilities that are owned by the defence force are going down in a bad way. The works unit will be used to rejuvenate these facilities.”

He added that members of the works unit were being trained in a variety of skills which would enable them to properly maintain the army’s wide range of facilities.

“It is all about tightening up the ship,” he said, adding that they had learnt a lot from previous incidents where things had been done in ways they should not have been.

Shoke said the changes would be substantive and would add value, efficiency and effectiveness to the organisation.

South Africa’s army chief has criticised the Pretoria high court for saying it discriminates against people infected with HIV/Aids.

Lashing the court’s decision, army chief Lieutenant-General Solly Shoke said the army was mandated to defend and protect the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, “but to do so this army requires fit and healthy soldiers”.

Shoke was speaking about the “aftermath” of the court ruling at the annual State of the Army media briefing in Thaba Tshwane yesterday. An estimated 23% of the South African National Defence Force is HIV-positive.

The South African Security Forces Union and the Aids Law Project (ALP) turned to the high court to have the SANDF’s policy regarding HIV-infected people set aside.

The court ruled – after the two parties reached an agreement – that the SANDF had six months to formulate a new health classification and testing policy.

The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) is to undergo a major shake-up, army chief, Lieutenant-General Solly Shoke said yesterday.

Speaking at an annual state of the army media briefing in Thaba Tshwane yesterday, Shoke said the army would trash the bureaucratic red tape slowing down its 2020 Vision.

For the South African Air Force (SAAF), however, any thoughts of reform may have come too late following reports that dozens of top engineers and technicians have left the service in just a few months, with 10 senior technicians resigning in one week to go to Australia.

It is believed dozens more may follow suit.

The 10 technicians were offered jobs by an Australian aviation agency and are set to leave the country with their families at the end of June. This comes after 20 aircraft engineers were poached by the same agency earlier this month.

Fifty pilots have been employed by South African Airways over the past two years, while the Australian Air Force is believed to have poached 30 senior engineers in just two months.

The army’s 2020 vision was designed to look at how technology can best be used to counter threats or disasters.

Announcing his plans, Shoke said the shake-up would start at army headquarters.

“I want fewer commanders because the command span is currently too wide, with resources and assets too far spread out.”

Shoke said the army will do away with the outsourcing of certain functions to private companies and ensure that the military itself had the capacity to deal with whatever situation arose.

Asked if the special works unit had been established to end reliance on the often inept Public Works Department, Shoke said: “The unit is vital for the SA National Defence Force.

“The current facilities that are owned by the defence force are going down in a bad way. The special works unit will be used to rejuvenate these facilities.”

Technicians at the Ysterplaat air force base in Cape Town said if things progressed as they had, the Air Force could lose all its top technicians by December.

A technician with over 19 years’ experience, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said morale was “at an all time low” at all of the country’s air force bases.

He said “everyone” was talking about leaving the force for better benefits and higher salaries elsewhere.

“Morale is low and the Australian Air Force’s recruitment team will be in the country in two weeks to recruit even more staff.

“Guys are going to apply and have already said they would leave the South African Air Force if offered a job by the Australian government. To be honest, even I’m considering their offer.

“Top management’s attitude, the mass retrenchment of skilled technicians in the late 1990s and the hiring of inexperienced senior personnel are just some of the reasons.

“Crime and the cost of living are secondary reasons why people want to leave.”

The source said senior technicians were paid “peanuts”, often going home with just over R9 000 a month.

“Technicians in exactly same post in Australia go home with anything between R19 000 and R28 000 a month.

“The South African government shouldn’t be moaning that such a lot of skilled people are leaving the defence force, they should rather be reviewing their salary scales.”

Last month South Africa’s military top brass warned that the rate at which soldiers, sailors, pilots and technical personnel were being poached from the South African National Defence Force posed a serious threat to the country’s security.

The loss of pilots to the Australian Air Force also recently prompted the chief of the South African Air Force, Lieutenant-General Carlo Gagiano, to appeal to his Australian counterpart to stop the poaching.

Last week the chief director of the SA Navy’s maritime strategy division, Rear-Admiral Bernhard Teuteberg, said the navy was also struggling because technicians were being poached by international companies.

Numerous calls and emails to the SA Air Force head office in Pretoria and the SA National Defence Department for comment were fruitless.

Briefing the media at the SA Army College in Thaba Tshwane on Friday, Chief of the South African Army, Lieutenant General Shoke described the attacks as sad and shameful.

"The Army condemns these attacks with the contempt that they deserve.

"We will do everything possible to support the South African Police Service [SAPS] in their endeavour to stabilise and normalise the situation as quickly as possible," he said.

In recent weeks, more than 50 people have been killed, scores injured, tens of thousands have been displaced and are living in tents following the brutal attacks on residents in communities particularly across Gauteng.

Some of those killed are South Africans, many of those injured and left homeless seeking shelter in police stations are not only foreign nationals but South Africans too.

The Army has thus far been helping with the provision of tents for the displaced foreign nationals in Pretoria and in other parts of Gauteng.

LT General Shoke said more than 200 tents have been provided to the displaced people.

Regarding transformation in the Army, LT General Shoke said the Army's future strategy Vision 2020 was on track and gaining momentum.

To be more effective in its operations, the army has embarked on a transformation exercise, referred to as Vision 2020.

According to the Army, this process will be achieved through the Military Skills Development System (MSDS) which forms part of the new South African National Defence Force (SANDF) Service System.

Commenting on the recent Pretoria High Court judgement that the SANDF had been discriminatory against people with HIV and AIDS because they were not allowed to join the defence force on this basis, General Shoke the defence force does not discriminate but merely requires people who are healthy.

The story in the Cape Times “‘Refugee camps a mistake’ – UN official warns on city plans” (May 28) does not fully reflect the United Nations’ position on the City of Cape Town’s relief operations in the wake of xenophobic violence.

The following is a communication sent to the City of Cape Town on Wednesday by Yusuf Hassan, spokesperson of the UN High Commissioner on Refugees in Pretoria:

“Mr Arvind Gupta of UNHCR never spoke or made comments pertaining to the situation of the displaced people in Cape Town to the Cape Times.

“If anything, statements he made during meetings with the authorities, representatives of the civil society and refugees, had been complimentary of the commendable efforts undertaken by the City of Cape Town, both in the rapid assistance they provided and in their handling of the crisis.

“The UNHCR is of the view that, given the prevailing circumstances, should the authorities and the disaster management bodies consider that it is unavoidable to accommodate the displaced in camp-like settings, it could only take note of this course of action.

“However, it is imperative that such sites meet accepted international standards.

“UNHCR stands ready to assist the authorities in attaining the latter.”

The comment in the editorial of the Cape Times of the same day that there is “a lack of a coherent strategy from the city and province” is also off the mark.

In terms of the Disaster Management Act, it is local government’s job to deal with the immediate humanitarian needs of people whose safety is under threat.

The city stepped into action immediately when the first xenophobic attacks occurred, and with its partners in the NGO sector established six safe areas for around 10 000 people within two days.

At these venues, in which people seeking refuge are free to come and go, the city, in partnership with NGOs, provided security, temporary accommodation in marquee tents, three meals a day, blankets, clothing, health services, toilets and washing facilities, drinking water and some transport.

We also opened community halls and other facilities to provide shelter, although we asked displaced people to move to the main safety sites, because this makes it easier for the city to protect them.

In some cases, especially Ocean View and Scottsdene, communities threatened to burn down halls if they were used to shelter refugees.

The city arranged to have officials from the Department of Home Affairs to be present to assist foreign nationals with registration, and to facilitate those who wished to return to their home countries.

However, not enough Home Affairs officials were made available, so the city volunteered 45 of its own staff, as well as temporary recruits to assist in this process.

The province’s role has been to prevent violence through deploying the SAPS, and the city assisted there, too, with its Metro Police.

The city also asked that province request SANDF peacekeeping forces to help maintain stability and protect displaced people who want to return to their homes in Cape Town.

Surely this does not amount to a “lack of a coherent strategy”?

Réussite des opérations sud-africaines pour enrayer les violences xénophobes (chef de l'armée) JOHANNESBURG, 30 mai (Xinhua) -- Les opérations menées jusqu'à présent pour enrayer les violences xénophobes se sont déroulées avec succès, a déclaré vendredi le chef de l'armée sud-africaine, le général de corps d'armée, Solly Shoke.

S'exprimant lors d'une conférence de presse, il a informé que des soldats ont été déployés aux côtés de la police dans le Gauteng et les opérations conjointes se sont déroulées avec succès.

Cependant, il a ajouté que l'armée est prête à déployer d' autres soldats si nécessaire.

« Nous ferons tout ce qui est possible pour soutenir la police dans leurs actions pour stabiliser et normaliser la situation le plus rapidement possible, » a-t-il indiqué.

L'armée a été déployée sur les instructions du président Thabo Mbeki pour soutenir la police dans ses opérations, et ceci pour contrôler les violences xénophobes.

Le général Shoke a précisé que le déploiement de l'armée a été limité au Gauteng.

On May 27, South African Defense Minister Mosuuoa Lekota presented the program for implementing the force structure to the South African parliament. The presentation outlined that the new force structure would retain the core focus of current capabilities while expanding to meet new military needs. Lekota noted that, "This implies the need to ensure that all the necessary building blocks, such as doctrine, technology, and training capabilities are retained at an appropriate level to provide the backbone to future growth as and when required by government."

Lekota highlighted four areas in which the SANDF has identified a military need: rapidly-deployable light, mobile forces; strategic and tactical transport capability; mobile air defense radars and SAM systems; and aircraft-based maritime surveillance support for surface ships and submarines.

The timing of Lekota's announcement dovetails with the completion of the SANDF's Strategic Defense Procurement Plan (SDPP). The SDPP, a series of related major acquisition programs initiated throughout the late 1990s and in the early 21st century, is valued at ZAR46 billion and has been the driving force in the modernization of the South African military. Major procurements included in the SDPP have included 28 Saab/BAE JAS Gripen multirole fighters, 24 BAE Hawk 100 lead-in jet trainers, 30 Agusta A109 light utility helicopters, 4 MEK0 A-200 Valor frigates, and 3 Type 209-1400M submarines.

As SDPP contracts is largely complete, the SANDF is beginning to transition into a new phase of modernization, one that targets mobility, air defense, and the ability to link newly acquired aircraft and ships.

Lekota's unveiling of a new force structure provides a clear indication of the type of military platforms and systems it is likely to seek in its next round of modernizations. That the Strategic Defense Account (SDA, the primary procurement vehicle of the SANDF, will grow from ZAR8.28 billion to ZAR8.55 billion - an increase of about 3.3 percent - through 2010 suggests the SANDF are in deed planning another round of force-wide military procurement.

MPs want the army to help with border control because police are struggling to man South Africa’s porous borders.

Chairperson of the National Assembly’s committee on safety and security Maggie Sotyu (ANC) said yesterday the Cabinet decision to withdraw the army from the country’s borders was a mistake and had been premature.

There was an urgent need to bring the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) back to help the police, Sotyu said.

Her committee’s view was based on an admission yesterday by the police that the thin line of blue was exceedingly slim when it came to guarding the borders and they were not coping because of staff shortages.

Senior police officers were in Parliament to brief MPs about progress since the process of police taking over responsibility for ports of entry from the SANDF began three years ago.

The SAPS is expected to take full control of the borders in March next year. This is in line with a 2002 Cabinet decision to withdraw the army from manning the borders and that a newly formed Border Control Operational Co-ordinating Committee (BCOCC) – comprising the police, the SA Revenue Service and the departments of home affairs and health – take control.

A few months ago, the Auditor-General (AG) slammed lax security at borders, saying the police were unable to properly control the inflow of immigrants and track smugglers. The AG noted the borders were porous and required more staff.

Recently, Home Affairs provincial managers told Parliament that some borderlines were not fenced, especially in Mpumalanga and Free State, making it easy for people to come and go as they please.

Sotyu said in the light of the admission by police that they were not coping, the committee wanted the Cabinet to redeploy the army to the borders.

“We have come to the conclusion that we don’t think they are ready to take over the borderlines. They (Cabinet) will have to review our observation that we think it was a mistake to pull them (the army) out and bring in (the police). We don’t think they will be ready on their own unless it can be a joint effort together with defence,” she added.

The ANC MP said she was astounded that although the decision to form BCOCC was taken five years ago, the police still did not have a strategy to control the borders.

She added that MPs from committees dealing with defence, correctional services, home affairs and intelligence shared the same sentiment.

EACH soldier in the SANDF costs South African taxpayers about R 375 000 annually.

This lunacy is highlighted by Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota’s pleadings in Parliament for still more money so that troops can “build roads, steer riverboats, clear drainpipes and not just stand there with a gun” (“Soldiers should do more than just stand there with a gun”, May 28).

At R375 000 each, soldiers are not “cheap labour”.

Their purpose is to wage war, and to kill people. Thankfully there is no conceivable foreign military threat to South Africa, but using soldiers as unskilled, manual labour is an appalling misuse of public resources.

Lekota admits soldiers should not be used to police civilians, and are neither trained nor equipped to replace the police (“Troops will shoot anyone pointing gun at them”, May 28).

It is past time for a complete rethink on South Africa’s security needs in keeping with section 198 (1) of the Constitution, which clearly makes human security a priority before outdated concepts of military security against non-existent foreign enemies.

Members of the defunct military commando system were unwilling to serve a black government and were hostile to democracy in South Africa, Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota has told Parliament.

During the Defence Department budget debate yesterday, he told MPs that former commando members were politically indoctrinated and supplied with weapons and training to spy on blacks in their areas, making this military structure wholly unsuited to the new South Africa.

Lekota was responding to criticism – notably from the FF Plus – over the apparent lack of rural and border security and the government’s decision close down the commandos and hand their functions over to the police.

“Largely, the commando system (consisted of) white South Africans who were not necessarily soldiers, but who were armed. And because they were white people – who had a higher stake in the (political) system – they were encouraged to collect information on what activities the other sections of the population were doing so that the armed forces could intervene,” he said.

Lekota also accused former commando members of holding on to their government-issued weapons, saying official records of these weapons had been destroyed or removed, leaving the democratic government with no means of tracing them.

The minister defended the government’s decision to do away with the commandos, saying there was no way such a system could be used in a democracy.

He emphasised that the commandos were associated with a “very sad and very dark history” and that the new government was magnanimous enough not to have closed them down immediately after coming to power in 1994 – “so as not to make anyone panic”.

He maintains that the reserves were not only given weapons, but also held “political attitudes which had been taught in those commandos”.

Lekota explained that many of these members had been invited, along with all the other statutory and non-statutory soldiers, to become integrated into the SA National defence Force.

But, he claims, some told him to his face that they were not willing to become “a k....r’s soldier”.

On other defence matters, Lekota pushed for a greater slice of the national budget by highlighting what he believed could be the military’s role in job creation. He laid out a vision of soldiers trained not only to “shoot and be shot at” but who were also able to build roads and bridges, steer riverboats and clear drainpipes.

He said the SANDF’s increased role in peacekeeping and post-conflict reconstruction on the continent had shown that civilian skills training would be of critical importance to future deployments of this kind and would contribute to job creation at home.

“You need people with the capacity to build roads, to build bridges. You need people who have been trained to do this so that peacekeeping forces in those communities become resources for those communities – not just to stand there with a gun – but to educate and train them in certain economic activities that divert their energies from just fighting.”

President Thabo Mbeki announced in February that the defence force would receive R700 million for training.

More than 4 000 soldiers are undergoing training, but Lekota wants this figure to rise to 10 000 a year.

Opposition MPs supported the call for the military to receive a larger slice of the spending pie, warning that current spending levels were eroding some of the organisation’s core capabilities and stretching the military to the limit.

The defence budget has declined from a peak of 50% of government spending in 1989 to just over 4% of public spending this year.

As a share of gross domestic product, defence spending declines from 8% in 1994 to just over 4% by 2010.

The City of Cape Town has called on the national government to invite the UN to help with refugee relief efforts.

“We require practical assistance … in the form of the resources and expertise of (the UN) … which has a large department specifically re-sourced to deal with crises of international magnitude such as (this),” Cape Town mayor Helen Zille said in a press release today.

This follows a meeting yesterday where Arvin Gupta, a UN High Commission for Refugees official, criticised the fact that people displaced by violence were being held at camps across the city and said the UNHCR was willing to assist the government but had not yet been approached for assistance.

Gupta said South Africa had the option to invite international bodies to help it deal with the crisis, but had so far chosen to rely on its own resources.

Zille said: “We welcome the critique of (Gupta) regarding the safe zones that the city has set up to provide immediate shelter and resources for the thousands of displaced people.

“We fully agree that people should be re-integrated into their communities if this is what they want. We have called for a peace-keeping force of the SANDF in order to facilitate this …

“We cannot, however, force displaced people to return to their communities against their will.”

Zille added that nobody was being forced to go to the safety sites, and nobody was being prevented from leaving.

“On the contrary, hundreds of people are demanding entry every day and many of the sites are now full to capacity,” she said.

Zille also called on the provincial government and the Defence Department to make additional venues available to accommodate refugees and said people’s needs could not be processed at “scores of tiny locations across the city”.

Zille said that while the city was doing its best to assist Home Affairs in processing people’s requirements and had seconded 45 staff members to the department, the UNHCR and embassies were urged to “become involved in addressing the plight of the thousands of displaced people who wish to return to their countries of origin”.

Emotions ran high at the hour-long meeting between Gupta, civil society and refugees at the University of Cape Town yesterday.

Displaced foreigners of various nationalities were at loggerheads with Gupta, as some would not allow him to leave the meeting and said that an hour was inadequate and that their grievances had not been properly heard.

The group surrounded Gupta and blamed the UNHCR for not assisting them adequately.

“All I want to do now is to return to my country … we are never going to be safe in this country,” said Rosaline Mulongo from Uganda.

Throughout the meeting, Gupta reiterated that while the foreigners were the responsibility of the South African government, one of the UNHCR’s mandates was to protect “externals” within a country.

Fatima Khan of the UCT Law Clinic, who chaired the meeting, said more than 500 displaced foreigners had approached the Law Clinic with a list of grievances.

She said some refugees had asked that South Africa be taken to an international court as the attacks in recent weeks were genocide.

An unidentified foreigner said: “The people make South Africa, despite the time that I have been South Africa I have never been accepted …

“Why does the UNHCR not take South Africa to an international court to hold it to its commitments under the UN charter?”

The United Nations should be officially invited to lend a hand in dealing with Cape Town's refugee crisis, city mayor Helen Zille said on Monday.

She was reacting to remarks by a UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) official visiting the city that the body was willing to help but had not been asked to do so.

The official, Arvind Gupta, also reportedly said the UNHCR did not agree with the city's establishment of special camps to house the refugees.

The six camps currently hold some 6600 people; another 12,000 are scattered at other venues throughout the city.

Zille said in a statement that the city welcomed Gupta's critique, but was more in need of practical assistance in the form of the resources and expertise of his organisation.

The UNHCR had a large department specifically resourced to deal with crises of international magnitude such as this.

"The city does not have such resources. We call on the national government to invite the UN to help us address the issue," she said.

She said the city fully agreed that people should be reintegrated into their communities if this was what they wanted, and it had called for an SANDF peace-keeping force to facilitate this.

However it could not force displaced people to return to their communities, any more than it could force them to come to the safety sites.

She said hundreds of people were demanding entry to the sites, which include several city-owned beach resorts, every day, and many of the sites were now full to capacity.

"We would gratefully accept any venues that can be made available by the province and additional venues by the department of defence.

"We cannot process people's needs in scores of tiny locations across the city," she said.

The city strongly urged the UNHCR and embassies to become involved in addressing the plight of the thousands of people who wanted to return to their countries of origin.

The third of the hi-tech German submarines, the Queen Modjadji, was delivered last week. The occasion again prompted news reports that one crew sailed all three home and that there were only sufficient submariners for one vessel.

Briefing the media ahead of his budget vote debate yesterday, Lekota said he did not know where these reports originated from, but "they are entirely fallacious". He asked rhetorically how all three vessels could be at sea simultaneously if there was only one crew. He insisted that all three were commissioned and operating.

Crew would continue to be trained for the submarines in the future, he said.

Later, introducing his budget vote in an extended public committee of the National Assembly, Lekota said that the eagerly awaited review of the force design of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) was complete and would go to cabinet soon.

The design would provide a core nucleus of capabilities that could be expanded and developed should the need arise .

"This implies the need to ensure that all the necessary building blocks such as doctrine, technology, and training capabilities are retained at an appropriate level to provide the backbone to future growth as and when required by government," Lekota said.

The army's mandate to defend and protect SA's sovereignty and territorial integrity demanded versatility to counter a range of potential threats, and also the mobility to operate across the range of terrain that might be encountered.

SA's contribution to global security also implied long-term involvement in peace missions.

After going to the cabinet, the design would go to the national legislature.

Lekota explained that the review had been made necessary because of the changing situation in the defence force. He said in 1994 with the birth of democracy there had been a wholly defensive posture for the SANDF along with its constitutionally defined primary mandate. But since then the involvement of the defence force in peacekeeping operations elsewhere on the continent had meant that the force design decided in 1998 had to be revisited.

"The demands of sustaining and maintaining forces over long distances in remote and underdeveloped locations, for example during peace missions, are a particular challenge.

"Such capabilities may differ from what is required to support operations in defence of SA or in support of the people of SA.

"However the SANDF should only be employed within the means of that government can afford.

"Compliance with this principle is only possible if selective engagement in deployment is achieved through a process of consultation between the defence minister, cabinet and the president," Lekota said.

He said the defence of the country from external military threats was a given as the SANDF's primary function.

Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota wants his soldiers to be able to build roads, steer riverboats, clear drainpipes – and “not just to stand there with a gun”.

In trying to convince legislators to support his quest for an increased defence budget, Lekota emphasised the role of the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) in developing skills required in the country.

The defence budget has declined dramatically from a high point of 50% of government spending in 1989 to just more than 4% of public spending this year.

As a share of gross domestic product, defence spending will have declined from 8% in 1994 to just over 4% by 2010.

Recent budget increases have also not kept pace with inflation and some arms of service – notably landward defence – have suffered a net decline in budgetary allocations.

The defence minister said that an increased role in peacekeeping and reconstruction in the wake of civil conflict on the continent had shown that civilian skills training would be of critical importance in deployments of this kind.

It would also contribute to job creation at home, Lekota said.

“These deployments have illustrated the need to focus on training in civilian skills that can be ploughed back into the South African economy …

“Since we democratised, the country took the attitude that we should cut down heavily on defence spending.

“But when one considers these issues I am now raising … and the benefits that come back to the country as a result … there is a need to review and proportionally increase the budget for defence,” said the minister.

Lekota also suggested that the army’s role in reconstruction efforts in war-damaged countries should include providing civilian training to those countries’ people to enable them to take over reconstruction tasks from the SANDF.

“You need people with the capacity to build roads, to build bridges.

“You need people who have been trained to do this so that peacekeeping forces in those communities become resources for those communities – not just stand there with a gun – but to educate and train them in certain economic activities that divert their energies from fighting.”

Lekota said that South Africa was faced with the dilemma of high unemployment on one hand and an “unemployable populace” on the other.

President Thabo Mbeki announced in February that the defence force was to receive R700 million for training.

More than 4 000 soldiers are receiving training, but Lekota wants this figure to be boosted to 10 000 a year.

Later, during the budget debate, opposition MPs supported the call for the military to receive a larger slice of the spending pie, but also urged the SANDF to be economical with its spending.

The DA’s spokesperson on defence, Rafeek Shah, warned that the budget levels – taken with a higher than expected involvement in peace support operations – had eroded some of the organisation’s core capabilities.

Soldiers shouldn’t be used to police civilians and they have been trained to shoot to kill anyone pointing a gun at them, according to Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota.

Lekota yesterday said soldiers were neither trained nor equipped for policing the populace and emphasised that they would only be used to provide “back-up” to the police in controlling the xenophobic attacks.

“There has been a demand that the defence force should have done this or done that. But you can’t use soldiers to police civilians. I know that our immediate past experience of apartheid make people think this, but that was a dictatorship. And however much as we may panic about some of these things, it really has to be done the right way, otherwise you compound the problems,” he said.

“Everybody is being an expert about what the defence force should and can do – without checking what the law says and how the regulations work.”

He warned that his troops were trained with far heavier “equipment” than the 9mm “pop-guns” used by the police and that they did not carry handcuffs.

“The SANDF has a specific mandate to defend the country when it is under attack from enemies. Its members are therefore trained and equipped for that specific function. Nevertheless, the SANDF has a secondary function to support any other department that may for one reason or another be overwhelmed by its obligations.”

For instance, the defence force stepped in to keep hospitals running when public health workers embarked on a national wage strike last year.

He said the defence force regularly assisted during floods and other natural disasters, both locally and abroad. Lekota slammed those who had criticised the defence force for not acting sooner, pointing out that presidential approval is necessary for deployments.

More than 1 000 foreigners were being housed in military facilities, but this situation could only be sustained “for a limited period of time”.

Meanwhile, as fears rise of an looming health crisis among displaced refugees, the Health Department is considering declaring some disaster areas.

Health Director-General Thami Mseleku said they had noted the outbreak of diarrhoea in some of the shelters hosting refugees.

Reports said more than 60 people had fallen ill at a refugee shelter in Nyanga.

With refugee numbers swelling into thousands, aid agencies have warned of a health time-bomb.

Refugees have been flocking to the city, desperately seeking safety and shelter – only to find chaos at a camp set up on the outskirts of Pretoria.

Yesterday, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) criticised conditions at the camp, which is housing nearly 1 000 refugees, branding the situation a humanitarian crisis.

However, the conditions at the camp did not deter those displaced by xenophobic violence.

More than 300 more foreigners had streamed into the city by 7pm yesterday, heading to the UNHCR offices.

Somali national Hajji Issa said they had heard that the camps were bad, but remained determined to go there.

“We have no choice. If we stay on the streets, we die. At least there we’ll have food, blankets and shelter. We’re telling all other foreigners to come to the camp. There’s nowhere else for us to go,” he said.

More than 35 000 foreigners have been displaced, 50 have been killed and hundreds have been injured.

SAHRC chairman Jody Kollapen said the camp was a human rights disaster. “Our country and our capital have a human rights crisis on their hands. It is clear that what is happening was never anticipated. It is clear that the city was totally unprepared,” he said.

“The loss of faith and trust that foreigners have in South Africa because of this crisis is of grave concern. What is most chilling is that these people would prefer to go back to their homes in war-torn countries rather than stay in South Africa.

“If this happens, those behind the violence would have achieved their objectives.”

The criticism comes as Tshwane executive mayor Dr Gwen Ramokgopa admitted, after a visit to the refugee camp on Monday night, that the council had been overwhelmed by the situation.

Ramokgopa had been forced to call in the army for help after more than 700 refugees were brought to the site.

In 12 hours, more than 50 tents were erected in a fenced-off area by members of the SANDF’s 17 Maintenance Unit from Potchefstroom.

“We were unprepared for these numbers,” said Ramokgopa. She said they had been expecting only about 200 people.

“I am concerned by what has happened, especially after hearing that these people mobbed aid vehicles, which makes the distribution of goods difficult,” she said after being briefed by Tshwane Metro Police that refugees were apparently abusing the council’s generosity.

Until aid and tents arrived, refugees were housed in two tents with no ground sheets in a facility that had only five toilets, one tap and no food or blankets. Mothers with babies were housed in a small building with broken windows and no doors.

UNHCR southern Africa representative Sanda Kimbimbi said: “While we appreciate that the situation is an emergency, this is not appropriate.

“They can’t stay here. Our goal is to get these people out of here. Failing which, we need to urgently and drastically improve this site because you can’t house people here.”

Responding to Ramokgopa’s statement that they were only prepared for 200 people, Kollapen said: “These facilities are not even fit for the 200 people that the council claims it was expecting. It is clear that there was an intelligence failure.”

Kimbimbi said the camp should have been set up before the people had been moved to the area.

“You don’t bring people to an area and then set up a camp.”

City Disaster Management spokesperson William Baloyi admitted they were unprepared for the initial influx.

“We are bracing ourselves for more people.

“People are coming from Rietgat, Soshanguve, Ga-Rankuwa and are being sent here from the UN offices in town when they arrive.

“We need every bit of help that we can get to attend to these people. We are appealing to people to donate whatever they can to help alleviate these people’s plight.”

n Funds for Pretoria News’ Operation ReachOut – for people affected by the xenophobic violence – have more than doubled.

Readers responded with their usual generosity yesterday. Donations ranging from R50 to R20 000 were deposited in the fund’s bank account – and the Development Bank of South Africa matched Independent Newspapers’ initial pledge of R250 000.

The fund stood at R572 000 last night.

Cape Town Mayor Helen Zille has formally asked Minister of Defence Mosiuoa Lekota to open a military base next door to the MPs’ village Acacia Park for victims of the xenophobic violence.

If the request is granted, this will become the seventh major safety site established since the violence erupted last week.

This morning it was estimated that thousands of immigrants were sheltering at about 50 sites around the city.

The city’s DA administration and the ANC are butting heads over how and where refugees should be accommodated.

ANC councillors said they would rather focus on returning people to their homes than encourage displaced refugees to live in camps across the city.

Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool claimed some success at reintegration today. He said that there were “clear signs” that more communities were taking steps to reintegrate foreigners into the communities they were chased from.

The statement said the provincial government deployed a mediation and reintegration task team on Friday.

Rasool claimed success in the Kraaifontein, Philippi East and Nyanga communities.

“They have indicated that soon they too will be ready to welcome the displaced people back,” he said.

The mayor said today that she supported families who wanted to return to their homes, but that this should be carefully mediated to ensure that they were not at risk.

“We cannot forcibly reintegrate them, against their will,” Zille said. “(But) those who wish to go back should be assisted in terms of a peacekeeping force provided by the SANDF. I also warmly welcome the offer of churches and NGOs to facilitate this process.

“Many of the refugees have requested to return to their countries of origin, and we must make arrangements to contact their embassies to assist us in this process. If displaced people wish to be reintegrated into their communities we will assist with this process as well.

“I met Mr Arvind Gupta of the UN High Commission on Refugees yesterday and urged him to assist us … The assistance of the United Nations is essential.”

Zille said the six temporary sites earmarked were to guarantee people’s safety.

Zille said: “We carried out this operation in terms of our disaster relief function of government which is to return stability to our.

The SANDF has begun helping in establishing temporary refugee camps in Pretoria. The Tshwane Disaster Management Centre last night called in the army for help after a massive influx of refugees into Pretoria.

Hundreds of refugees yesterday gathered outside the UN offices, seeking assistance for resettlement.

The army sent supplies, including tents, from the Potchefstroom area.

Disaster Management Centre co-ordinator Ané Bruwer said the defence force was called in to help with the accommodation of nearly 700 people.

She said the army was providing tents and other supplies.

The decision to call in the SANDF was made after it became clear earlier yesterday that Pretoria’s disaster relief plan for victims of xenophobia was a total disaster.

Before the troops moved in last night, an estimated 700 foreigners had been left abandoned by council and local government officials.

The group had been bused to the makeshift refugee camp near the University of Pretoria’s veterinary faculty at Onderstepoort after they had gathered at the UN offices earlier during the day.

They went there after hearing they could be helped with shelter, food and clothing.

Victims ranging in age from two months to 87 years were sent to the camp, only to find that there were two small tents for shelter, with no ground sheets, no water, no electricity, no food and no washing facilities.

Heavy rains flooded both tents, which had been erected on a Tshwane Metro Police shooting range.

When a Pretoria News team asked council and local government officials why not enough facilities had been made available, we were asked why we were making such a fuss.

“Is there anything wrong with this? Surely this is enough?” said a council official who refused to identify himself.

When it became clear that the city’s disaster relief plan was not functioning, the Pretoria News along with Radio 702 spent close on three hours co-ordinating the work of relief organisations from around Gauteng.

Gillian Elson of the Red Cross Pretoria offices said once they received the notification from the media they immediately mobilised disaster relief teams.

“We have collected blankets, canned food, baby nappies, sanitary products, toiletries and mealie-meal,” she said.

Elson said there had been a total lack of co-ordination on the government’s part.

“We met them at the weekend and arranged to have plans in place and for our organisation to be notified when the refugees were to be moved. The first we heard of this disaster was when you (the Pretoria News) called us.

“We were told at the weekend that there would be only about 200 refugees, but now we’re sitting with nearly 1 000.

“It has gone beyond a crisis. It’s pandemonium. It’s a disgrace.”

Elson said had they been alerted sooner, they would have arranged sufficient shelter, food, blankets and clothing.

Laudium resident Haroon Abramjee said if not for the media, the refugees would have been left to fend for themselves. “When we received the call for help, we sent out hundreds of SMSs.”

Amisa Saida, of the Democratic Republic of Congo, is paraplegic. She burst into tears when she arrived at the camp.

“How are we expected to survive? Where are the doctors, water, lights, blankets and beds? Who is going to help us now?”

Angolan Jovelino Miguel said they had been abandoned.

“We have been left to die. The government knew this would happen weeks ago, but they have done nothing to prepare for us. They have abandoned us. This is inhumane. They should be ashamed of how they are treating refugees,” he said.

Speaking ahead of the presentation of his Budget Vote to the National Assembly on Tuesday, Mr Lekota said once demobilised, these soldiers would then be able to fill the skills vacuum in the South African economy.

Soldiers who learned only how "to shoot and be shot at" were increasingly redundant to the requirements of the South African economy and the economies of the countries where South Africa was engaged in post-conflict peacekeeping and reconstruction, he said.

Major investments must be made in the training of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) personnel, he said, noting that while South African soldiers were performing peacekeeping operations, they became acutely aware of the lack of basic skills in these post-conflict countries.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), for instance, SANDF personnel serving there had noticed an acute shortage of teachers, healthcare workers and artisans, as the DRC evolves into its post-conflict reconstruction phase.

Once passed on, these skills would be absorbed into the South African economy, while also facilitating the transfer of skills to South Africa's sister countries in the region, he said.

This strategy, while geared towards job creation, was more importantly one that also dealt with the "unemployability" of many of South Africa's youth.

Over R700 million had been set aside especially for such training, with the intention to absorb as many as 10 000 young people each year into the SANDF.

This was also part of the SANDF's contribution to the Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition (Jipsa) being led by Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, an initiative in which the SANDF was "heavily involved", Mr Lekota said.

Overall, the minister's budget speech for the 2008/09 financial year focused on the contribution of the SANDF to conflict prevention, peacekeeping and post-conflict reconstruction in the continent, he said.

He added that the United Nations was also increasingly dependent and reliant on South Africa's fulfillment of this vital role.

Since the dawn of democracy in South Africa in 1994, the country had become "heavily involved" in peacekeeping operations, and was expected by the UN to play such a role in Africa, as far north as the Sahara and as far afield as the Indian Ocean rim, Mr Lekota told reporters.

The minister pointed to security threats presented by past conflicts in not only the DRC and Burundi, but place like the Comores and others, as well as the security threats presented by the terrorist bombings some years ago of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

He also pointed to a changing world, dominated not only by issues around globalisation and American hegemony but also a shortage of resources, which presents a threat to stability.

"The South African notion of national security is premised on our commitment to multilateralism and effective functions of multilateral institutions.

"These alliances have produced groundbreaking agreements like the Common African Defence and Security Policy, and the SADC [Southern African Development Community] Mutual Defence Pact," he said.

These agreements have in turn influenced the "common understanding we must have regionally in setting up the SADC Brigade and continentally by participating in the Africa Standby Force," the defence minister said.

The SA National Defence Force (SANDF)'s new "force design" will be presented to the executive and parliament within the next month, Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota said on Tuesday.

The design would provide a core nucleus of capabilities that could be expanded and developed should the need arise, he told the National Assembly during debate on his budget vote.

"This implies the need to ensure that all the necessary building blocks, such as doctrine, technology, and training capabilities are retained at an appropriate level to provide the backbone to future growth as and when required by government," Lekota said.

The army's mandate to defend and protect SA's sovereignty and territorial integrity demanded versatility to counter a range of potential threats, and also the mobility to operate across the range of terrain that might be encountered.

SA's contribution to global security also implied long-term involvement in peace missions.

"We must have light, mobile forces and the ability to deploy and sustain such forces over considerable distances in remote areas, and into hostile and underdeveloped areas.

"We must also be able to cope with an escalation of hostilities.

"There is thus a need for a strategic, operational and tactical transport capacity to initiate, enhance and sustain deployment of personnel and material," Lekota said.

The air force provided a defence umbrella for other assets, and therefore had to have the ability to detect hostile or illegal flights in the affected areas.

The navy's three components - surface, sub-surface and air capabilities - had to be suitably complemented by aerial surveillance via satellite and/or aircraft.

Comprehensive health care had to be provided to personnel wherever they were deployed.

The success of securing and stabilising areas of conflict depended largely on a sound understanding of the conflict.

Therefore, defence intelligence had to move beyond the traditional focus on opposing military forces, to include broader intelligence expertise.

The new force design had to meet all these requirements, Lekota said.

Also important, was the defence industry, which had to align itself to this.

The research and development component would be housed under a new Defence Evaluation and Research Institute (Deri).

It would fall under the defence department in terms of strategic direction and to ensure alignment with defence needs, but its daily operational activities would fall under the science and technology department.

A redesigned Armscor, renamed the Defence Acquisition Support Organization (Daso), would fall directly under the secretary for defence and continue to procure category one defence materiel exclusively for military use.

Lekota said the department's capital acquisition programmes over the next two decades would focus largely on renewing landward defence and associated capabilities.

The magnitude of this initiative required that the programme be staggered against a clear prioritisation of the requirement.

First priority would be given to those elements critical to fulfilling SA's international obligations, namely the forces required for United Nations and African Union peace missions, humanitarian and disaster assistance, and those elements required for the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Brigade and Africa Standby Force.

The second long-term priority would be the conventional elements of the landward capability, Lekota said.

The defence force should be deployed as a peacekeeping force as foreigners returned to the communities they had fled, Cape Town mayor Helen Zille said on Monday.

She said the city, which was accommodating thousands of refugees at temporary "safety sites" and community halls, would support the reintegration of people who wanted to return to their homes.

It would also support efforts to return those displaced foreign nationals who wanted to go back to their home countries.

"In the current climate of unrest, the process of reintegrating displaced people into their communities will require a peacekeeping force to be deployed to the most sensitive hot-spots around our city," she said in a statement.

"I call on the Western Cape safety and security minister to approach the minister of defence and request the urgent deployment of a peace-keeping force of the SANDF to act as an umbrella for the reintegration process."

She said she also repeated her call to the department of home affairs to either deploy more staff or bring in temporary staff to help process documents of displaced people at the safety sites.

They should also help those who wanted to return to their home countries.

Zille said the city was continuing to accommodate refugees at six safety sites around the metro, as well as in community halls.

It was carrying out this operation in terms of its disaster relief function as a local government.

This was to return stability to communities, protect the safety of people threatened by violence, and address humanitarian needs.

This will ensure those arrested are dealt with strongly and speedily.

Nodal points will be established with allocated prosecutors who will to work with the police in each province, where all cases will be centrally coordinated and monitored.

The police, NPA and the Director General of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, Advocate Menzi Simelane made the decision to ensure these cases do not become part of the normal case load and are given priority.

According to a joint statement by the two units, from the time the police make the arrests they will meet with the prosecutors to review and discuss the dockets, to ensure that they are court ready as soon as possible.

"The prosecutors have been advised to vehemently oppose bail in the interest of justice and apply for heavy sentences."

It is hoped that that the courts will deal with these cases with the full might of the law so a strong message is sent out condemning this criminal behaviour.

So far, over 500 arrests had already been made and were being addressed with high priority.

Further, a man was shot and killed in Springs on the East Rand after he pointed a firearm at a member of the SA National Defence Force (SANDF), the Department of Defence said in a statement on Saturday.

The incident took place on Friday night as the army was providing back-up support for the police during a search operation.

Some army members saw a man assaulting a woman and approached the scene. The man then pointed a firearm at a member of the army, who shot back in self-defence.

Preliminary investigations have indicated that the gun the man was using was stolen in a robbery in the area in October 2004.

Earlier, this week, President Thabo Mbeki gave approval for the SANDF to provide support to the police in stopping the attacks on foreigners in the Gauteng province.

The department said any loss of life was unfortunate. "The police, supported by the SANDF, are working tirelessly to restore order in all areas of Gauteng."

The SAS Modjadji was welcomed on Thursday.

The navy has called the occasion of the arrival Operation Siphelele (We are all here) as it signals the end of the acquisition programme that was initiated by the 1996 defence review process under the presidency of Nelson Mandela.

Among other acquisition programmes in the controversial multibillion rand arms deal that bedevils the African National Congress, and especially Thabo Mbeki's presidency, the process recommended that the navy be re-equipped with four frigates armed with helicopters and three submarines. There is still an option for a fifth frigate and a fourth submarine.

R-Adm Hanno Teuteberg, director of fleet force preparation, says the navy has decided to no longer utilise the option for a fourth submarine because the three that have been bought have proved to be adequate.

The new submarines can spend longer at sea than the older ones. They can spend up to 10 months a year operating before coming in for maintenance, compared with the old ones, which worked for three months and required a two-month maintenance period.

"What we thought we could do with four submarines, have been met by these three," Teuteberg says.

However, he is mum about the option of motivating for the fifth frigate -- at least for the near future -- amid speculation that this would remain the navy's trump card should anything unfortunate happen to any of the newly acquired vessels.

The navy needs the weaponry to ensure the protection of maritime trade coming through the ports.

It has the ability to command and control the country's sea posts through proper surveillance, reconnaissance and intelligence to ensure quality antismuggling and antipiracy operations, and to support fishery patrols.

With the submarines, it has the capability to conduct search and rescue operations on the rough seas surrounding SA and engage in antisubmarine warfare or defence.

Teuteberg says that by 2010 the navy alone will have done sufficient training and preparation for a wide range of operations. This will be a substantial complementary factor to other national security initiatives by the South African Police Service and South African National Defence Force (SANDF). He says that this is a huge deterrent to individuals and organisations that might target SA during the 2010 Soccer World Cup.

"We are extremely happy that our strategic acquisition programme has been completed," Teuteberg says.

The navy has also timed the arrival of the SAS Queen Modjadji, which left Germany for Spain on April 2 at high speed, as part of testing for any major defects. Leaving Spain on April 22 and head ing to SA mostly submerged, this also ensured that it was further tested rigorously, says Teuteberg.

The submarine has a 45-member crew that left SA in January for training in Germany.

Teuteberg says that the crew symbolises the levels of transformation in the navy, as among them is submarine Com Warren Souma, who is the first South African to work his way up through the ranks to command a submarine.

He is also the first to have a highly trained woman crew member, petty officer Candice Chetty, who serves as chef.

There is also Lt-Com Thamsanqa Matsane from Bushbuckridge in Limpopo, who has a three-year military degree from the military academy, Saldanha. Matsane will sit for a b oard examination in order to qualify as a submarine officer.

Asked about the navy's role in the region, Teuteberg says most operations complemented or acted within the broader security objectives of both the African Union and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

"We do a lot of co-operation with our SADC neighbours in particular, where we engage in joint exercises and training."

He said that SA's ability to monitor and safeguard its coastal borders was dependent on its neighbours' competencies and skills to do the same.

"An unchecked oil spill in Mozambique is more than likely to end up on the Durban beaches and therefore we must co-operate with our neighbours if we want to keep our shores safe," Teuteberg says.

The end of the acquisition process also seals the debate of whether or not SA should have spent billions of rands buying the arms when the country is not facing any immediate foreign threat.

The deed has been done and the focus must be on proper oversight through Parliament, so that the defence force can perform its duties.

TWO BILLION rand squandered on one German submarine (“Arrival of sub completes navy’s order from German shipyards”, May 23) while anarchy prevails in the townships. Literally every government department is now dysfunctional, but the admirals have shiny new toys so that the navy can play war games with South American warships and/or protect fish.

It is laughable, but tragic. It’s past time that Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota realised that security starts at home and that, fortuitously, there is no foreign military threat to South Africa. Does the Zimbabwe catastrophe not suggest to him that armaments compound rather than address security risks?

The xenophobic tragedy that is unfolding – and the threat it poses to our constitutional democracy – was predicted at the parliamentary Defence Review by those of us who opposed the arms deal, and subsequently exposed the corruption that it has unleashed. We pleaded then that poverty eradication was the real and urgent priority, and it remains the major security risk to South Africa’s future.

The government has been criminally negligent over the past 14 years in failing to deal with the human security issues defined in section 198 (a) of the Constitution. In desperation, it now calls in the SANDF, but soldiers are trained for war, not peace. Use of troops to quell violence in townships may well compound the crisis, albeit that the SAPS has already proved equally incapable of handling the disaster.

Abolition of the SANDF and transfer of its financial resources to a volunteer Peace Corps should now be urgently considered.

It is internationally proven that human security issues of food, health, education, housing, job creation and crime prevention are prerequisites both to poverty eradication and peace.

A first step could be an immediate announcement that the arms deal’s warplane contracts have been cancelled, so that financial resources can be properly redirected.

Plus de 25 000 immigrés ont fui les violences xénophobes qui ravagent les townships d'Afrique du Sud et s'entassent dans des centres d'accueil provisoires, exposés à de mauvaises conditions sanitaires et au froid de l'hiver austral.

"La Croix Rouge aide actuellement plus de 25.000 déplacés, répartis dans 21 centres, notamment à Johannesburg", la capitale économique où les attaques anti-immigrés ont éclaté le 11 mai, a dit Françoise Le Goff, directrice du CICR pour l'Afrique australe.

"La situation s'est détériorée depuis que les violences se sont étendues à Durban et au Cap" ces derniers jours, a ajouté Mme Le Goff.

Les violences, qui ont ravagé les townships de Johannesburg, puis se sont étendues à Durban (est), grand port de l'océan Indien, et au Cap (sud-ouest), haut-lieu touristique et siège du Parlement, ont désormais gagné sept des neuf provinces du pays.

Au moins 42 personnes ont été tuées et des centaines blessées, tandis que des milliers d'étrangers ont choisi la route du retour. La police a procédé à plus de 500 arrestations.

Même si les incidents sont désormais moins nombreux, grâce à un impressionnant déploiement de la police et de l'armée, les déplacés continuent d'affluer dans des camps de fortune, souvent proches des commissariats. Des milliers doivent dormir dehors, par des températures proches de zéro la nuit.

"Nous enregistrons moins de cas de blessures dues aux violence, mais de plus en plus de cas de maladies liées au froid et aux mauvaises conditions sanitaires", notamment des infections respiratoires et des diarrhées, a indiqué la directrice de Médecins sans Frontières en Afrique du Sud, Muriel Cornelius.

La nuit de vendredi à samedi a été relativement calme à Johannesburg, où l'armée a été déployée, mais un homme a été tué par des militaires dans la banlieue minière de l'est de la ville.

"Nous avons malheureusement eu un incident lorsqu'un membre de la population s'est fait tirer dessus alors qu'il pointait une arme à feu contre un soldat. Il a été tué par balles", a déclaré ce porte-parole de l'armée, le général Kwena Mangope.

Le déploiement militaire, décidé jeudi pour la première fois depuis la fin du régime d'aparheid en 1994, rappelle paradoxalement l'époque où le régime ségrégationniste avait recours à l'armée pour réprimer les émeutes des Noirs.

La police et les services du procureur général ont annoncé vendredi des mesures exceptionnelles pour traiter "rapidement et sévèrement" les cas de violence et envisagent la création de tribunaux spécialisés.

L'organisation de défense des droits de l'Homme Human Rights Watch a appelé le gouvernement à "protéger les victimes pour garantir la justice" en s'assurant que les immigrés, dont la plupart sont sans papiers, puissent témoigner.

Les étrangers, dont trois millions de Zimbabwéens ayant fui la crise dans leur pays, sont accusés de prendre des emplois et de contribuer à la criminalité dans un pays où le chômage et l'extrême pauvreté touchent quelque 40% de la population.

L'Afrique du Sud a pour la première fois vendredi présenté ses excuses pour ces attaques, par la voix de sa vice-présidente Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, en visite au Nigeria: "Nous sommes très inquiets et nous présentons nos excuses pour tous les désagréments que ces incidents ont causé".

Dans les pays voisins, dont certains mettent en place des structures d'accueil pour leurs ressortissants fuyant les violences, la crainte de représailles contre les intérêts sud-africains monte. Ainsi, à Maputo, la police a-t-elle été déployée devant l'ambassade d'Afrique du Sud.

Ces violences, qui ternissent l'image de la "Nation Arc-en-Ciel" rêvée par le héros de la lutte anti-apartheid et ex président Nelson Mandela, portent aussi préjudice à la réputation de stabilité de la première puissance économique d'Afrique.

The man was shot and killed after he pointed a firearm at a member of the SA National Defence Force (SANDF), the defence department said today.

The incident happened last night when the army was providing back-up to the police during cordon and search operations in in Springs and some personnel saw a man assaulting a woman and approached the scene.

The man then pointed a firearm at a member of the army, who shot back in self defence, it said.

More than 500 people have been arrested since anti-immigrant violence broke out in South Africa 12 days ago.

Earlier this week, President Thabo Mbeki gave his nod for troops deployment to tackle spiralling violence, the first time army has been called in after the end of apartheid.

"The SA police service, supported by the SANDF are working tirelessly to restore order in all areas of Gauteng," the defence department said.

The violence, mainly against Zimbabweans, Mozambicans, Malawians, Somalis, Nigerians and other African nationals, has now spread from Johannesburg to Durban, Cape Town, north of Pretoria.

"We have a proud record of promoting human rights and fighting racism, but these attacks on our fellow brothers and sisters from Africa has undermined our human rights efforts," Minister of Social Welfare and Development Zola Skweyiya said at a function in Pretoria to celebrate Afrika Day today.

He was addressing hundreds of people, including diplomats and ambassadors, some of them from countries whose citizens have been affected by the violence.

Several non-government organisations have held marches in Johannesburg and Cape Town to protest against the xenophobic violence tat has so far claimed more than 43 lives and left more than 25 000 people destitute. The violence has also affected some Pakistani and Chinese business people whose shops have been looted.

Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kassrils earlier accused the "third force" elements, who stirred "black on black" violence during the apartheid era and during the run-up to the 1994 democratic elections, of being behind the attacks on the foreign nationals.

However, the statement was dismissed by opposition leaders who claimed that the socio-economic conditions of the poor had contributed to the hatred for foreign nationals.

"The living conditions of the poor has deteriorated over the past few years and they seem not to have any other way of showing their anger but by attacking foreign nationals," said Connie Mulder, leader of the Freedom Front opposition party.

Political commentator Ashwin Desai said the attacks on foreign nationals was a "shame on the country".

"It seems that Government leaders are far removed from the peoples at grass roots levels", he said.

"If they are in touch with the people then why are people not listening to them. This has been shown by the fact that the violence has spread to all parts of the country despite condemnation by the government leaders," he said.

South Africa yesterday made its first public apology for the wave of attacks on foreigners with Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka voicing the government's concern during a visit to Nigeria.

"We are very much concerned and apologise for all the inconveniences that the incidents have caused," Mlambo-Ngcuka said.

A SA National Defence Force soldier died in an explosion in Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), said the defence department on Saturday.

Corporal Sibusiso Dube, 30, died after an explosion at the Nyiragongo base in Goma on Friday.

A board of enquiry will be convened to determine the circumstances leading up to his death.

Dube was a field engineer in Bethlehem in the Free State before he was deployed to the DRC to support the United Nations Monuc Mission.

He is survived by his wife Zama Dube who lives in Umlazi, Durban.

Minister of Defence Mosiuoa Lekota, his department and the Chief of the SANDF General Godfrey Ngwenya have extended their condolences to the Dube's family.

A man was shot and killed in Springs after he pointed a firearm at a member of the SA National Defence Force (SANDF), the defence department said on Saturday.

The incident happened on Friday night when the army was providing back-up to the police during cordon and search operations in Gugulethu in Springs on the East Rand.

Some army members saw a man assaulting a woman and approached the scene.

The man then pointed a firearm at a member of the army, who shot back in self defence.

Preliminary investigations indicate the gun the man was using was stolen in a robbery in Springs in October 2004.

Earlier, this week, president Thabo Mbeki gave the nod for the SANDF's involvement in the fight to the stop attacks on foreigners in the Gauteng province.

On Saturday, the defence department said any loss of life was regretted.

"The SA [police service], supported by the SANDF are working tirelessly to restore order in all areas of Gauteng," it said.

Mayors have been asked to identify land where the temporary shelters can be set up.

"There are at present 25 000 people who have been displaced. There were 466 incidents of public violence and 42 people were murdered.

"Victims injured during the period under review number 550," said Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula, Thursday.

He told reporters that a Joint Task Team, which was established to investigate the attacks, met with mayors in Gauteng to discuss their involvement in the task team and some of the tasks that needed to be fulfilled as a matter of urgency.

The response from the South African public at large to the humanitarian situation has been encouraging, said the minister who thanked non-governmental organisations (NGOs), churches and civic organisations for their support to date.

Organisations such as the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, Gift of the Givers, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the Red Cross and Business Unity South Africa (BUSA) have been assisting the displaced where possible.

Regarding the involvement of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) in conjunction with the police in quelling the violence, the minister said: "The security forces are going to do what is necessary to guarantee the safety of all of South Africa's people."

He said they would not only be protecting foreign nationals, because there were also South Africans who had become victims.

The SANDF, the minister said, will be on the outer periphery in a supportive role to the police.

He said intelligence units were working flat out to find out who was behind these attacks.

"The current situation is regulated by international protocol, and to protect people we need to move them to temporary shelters as soon as possible, but [I would like to reiterate that] we would not like to refer to these camps as refugee camps," said the minister.

Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad told reporters no one could justify the type of attacks and violence we have seen.

Foreign nationals have been blamed by their attackers for allegedly taking jobs from South Africans and for residing in housing supposed to be distributed to poor South Africans.

Minister of Home Affairs Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said her department would look into changing immigration policies in order to confine people whose [refugee] status has not been finalised in a temporary shelter of some sort.

"The people who have been affected have not just been asylum seekers or refugees as some have also been economic migrants," she concluded.

It was all plain sailing for South Africa’s third submarine, the SAS Queen Modjadji, on its arrival at the naval base at Simon’s Town yesterday.

The submarine is the last of the naval hardware bought in a multi- million rand arms deal to arrive in South Africa.

It arrived under escort of the South African naval supply ship, the SAS Drakensberg. The SAS Queen Modjadji was welcomed to the country by her sister submarine, the SAS Charlotte Mxeke, two of the country’s newest frigates and warships from Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. The South American and South African warships were involved in an intensive submarine battle exercise with the Queen Modjadji on Wednesday night.

The Queen Modjadji had been at sea for 31 days after leaving the Rota Naval Base in Spain where she stopped over on her voyage from the shipyard where she was built in Kiel in Germany.

At welcoming celebrations, Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota said the vessel was critical in the rejuvenation of the SANDF.

He said the country’s three subs, along with the four newly acquired frigates, would constitute a formidable maritime force capable of defending the country and its people. The primary role of this force was to defend South Africa’s interests and territorial integrity but they also brought to the continent a significant strategic deterrent capability.

“They will help ensure peace and stability in the region which is essential for democracy, growth and development to continue in Africa,” he said. “This force affirms our intentions to continue to play a role in the prevention of conflict and promotion of peace in Africa. Maritime security is one way in which South Africa can make a vital contribution to the continent.”

The Queen Modjadji’s skipper, Commander Andrew Souma, said the submarine played a vital role when it came to intelligence gathering, surveillance and reconnaissance.

Submarines were used as force multipliers and as deterrents to ensure that maritime threats were kept to a minimum.

Regarding the voyage, Souma said: “The trip was excellent with brilliant performances from both the crew and the boat. I would trust my life to any of crew because they are the best of the best.”

The crew agreed with their commander, saying it had been one of the best trips yet.

The majority of the crew were submariners who served on the navy’s former Daphnie class submarines and had also been involved in bringing the other two submarines from Germany.

The sub has a crew of 41 and was officially launched in 2006. It cost nearly R2 billion, including its construction and the training of the crew, who spent two months in Germany.

The SAS Charlotte Mxeke left for Marion Island to conduct operations in South Africa’s territorial waters.

Arsenal naval. Hier, un hélicoptère survolait la dernière acquisition de l’armée sud-africaine. C’est le dernier sous-marin fourni par la compagnie maritime allemande Thyssen Krupp.

afrique du sud

Les violences xénophobes en Afrique du Sud ont continué vendredi à se propager, touchant désormais sept des neuf provinces du pays, et le parti au pouvoir a appelé à "reprendre la rue aux criminels", alors qu'à Johannesburg le calme semblait revenu.

Mbeki puts SANDF on alert to stop violence

Troops were on standby today to help the police quell any further xenophobic attacks in several provinces, including Gauteng, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal.

Police reported today about 300 families sought refuge at the Chatsworth police station last night after they had been chased out of their homes by residents of the Bottlebrush Settlement just for being foreigners.

SAPS Dir Supt Phindile Radebe confirmed that between 200 and 300 families were chased out of their homes last night.

“After being told to go, they peacefully went to the Chatsworth police station to seek refuge. Police arranged for them to go to the community hall where they spent the night,” she said.

Hadebe also said foreigners should not panic as the police are doing everything in their power to ensure that they are safe.

Earlier yesterday KwaZulu-Natal premier S’bu Ndebele said the government would not hesitate to call in the South African National Defence Force and elite police units to quell any further violence.

He was speaking after touring the area around a Dalton Road tavern where foreigners were attacked on Tuesday.

After that attack, hundreds of foreign nationals in Durban’s Umbilo area vacated their flats and shut down their businesses.

Refuge

Some of them sought refuge in churches while others moved in with friends and relatives in the Albert Park and Point areas.

They accused the government of failing to arrange accommodation for them. In the city centre, shop owners closed their stores when news of attacks spread.

Police said yesterday 42 people had been killed and more than 16 000 displaced in recent xenophobic attacks in Gauteng, while 400 arrests had been made.

It was announced last night President Thabo Mbeki has given the nod for the military to help the police curb ongoing attacks on foreign nationals, particularly in Gauteng.

It is believed to be the first time SANDF troops have been deployed in townships since the 1994 democratic elections.

Mpumalanga police said the shack-burning and looting targeted at foreigners began there on Tuesday, and in KwaZulu-Natal, police were monitoring Durban’s Dalton Road area after the tavern attack.

The deployment of the army in areas hit by xenophobic attacks was long overdue, opposition parties said yesterday.

It was an acknowledgement by Mbeki that there was “a state of emergency” in South Africa, said Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Mulder. “It was also a reflection on the police’s inability to contain the situation.”

“It is a pity that the decision to deploy the army was not taken earlier,” said the Democratic Alliance’s leader in the Gauteng legislature, Jack Bloom.

The police and army were in talks on the deployment last night.

Dir Sally de Beer, spokeswoman in the office of the national police commissioner, said: “Despite the involvement of the army, the police would ‘still be in charge’ of the operation.”

Police want to borrow military equipment and back-up to contain the ethnic violence raging in Gauteng.

President Thabo Mbeki approved the request, said his spokesperson Mukoni Ratshitanga late yesterday, moments before the president flew to Tanzania for an African Union summit.

“The police, through the minister, asked the Department of Defence for assistance regarding the recent outbreaks of violence that we’ve seen in Gauteng,” Ministry of Safety and Security spokesperson Trevor Bloem said.

He said the request was for equipment which the police do not have but can use. and for back-up manpower. He would not give details of equipment needed, but it is believed to include helicopters.

Soldiers will not be used to intervene directly but as back-up to police, as policing is not part of the military’s mandate or training.

Bloem expects the help to be finalised soon.

The constitution allows the military to be used as back-up when the minister of the department which needs it – in this case Safety and Security – formally asks the Ministry of Defence for help. Defence in turn sends the request to the president for approval.

Ministry of Defence spokes-person Sam Mkhwanazi said his ministry got the request on Tuesday and it was still being considered. He did not have details of the request but also emphasised that soldiers would not be deployed except as back-up to the police. “Members of the South African National Defence Force do not have arresting powers.

“The police would continue to do their work … The military would provide back-up.”

Military back-up was used during the public sector strikes last year, when military medics helped hospitals.

“We’ve seen it with roadblocks, we’ve seen it during the elections, we’ve seen it during sporting events and also during strikes,” Bloem said.

Earlier this week the police’s National Intervention Unit was deployed to troubled areas and more police officers brought in from other provinces. There have been a number of calls for the military to help, as police struggle to stop the violence, while human rights monitors urged caution.

Yesterday, Lawyers for Human Rights said beefing up police resources was better than bringing in the military. “The basic principle is that it has to be as a measure of last resort,” LHR director, advocate Jacob van Garderen, said.

He warned against problems arising from the historical legacy of troops being used in townships during the apartheid era.

This joint venture is the first since President Thabo Mbeki authorised the SANDF to step in and assist police quell the attacks on foreign nationals.

"The joint operation was extremely successful and resulted in 28 arrests being affected, 150kg of dagga being seized and firearms, ammunition and suspected stolen property being recovered," said SAPS spokesperson, Sally de Beer on Thursday.

She said the men were not arrested in direct connection with the violence that erupted in those areas, but further investigations and interrogation would reveal possible involvement.

There were no incidents of violence during the operation conducted in Wolhulter and George Goch hostels in Jeppe and the Denver hostel in Cleveland, she said.

The deployment of the SANDF is aimed at supporting the SAPS in restoring peace and stability in various areas of the province which have been plagued with violence since last week.

However, Ms de Beer stressed that the army will not replace the police but the two would work together.

She said there was certain equipment that SANDF had, which the police did not have access to.

"The SANDF has been deployed to assist the SAPS during specific, planned operations and to assist in terms of the provision of certain resources.

"These two arms of the security forces have worked together on several occasions in the recent past and enjoy a cooperative working relationship," Ms de Beer said.

For the operation, members of the SANDF from the 21 South African Infantry Battalion were tasked with forming outer perimeter security rings while SAPS members entered the premises and carried out search, seizure and arrest duties.

The SAPS members involved were from units and task teams in Gauteng, the National Intervention Unit, various Crime Combating Units and the Division Protection and Security Services.

"The SAPS and SANDF will liaise closely and work in coordination until calm is restored to those areas in Gauteng which have been subjected to sporadic outbursts of public violence," Ms de Beer assured.

The SA National Defence Force (SANDF) will supply helicopters to deliver police to xenophobia "hot spots" and will also help with cordons and searches, a defence spokesman said on Thursday.

On Wednesday President Thabo Mbeki gave the go ahead for the SANDF to be deployed to areas hit by the violence, which has left at least 42 people dead, following a request by the Safety and Security ministry.

They would also help with foot and vehicle operations.

Mbeki authorised the deployment of regular and reserve force SANDF members to work with the police to prevent crime and maintain law and order, Brigadier General Kwena Mangope said.

Earlier, the army helped guard the perimeter of hostels being searched around Johannesburg.

Twenty eight people were arrested during the operations at the Wolhulter and George Goch hostels in Jeppe, and the Denver hostel in Cleveland.

"Members of the SANDF from 21 South African Infantry Battalion were tasked with forming outer perimeter security rings while SAPS members entered the premises and carried out search, seizure and arrest duties," police spokeswoman Director Sally de Beer said.

She said the men were not arrested in direct connection with the xenophobic violence that erupted in those areas, but further investigations and interrogation would reveal possible involvement.

Although there has been a widespread call for army assistance, the SA National Defence Force Union (Sandu) said it was concerned about involving soldiers in dealing with the current wave of xenophobia-related attacks.

"The calling of the military to deal with a situation which falls directly within the responsibility of the law enforcement agencies of South Africa is undesirable," said secretary Pikkie Greeff.

"It is morally, legally and politically indefensible and would carry with it the message that soldiers were free to be abused for political ends."

He said SANDF was not a law enforcement agency.

"Its first and foremost task in our democracy is to defend our country against military aggression. To this purpose SANDF members are trained in conventional warfare which is not compatible to law enforcement doctrine.

"To deploy our soldiers in the ambit of law enforcement and expect them to apply SAPS doctrine and training, places them at risk legally and politically."

Opposition parties said the deployment was "long overdue".

The SA National Defence Force Union (Sandu) on Thursday said it was concerned about calls to involve soldiers in dealing with the current wave of xenophobia-related attacks.

"The calling of the military to deal with a situation which falls directly within the responsibility of the law enforcement agencies of South Africa is undesirable," said secretary Pikkie Greeff.

"It is morally, legally and politically indefensible and would carry with it the message that soldiers were free to be abused for political ends."

He said soldiers were on daily basis suffering exploitation and indignity in their workplace, due to their inadequate salaries and management practices that were corrupt.

"Those who hastily call (for) the deployment of soldiers conveniently forget the reality that soldiers were exploited or simply do not care."

He said SANDF was not a law enforcement agency. "Its first and foremost task in our democracy is to defend our country against military aggression. To this purpose SANDF members are trained in conventional warfare which is not compatible to law enforcement doctrine."

"To deploy our soldiers in the ambit of law enforcement and expect them to apply SAPS doctrine and training, places them at risk legally and politically," Greeff added.

He said if soldiers were indeed to be deployed, it would constitute irrefutable proof that SA law enforcement agencies, and therefore by implication government, had lost control over the civilian population and were forced to seek a military solution to a socio-political problem.

"If indeed this is what the situation has digressed to, then it implies that the leadership of the current government has lost the confidence of its subjects and should therefore step down in order to immediately facilitate the taking of the reigns by a trusted and elected leadership."

South African police say 42 people have been killed in violence in Johannesburg that has raged for more than a week and 16 000 have been displaced. The deployment of the army was an acknowledgement by Mbeki that there was "a state of emergency" in South Africa, said Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Mulder. It was also a reflection on the police's inability to contain the situation. The stubbornness of Mbeki and the government in acknowledging the xenophobia problem over the years had resulted in the situation "getting so out of control" that the SANDF had to be called in, he said. "The defence force should actually have been deployed a long time ago as it would have prevented an escalation of the conflicts and would have saved many lives," said Mulder. Mbeki agreed to a police request for army assistance in quelling the violence on Wednesday. "[Mbeki] has approved a request from the South African Police Service [SAPS] for the involvement of the SANDF in stopping ongoing attacks on foreign nationals in Gauteng province," his office said in a statement. "It is a pity that this decision was not taken earlier," said the Democratic Alliance's (DA) leader in the Gauteng legislature, Jack Bloom. Echoing Mulder, he said: "Many lives could have been saved if the army had been brought in last week when the DA first called for it." Bloom said army resources such as field kitchens, tents, mobile toilets, beds and blankets should also be used to ease the lot of the victims sheltering in police stations, churches and community halls. The police and army were in talks about the deployment on Wednesday night. Director Sally De Beer, spokesperson in the office of the police national commissioner, said the public should not expect to see troops "generally deployed" with the police. "You won't see troops taking over the police role," she said. When there were specific operations where the police needed more manpower, "then we will request their assistance". Despite the involvement of the SANDF, the police would "still be in charge" of the operation, De Beer said.

Defence Ministry spokesperson Sam Mkhwanazi said there would be a military presence in the strife-hit areas "as soon as all that needs to be done is complete".

More than 3 000 Mozambicans have fled the anti-immigrant violence in South Africa and returned home, Mozambican state media reported on Wednesday. The state radio and television services said more than 3 000 Mozambicans had voluntarily returned from South Africa after becoming targets in the wave of violence directed at foreigners in slum areas around Johannesburg. Mozambican officials were not immediately available for comment.

Bleak future Meanwhile, South Africa is heading for a bleak future if it is unable to deal with xenophobia, Chief Justice Pius Langa said on Wednesday. "They are acts which threaten to negate the gains we've made as a nation, as a country in defeating apartheid rule. It is abundantly clear that if we as South Africans fail to take immediate and effective action [against] these attacks we are heading for a bleak future indeed. "We live in a global village. Our countries are interdependent and international cooperation is the norm." Langa was delivering the Siyabulela Mlombile memorial lecture at the University of South Africa in Pretoria. Though South Africa faced an array of challenges following apartheid, it should not go back to acts and practices that caused division. "Our choice must always be to go forward," he said. Langa said it was also essential for South Africa to take steps to lower the "unacceptably" high levels of crime. It was the responsibility of communities to help reintegrate offenders into society. On curbing crime the chief justice said it was important that young people were taught to have respect for the law. -- Sapa, AFPRelated articlesMbeki gives nod to armyGauteng says attacks on the waneMetrorail on high alert

According to a statement by President Thabo Mbeki's office on 21 May, "[He] has approved a request from the South African Police Service [SAPS] for the involvement of the South African National Defence Force [SANDF] in stopping ongoing attacks on foreign nationals in Gauteng Province."

At least 23 people have died since xenophobic violence erupted 10 days ago in Gauteng; the International Organisation for Migration believes that about 13,000 people have been displaced.

On Wednesday night, the army and the police were in talks finalising details of the deployment.

Meanwhile buses have been provided to take foreign nationals driven out of Primrose, a suburb on the East Rand, to their countries of origin. Having spent the past few nights in the open, Mario Fernando hopes to get on one of them. "We were forced out by the amaZulu and Xhosa people. I will not come back," he said.

Fernando, 34, left his home in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, to join his brother in the Ramaphosa informal settlement on Johannesburg's East Rand, only to "arrive in a war".

After taking refuge at a church in nearby Reiger Park, another informal settlement, and surviving on food donations from South African businesses and individuals following a public appeal, Fernando just wants to go home.

Winnie Bosman, of Reiger Park's Community Crisis Centre, said donations from sympathetic South Africans had flooded in, while "some just drove here and gave us food". She said they were feeding about 5,000 people who had fled violence in the area.

The number of foreign nationals, both legal and illegal, residing in South Africa is estimated at anywhere between one million and 10 million, but around three million are thought to have fled Zimbabwe's imploding economy, where unofficial estimates now put inflation at 1,000,000 percent, with no limit in sight.

No foreign nationals are immune from the effects of the violence and even those residing in Yeoville, an inner-city Johannesburg suburb where foreign nationals are thought to outnumber South Africans, are contemplating leaving.

Ali Ayub, a Malawian who owns a business in Yeoville, told IRIN that people were talking about disinvesting and establishing businesses in neighbouring countries, as "there is big pressure and people feel insecure, and they are thinking: 'I am investing my money here, but will I get it back?'."

He said xenophobia was an undercurrent in South African society, but non-South Africans should accept that they shared some of the blame for the prejudice directed at them by locals; foreigners were wary of employing South Africans, as they felt vulnerable. A South African could tip people off about where money was kept, or inform police about their employer's residence status, Ayub noted.

The blame game

The government believes there are sinister forces at play encouraging the violence, which has seeped into Mpumalanga Province, adjoining Gauteng, after two groceries stores owned by Somalis were torched on 21 May. Some reports cite nearly 500 Somalis as having been killed in xenophobic attacks in South Africa since 1998.

"The response by the South African government to the riots against foreigners ... follows an established pattern," said a statement by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), a Pretoria-based think-tank.

"Having acknowledged the deeply held xenophobia that apartheid inculcated in our society, government's reaction reverts to type in the search for scapegoats and cop-outs. Instead of leadership and engaging with the root causes of social turbulence, unrest and crime, we are in search of a conspiracy, a third hand."

The South African Institute of Race Relations, (SAIRR) a South African policy and research organisation, said in a statement on 20 May that the blame lay with failed government policies and inaction, which had created a perfect storm.

"The government's repeated failures to bring levels of violent crime under control contributed to an environment which saw people resort to violence without fear of arrest or successful prosecution. In failing to maintain the rule of law, the state had conditioned many poor communities to violent behaviour," the SAIRR statement said.

Police corruption, incompetence by the ministry of safety and security, and the poor performance of the prosecuting authorities had combined to "erode the capacity of the police to provide a safe and secure environment in South Africa." Ineffective border controls had allowed millions of people to cross into South Africa and this was further exacerbated by corruption within Home Affairs.

"Thabo Mbeki's quiet diplomacy provided a lifeline to the ailing Zimbabwe regime that kept it in power longer than would otherwise have been the case ... Seen in light of South Africa's inability to secure its borders, our foreign policy on Zimbabwe was destined to have only one effect - the inflow of illegal immigrants," the SAIRR commented.

High unemployment levels, especially among the youth, and the risks of long-term unemployment have been ignored by government. "Labour legislation, hopelessly inappropriate for a largely unskilled workforce, has contributed to keep many mainly black South Africans out of jobs.

"Immigrants were able to secure employment, as these labour policies did not apply to them and they were in many cases able to make a living free from government grants or regulation," the authors of the SAIRR statement pointed out.

"The violence we have experienced over the past week can be directly attributed to a series of policy failures on the part of Thabo Mbeki's government. Warnings to that effect were too easily dismissed by government spokespeople, who accused analysts of racism and 'doom and gloom' scenarios.

"A 'worst possible scenario' has now materialised and requires a more mature and measured response from government. Failing that, we should expect that similar unrest could occur with little warning in any area of South Africa," the SAIRR said.

Des hélicoptères ont survolé le faubourg d'Alexandra et les militaires ont épaulé les policiers lors de perquisitions menées dans la matinée dans des hôtels dortoirs de la périphérie de la capitale économique du pays.

Des armes et des munitions ont été saisies et 28 hommes ont été arrêtés, a annoncé la police qui s'efforce de déterminer s'ils ont pris part à la vague de violence xénophobe.

Les attaques contre la population immigrée des quartiers pauvres - zimbabwéens et mozambicains pour la plupart - ont commencé le 11 mai à Alexandra et fait 42 morts et plus de 15.000 sans-abri, selon le gouvernement.

Le gouvernement mozambicain a fait savoir jeudi que 10.000 de ses ressortissants avaient été rapatriés à bord d'autocars affrétés par les autorités.

La flambée de violence nourrit la polémique au sein de la classe politique sud-africaine. Le vice-président du Congrès national africain (ANC, au pouvoir) a critiqué la lenteur de la réaction de la police aux premiers incidents.

"Nous sommes confrontés à l'un des événements les plus laids de l'après-apartheid", a estimé Kgalema Motlanthe.

En visite à Paris, le président de l'ANC, Jacob Zuma, a dénoncé une "activité criminelle organisée" dont les auteurs "enflamment et manipulent les habitants de ces quartiers".

Le ministre de la Sécurité, Charles Nqakula, a refusé le lien établi par certains entre les violences et un échec du gouvernement à réduire la pauvreté, ou l'idée que les actions anti-immigrés seraient orchestrées à des fins politiques.

"Il y a des lacunes dans la fourniture de services, des lacunes dans nos actions mais cela ne justifie pas le recours à la violence", a-t-il ajouté.

Le chef de l'opposition du Zimbabwe, Morgan Tsvangirai, qui se trouve depuis plusieurs jours en Afrique du Sud, s'est rendu jeudi à Alexandra où il a rencontré des compatriotes réfugiés dans un commissariat.

Lesviolences xénophobes, qui ravagent des townships sud-africains depuis douze jours, se sont pour la première fois propagées à la région du Cap (sud-ouest), a annoncé vendredi la police.

Une réunion publique dans le bidonville de Du Noon, situé à 20 kilomètres au nord de la ville du Cap, a dégénéré en violences, selon un porte-parole de la police locale, Billy Jones.

"Des bandes dans la foule ont commencé à piller des boutiques appartenant à des Zimbabwéens et d'autres étrangers", a-t-il déclaré par téléphone à l'AFP, précisant qu'il s'agissait du premier incident du genre dans les environs du Cap.

L'armée était mobilisée jeudi dans la région de Johannesburg, en renfort de la police, pour enrayer ces violences qui ont fait plus de 40 morts et 16.000 déplacés depuis une dizaine de jours, rappelant aux Sud-Africains les jours sombres de l'apartheid.

Environ 200 militaires ont été déployés aux côtés de policiers pour contrôler des quartiers pauvres de Johannesburg, où au total plus de 500 personnes ont été arrêtées.

L'armée et la police ont annoncé qu'elles "travailleront en coordination jusqu'à ce que le calme soit restauré" dans les townships, ravagés par des bandes munies de machettes et d'armes à feu, qui ont attaqué des immigrés et incendié leurs masures.

Le gouvernement a créé jeudi une commission d'enquête, composée de ministres nationaux et provinciaux, "pour découvrir la source de certains des problèmes", selon le ministre de la Présidence, Essop Pahad.

Les violences s'étaient déjà étendues depuis mardi au-delà de la capitale économique sud-africaine.

Dans le township d'Oukasie, à Brits, "les boutiques de trois étrangers ont été attaquées et pillées" la nuit dernière, a iniqué à l'AFP le commissaire Peter du Plessis, de la police provincale, précisant que 49 personnes avaient été interpellées.

Dans le Free State (centre), 22 personnes ont été arrêtées après le pillage de boutiques, dont les propriétaires pakistanais ont été attaqués à jets de pierres.

De nouveaux troubles ont eu lieu dans le Mpumalanga (est) mercredi soir, avec deux autobus incendiés et un Mozambicain blessé par balles.

Les violences, qui ont éclaté le 11 mai dans le bidonville d'Alexandra à Johannesburg, ont fait au moins 42 morts, selon la police qui a procédé depuis à 517 interpellations.

Plus de 16.000 personnes ont déserté les townships. Des centaines se sontréfugiées dans des commissariats et des centres paroissiaux, où des associations se mobilisent pour les aider.

Face à 40% de chômage et autant de pauvreté, de nombreux Sud-Africains accusent les étrangers, dont quelque trois millions de Zimbabwéens exilés par la crise dans leur pays, de prendre des emplois et d'être responsables de la forte criminalité.

Le chef de l'opposition zimbabwéenne, Morgan Tsvangirai, s'est rendu jeudi à Alexandra, où il a été accueilli en héros par des compatriotes. "Si tout allait bien chez nous, nous n'aurions pas besoin d'être ici. J'espère que nous allons pouvoir résoudre la crise chez nous", a-t-il dit.

Ces violences influent déjà sur l'économie, en particulier dans les mines d'or dont une forte proportion de la main d'oeuvre est étrangère.

"Au total 14% des ouvriers étaient absents lundi, 60% mercredi et 58% aujourd'hui (jeudi)", a déclaré à l'AFP James Duncan, porte-parole de la compagnie DRD Gold, ajoutant que les salariés présents "sont traumatisés, inquiets pour leurs familles".

L'image de la "Nation Arc-en-ciel", rêvée par le héros de la lutte anti-apartheid et ancien président Nelson Mandela, en est aussi ternie.

Plus de 3.000 Mozambicains ont déjà regagné leur pays. "Nous sommes prêts à aider ceux qui veulent rentrer", a assuré jeudi le président mozambicain Armando Guebuza.

Selon Kgalema Motlanthe, vice-président du Congrès national africain (ANC) --parti au pouvoir en Afrique du Sud qui a évincé en décembre le chef de l'Etat Thabo Mbeki de sa présidence-- les troubles s'expliquent par la misère.

"Quand on vit dans des conditions sordides, il suffit d'un incident pour que la violence explose", a-t-il déclaré, en dénonçant une réaction tardive des autorités.

M. Motlanthe a admis que les Sud-Africains "qui n'ont pas eu accès à l'éducation", en raison des injustices héritées de l'apartheid tombé en 1994, enviaient les immigrés, surtout les Zimbabwéens mieux qualifiés.

SANDF and SAPS operations members were in a planning session on Wednesday night on when to deploy, said Director Sally de Beer, spokesperson in the office of the police national commissioner. Defence Ministry spokesperson Sam Mkhwanazi said there would be a military presence in the strife-hit areas "as soon as all that needs to be done is complete". Asked whether troops would be on the ground by Wednesday night, Mkhwanazi said: "No." "There isn't a specific time, but it will be as soon as possible," added De Beer. Mkhwanazi said the Defence Ministry received the request from the SAPS on Tuesday and "complied with due process" in conveying it to the "commander in chief", Mbeki. "The president just approved it," he said.

Forty-two people have been killed and more than 16 000 displaced in Gauteng, police said on Wednesday. Provincial spokesperson Director Govindsamy Mariemuthoo said 400 arrests had been made -- among them, four community leaders arrested in Germiston for inciting the community to violence.

However, when asked by the Mail & Guardian Online for a breakdown of the number of deaths, Mariemuthoo refused and replied: "Don't ask me such a stupid question."

Xenophobic violence against foreigners -- which started in Alexandra, north of Johannesburg, last week -- has also spread to townships in Mpumalanga, police said. "It started yesterday [Tuesday] ... there were so many people involved. People were burning shacks of foreigners and looting their businesses," said Constable Sibusiso Mbuli from the scene, adding that the attacks took place in the Leslie and Embalenhle townships, both near Secunda. "They looted six tuck shops and burnt three. Some belonged to Zimbabweans and some to Somalis. Even now the situation has not stabilised. We see people moving about and when they see police bakkies, they run away." The violence in that province resulted in about 200 foreigners seeking refuge at the Leslie police station, with "many more" expected, said Mbuli. Tavern attack In KwaZulu-Natal, the provincial government said an attack on a tavern owned by Nigerians in Durban's Umbilo was political, not xenophobic. At least 150 people turned on the tavern owners on Tuesday night, and a local hostel has decided not to admit foreigners.

KwaZulu-Natal's safety and security minister, Bheki Cele, accused the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) of being behind the attacks, allegedly involving residents from a Dalton Road men's hostel. The road is the site of a number of hostels.

"There was a meeting of the IFP branch in Dalton yesterday [Tuesday] and ... I know it was them who went straight from there to the tavern and raided the place and smashed the cars," Cele said.

At least 100 hostel dwellers converged on Durban's Umbilo suburb on Wednesday, ordering foreigners to leave KwaZulu-Natal. Captain John Lazarus said many residents of the Dalton Road men's hostel were armed with stones and bottles.

However, the IFP has denied responsibility, with its KwaZulu-Natal chairperson, Mntomuhle Khawula, saying he was disturbed by Cele's statement. He said that if any IFP members were involved in the xenophobic attacks, they would face disciplinary action.

"The IFP is all about ubuntu ... In the African lifestyle, you never chase away people, you comfort and give protection, so xenophobia is against our policy," he said.

IFP head Mangosuthu Buthelezi said his earlier predictions that xenophobia was brewing had been ignored. As a former home affairs minister, he had suggested a more open controlled immigration policy, but this was ignored and abandoned when he left the ministry.

In Gauteng on Wednesday, though reports were received of unrest in Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal, xenophobic attacks appeared to have subsided somewhat, a provincial spokesperson said.

"There are no new reports of attacks," said Thabo Masebe, deputy director of communications for the provincial government. "Our sense is that the situation is under control, but we will continue to monitor the areas and take action when necessary."

Gauteng centres and police stations housing people fleeing from the violence urgently need food, baby food, nappies and blankets for the thousands seeking shelter. The crowded conditions have led the police to contract the "Red Ants", usually associated with forced removals, to help control people at the Cleveland police station, especially at meal times.

Ekurhuleni spokesperson Zweli Mkhize appealed for donations to be taken to the metro's service centres. Arrangements to collect bulk donations can be made by phoning Tel: 011 874 5025. Aid numbers are also provided on the M&G Online's special report on the attacks.

Third force Meanwhile, it is "highly unlikely" that a third force was behind the recent outbreak of xenophobic violence in Gauteng province, Institute for Democracy in South Africa researcher Steven Friedman said on Wednesday. "I think the problem with the idea of a third force is that it enables politicians and society to avoid the real issues," he said. "This [xenophobia] is nothing new ... the idea that something is being stoked by some evil individual out of nothing is misleading." Friedman was commenting on assertions that there was a third force behind the spate of violence unleashed on foreigners in the past 10 days. He added that the solution to the problem is not convoluted, but rather quite simple. "Since we became a democracy, the law, policy, everything has assumed that people from other countries are a drain on society, but all the evidence is that they are actually a benefit. The solution is not convoluted ... people simply need to understand that foreigners are an asset and this needs political leadership," he said.

'Military risks' Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) on Wednesday expressed concern about the possibility of the army to be deployed to quell the ongoing violence. The Democratic Alliance had on Tuesday called on Mbeki to deploy the army to assist the police in stemming the tide of violence. While condemning the ongoing attacks, the LHR said deploying the army to police civilians is a concern, citing a lack of a legal framework for the military to get involved in what is essentially a police responsibility. "Such use of the military risks exacerbating the situation and creating a security environment similar to that continuously used prior to 1994. In any event, investigation of crime, public safety and the prosecution of crimes committed against foreigners require members who are trained in those areas. The military is not equipped to bring to book perpetrators of crimes against xenophobia victims," the LHR said in a statement. SANDF spokesperson Mkhwanazi said the constitutional obligation of the military is to defend the country. A secondary role is to "support" the people of the country. The SANDF has to wait for a request to assist before acting, he said. The Safety and Security Department on Wednesday confirmed that it had asked the SANDF to supply equipment, but not troops, to help quell the attacks.

The ANC Youth League (ANCYL) said the government had not done enough to "arrest the anarchy". Its president, Julius Malema, said: "We call on government to unleash every resource at its disposal to nip this anarchy in the bud, including deployment of the military if the need arises."

He called on youth to rise against the "thuggery and hooliganism" and to bring order to their communities.

'Blood from a stone' A Financial Times correspondent said at a media forum on Wednesday that Mbeki spoke out about local xenophobic attacks too late. Alec Russell told the International Media Forum Conference in Johannesburg that Mbeki should have issued a statement when the crisis erupted last week, not only this week. "It is easy to write such a statement; it could be done in two, three minutes. The news cycle is so fast that immediate responses are vital," said Russell. He said while there are some good government spokespersons, most do not cooperate. "Getting information from government was like getting blood from a stone." Russell said a lesson might be learnt from African National Congress president Jacob Zuma. Although Zuma finds himself in an awkward situation, he still gives media interviews freely.

Meanwhile, world football governing body Fifa has expressed concern over this week's wave of xenophobic attacks. It, however, hopes the World Cup's "unifying power" can help overcome divisions, Fifa spokesperson Delia Fisher said. She said the football body was saddened by the loss of life and injuries incurred during the attacks. "We are obviously concerned about this issue and hope that the Fifa World Cup and its unifying power will help to overcome these divisions." Fisher, however, said it is not Fifa's role as a sports federation to comment on matters of national sovereignty and domestic affairs. The football body has confidence in the South African authorities to resolve this issue. On South Africa's preparedness for the 2010 World Cup, Fisher warned any deviations from the deadlines for the stadiums constructions "will have consequences". Stadium construction is being closely monitored by the local organising committee's technical team and Fifa.Related articlesGauteng says attacks on the waneMetrorail on high alert for attacks'What kind of nation are we building?'Another night of terror

A trumpeter, a combat training specialist and a personnel clerk took on the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) in court this week over the military’s policy on HIV-positive soldiers.

The South African Security Forces Union, Sipho Mthethwa and two other applicants known only as TCM and ZSM applied to have lifted an effective blanket ban on the employment of people with HIV and the promotion of soldiers who are already HIV-positive. They also want military employees with HIV to be eligible for international deployment missions if they are physically fit. At present HIV-positive soldiers are deployed only inside South Africa. International missions carry higher rates of pay -- up to an extra R13 000 a month, according to the applicants’ papers.

The battle over HIV employment and the military has been under way for about 13 years, according to the Aids Law Project, which represents the applicants.

The applicants argue that the SANDF’s HIV policy has failed to reduce levels of HIV infection among its employees, with about 23% of the defence force known to be carrying the virus.

They say that the blanket ban on international deployment, promotion and recruitment on the grounds of HIV status is unconstitutional, discriminatory, irrational, inconsistent and reinforces stigma. The long period during which HIV-positive people stay healthy without treatment, coupled with the effect of drugs that can restore people with Aids to health, means that individual fitness rather than HIV status alone should be the criterion.

The applicant known as TCM applied to join the SANDF as a trumpeter. He was selected to perform in the United States, given a scholarship to study music in Norway and was a music teacher before passing his audition for the military band with flying colours. His offer of employment was withdrawn when he tested HIV-positive during pre-employment testing.

Sipho Mthethwa is an expert in gun technology and is in charge of physical fitness training, but in terms of the policy cannot be deployed abroad or promoted because of his HIV status.

ZSM was a member of Umkhonto weSizwe before being integrated into the SANDF and working as a personnel clerk. He passed all fitness tests and ran 8km a day but was ineligible for promotion because of his HIV status.

In response the SANDF says it is reviewing its policies on HIV-positive employees, but “at present the SANDF is not satisfied that science has advanced to the stage it can be guaranteed that people living with HIV can withstand the extremely stressful conditions associated with deployment”.

The effect of HIV infection on the ability of people to withstand strenuous activities is a significant factor in the SANDF’s decision, according to its court papers. The SANDF says there is “real danger that deployment may result in progression of the disease” and that someone might be “asymptomatic but neurocognitively compromised”. It cites concerns about being able to provide chronic medical treatment, such as antiretroviral drugs, to soldiers during international deployments.

The applicants’ court papers point out that pilots and infantry are expected to complete the most arduous physical training -- yet pilots are allowed to deploy even when HIV-positive. As a result “an HIV-positive pilot may fly but an HIV-positive trumpeter cannot play in the air force band”, say the applicants’ court papers.

Among the evidence supplied by the respondents is a paper known as the “Zimbabwean study”, which is undated but based on research involving HIV-positive would-be military officers in Zimbabwe. The study claims to show that the strenuous training accelerated progression to Aids, resulting in the deaths of two HIV-positive individuals during the intensive training part of the study. In the six months after being discharged from the training course, eight HIV-positive soldiers were diagnosed with “full-blown Aids” and of these six died.

The applicants refer to the Zimbab­wean study, which they say has not been peer-reviewed, as “highly unethical” and “Nazi-like”.

In his affidavit Dr Leslie London of the University of Cape Town compares the Zimbabwean study with the “infamous Tuskagee syphilis experiment”, referring to the infamous research in the US, which left black people with syphilis untreated to study the progress of the disease.

The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has called for the army to be deployed to halt the wave of xenophobic violence sweeping through communities in Gauteng, warning that the police cannot do it alone.

Calling for the government to get all political parties, as well as President Thabo Mbeki, to visit the sites of violence and condemn it “in the strongest terms”, the TAC said a national strategy was needed to ensure the health and safety of victims of xenophobic attacks and to prevent further spread.

Condemning the violence that has left 22 dead so far, the TAC said that while it hoped the violence could be contained and halted in Gauteng, every municipality across the country needed a strategy to address possible future outbreaks.

“With the violence now having spread to almost a dozen communities in and around Johannesburg and threats of violence issued elsewhere across the country, including Cape Town, we demand more effective action from the government to deal with this crisis.”

Although sending in the army was reminiscent of the dark days of apartheid, “the police service does not have the capacity to stop the violence without the support of the SANDF”.

The violence, the TAC said, demonstrated clearly that inequality, poverty and the marginalisation of millions of people in South Africa, jobless and living in squalid conditions, needed to be urgently addressed with “imagination and vigour”.

Other calls from the TAC included that designated sanctuaries for victims of xenophobic attacks be established and that emergency social assistance packages be distributed to everyone who has been displaced.

Also essential was a sustained media campaign condemning the violence.

The deployment of the army in areas hit by xenophobic attacks was long overdue, opposition parties said on Wednesday on President Thabo Mbeki's nod to SA National Defence Force (SANDF) "involvement".

It was an acknowledgement by Mbeki that there was "a state of emergency" in South Africa, said Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Mulder.

It was also a reflection on the police's inability to contain the situation.

The stubbornness of Mbeki and the government to acknowledge the xenophobia problem over the years had resulted in the situation "getting so out of control" that the SANDF had to be called in, he said.

"The defence force should actually have been deployed a long time ago as it would have prevented an escalation of the conflicts and would have saved many lives," said Mulder.

Mbeki agreed to a police request for army assistance in quelling the violence on Wednesday.

"(Mbeki) has approved a request from the South African Police Service for the involvement of the SANDF in stopping ongoing attacks on foreign nationals in Gauteng Province," his office said in a statement.

"It is a pity that this decision was not taken earlier," said the Democratic Alliance's leader in the Gauteng legislature, Jack Bloom.

Echoing Mulder, he said: "Many lives could have been saved if the army had been brought in last week when the DA first called for it."

Bloom said army resources such as field kitchens, tents, mobile toilets, beds and blankets should also be used to ease the lot of the victims sheltering in police stations, churches and community halls.

The police and army were in talks about the deployment on Wednesday night.

Director Sally De Beer, spokeswoman in the Office of the National Police Commissioner, said the public should not expect to see troops "generally deployed" with the police. "You won't see troops taking over the police role," she said.

When there were specific operations where the police needed more manpower, "then we will request their assistance".

Despite the involvement of the SANDF, the police would "still be in charge" of the operation, De Beer said.

The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) is mobilising to help end the xenophobic clashes in Gauteng.

SANDF and SAPS operations members were in a planning session on Wednesday night on when to deploy, said Director Sally de Beer, spokeswoman in the Office of the National Police Commissioner.

Defence Ministry spokesman Sam Mkhwanazi said there would be a military presence in the strife-hit areas "as soon as all that needs to be done is complete."

Asked whether troops would be on the ground by Wednesday night, Mkhwanazi said: "No".

"There isn't a specific time, but it will be as soon as possible," added De Beer.

President Thabo Mbeki gave the nod for the SANDF's "involvement" in the fight to the stop attacks on foreigners on Wednesday.

"(Mbeki) has approved a request from the South African Police Service for the involvement of the SANDF in stopping ongoing attacks on foreign nationals in Gauteng Province," his office said in a statement.

Mkhwanazi said the Defence Ministry received the request from the SAPS on Tuesday and "complied with due process" in conveying it to the "Commander-in-Chief", Mbeki.

"The president just approved it," he said.

Mkhwanazi said that, under normal circumstances, the SANDF did not discuss issues pertaining to deployment.

The SANDF would issue a statement on the matter on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the SAPS said it had asked the SANDF to provide support in the form of "equipment and personnel".

However, troops would not generally be deployed with police members, said De Beer, adding: "You won't see troops taking over the police role."

When there were specific operations where the police needed more manpower, "then we will request their assistance", she said.

In terms of equipment requested, De Beer said there was certain equipment the SANDF had, but to which the police did not have access.

In the past, the police had asked the SANDF for the use of Oryx helicopters which it could use to move a lot of people in a small amount of time.

She did not want to specify exactly which equipment had been requested, but said it was equipment "they (the SANDF) have at their disposal that we might need for special operations".

Despite the involvement of the SANDF, the police would "still be in charge" of the operation, De Beer said.

There was continuous liaison between the police and the SANDF and it had supported the police on numerous occasions, including during local and general elections, she added.

"We have a very good relationship with them," said De Beer. "That will be maintained.

"There have been talks already... The finer details we wouldn't want to give out."

Mbeki's decision followed a call by the Democratic Alliance to deploy the army to help the police.

The Helen Suzman Foundation had also urged the government not to shy away from deploying further special units and military forces to quell the violence if it continued.

It said the attacks, which included "images of necklacing, violent beatings and the sight of frightened children caught between marauding mobs and police firing rubber bullets," belonged to a troubled period in the country's history.

"It has no place in our present democracy. It is a spectre that great men and women from all walks of life fought against -- with great sacrifice -- to eradicate from our country's soul forever," it said in a statement.

However, Lawyers for Human Rights cautioned that this approach risked "exacerbating the situation and creating a security environment similar to that continuously used prior to 1994".

President Thabo Mbeki has given the go-ahead for the "involvement" of the military in the violent xenophobic clashes in Gauteng.

"(Mbeki) has approved a request from the SA Police Service for the involvement of the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) in stopping ongoing attacks on foreign nationals in Gauteng Province," his office said in a statement on Wednesday.

It said more details on the matter would be given by the SANDF and the police

The safety and security ministry has asked the SA National Defence Force to help supply equipment, but not troops, to help control xenophobic attacks, a ministry spokesman said.

"We can confirm that the minister has been in touch with his counterpart but it is not in terms of manpower," said Safety and Security spokesman Trevor Bloem.

"There has been no special request in terms of manpower, however, there are efforts for the military maybe to assist in terms of equipment. We are not asking the military to send troops out to these areas."

The request had not been finalised yet.

Bloem did not have details of the type of equipment requested.

Shortly after the attacks began, there were calls for the army to assist the police, who were bolstered by specialised units this week.

Asked about the possible deployment of the army, Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad said: "Once our security cluster has made an assessment of the security needs, we will decide. We will await a report from them. Obviously, you're calling the army if the police is unable to cope.

"As far as I know, we are not there yet but we will await the report from our security cluster," he told reporters at the International Media Forum in Johannesburg.

He said the decision to deploy the army would be a joint one between the ministers of safety and security and defence and the SA Police Service.

« Cette affaire ne concerne pas la pertinence du VIH dans un contexte militaire », a argumenté Gilbert Marcus, l'un des principaux avocats. « L'affaire concerne l'exclusion du recrutement, du déploiement et de la promotion des personnes vivant avec le VIH, sans qu'aucun examen individuel de leur état de santé n'ait été mené ».

La plainte contre la Force de défense nationale sud-africaine (SANDF), qui pourrait établir un précédent pour les forces armées à l'échelle internationale, a été déposée par le Syndicat sud-africain des forces de sécurité (SASFU), une organisation représentant les employés de la SANDF, et par deux hommes qui s'étaient vus refuser le déploiement et des opportunités d'emploi en raison de leur séropositivité.

M. Marcus, qui défendait les deux hommes et le syndicat, a affirmé qu'environ 25 pour cent des employés de la SANDF étaient séropositifs.

Au centre de l'affaire se trouvait la politique actuelle de la SANDF, qui interdit aux personnes séropositives d'être recrutées en son sein, promues ou employées à l'étranger. Les avocats représentant le SASFU et les deux hommes ont argumenté que cette politique était incompatible avec celle définie par le gouvernement.

La SANDF a concédé que sa politique était anticonstitutionnelle et a dit que cette politique, de même que la classification sanitaire utilisée pour justifier l'interdiction, était déjà en cours de révision.

Le juge de la Haute cour Roger Claassen a donné six mois à la SANDF pour présenter à son institution une nouvelle politique qui prendrait en compte des indicateurs de santé individuels tels que le CD4 (qui permet d'évaluer la résistance du système immunitaire d'une personne séropositive) et les niveaux d'aptitude générale du personnel.

La politique devra aussi être approuvée par des juristes du AIDS law project (ALP), une organisation non lucrative sud-africaine spécialisée dans la défense des personnes vivant avec le VIH/SIDA face aux problèmes de discrimination, et qui a aidé le SASFU et les hommes à porter l'affaire devant la justice.

Le juge a statué que Sipho Mthethwa, l'un des plaignants et employé de la SANDF, expert en armement et chargé de l'entraînement physique, devrait être autorisé à se déployer avec son unité pour une période de quatre mois, dans le cadre de sa prochaine mutation.

Définir les standards

En Afrique australe, la Zambie impose toujours une interdiction sur le VIH dans ses forces armées, alors que le Botswana et la Namibie ne le font pas.

Le directeur exécutif de l'ALP, Mark Heywood, a expliqué que son organisation combattait cette interdiction dans les rangs de l'armée depuis 13 ans, et a émis l'espoir que cette affaire puisse créer une jurisprudence pour les autres militaires dans la région et dans le monde.

« Le gouvernement est un important employeur », a dit M. Heywood. « Ce n'est pas comme si tout le monde aimait le combat, c'est que pour beaucoup de gens, l'armée est un emploi ».

Le deuxième plaignant, qui a préféré rester anonyme et s'est vu refuser un emploi dans la SANDF à cause de sa séropositivité, a dit que « le plus dur dans cette affaire, c'était de ne pas être accepté, de [se voir refuser] de faire quelque chose que tu veux vraiment faire [rejoindre les rangs de l'armée] simplement à cause d'une chose, cette chose étant d'être séropositif. C'est pour cela que j'ai décidé d'aller en justice et de me battre ».

La finalisation du recrutement des personnes séropositives sera certainement suspendu jusqu'à ce que la nouvelle politique ait été élaborée, mais la décision du juge Claassen a aussi garanti au deuxième plaignant un emploi immédiat.

Le président sud-africain Thabo Mbeki a autorisé mercredi le déploiement de l'armée en renfort de la police, pour tenter d'enrayer lesviolences xénophobes dont le bilan des morts a presque doublé et qui se sont étendues au delà de la région de Johannesburg.

Dans un bref communiqué, la présidence a annoncé que Mbeki avait "approuvé une requête des services de la police sud-africaine pour l'implication de la Force de défense d'Afrique du Sud (SADF) afin de faire cesser les attaques en cours contre les étrangers dans la province du Gauteng", où se trouvent Johannesburg et Pretoria.

Interrogé par l'AFP sur la signification du mot "implication", un porte-parole du président a précisé: "Cela signifie le déploiement de l'armée".

La porte-parole de la police nationale Sally de Beer a ajouté que les militaires n'allaient pas remplacer les forces de l'ordre: "Nous n'envisageons pas qu'ils procèdent à des opérations de police, mais plutôt qu'ils nous renforcent".

Les attaques xénophobes ont été largement concentrées dans et autour de Johannesburg. "Le bilan des morts est passé à 42, 400 personnes ont été arrêtées et 16.000 déplacées", a déclaré à l'AFP le porte-parole de la police pour le Gauteng, Govindsamy Mariemuthoo.

Le précédant bilan officiel était de 22 morts depuis que les attaques ont débuté le 11 mai dans le bidonville d'Alexandra, mitoyen du quartier financier de Sandton, avant de s'étendre à d'autres townships.

De nouvelles attaques, dont il a été fait état mercredi dans la ville côtière de Durban (province du KwaZulu-Natal, sud-est) et dans la province du Mpumalanga (est), laissent peu d'espoirs de voir la violence rapidement contenue.

La commissaire Phindile Radebe, porte-parole de la police du KwaZulu-Natal, a précisé que des commerces appartenant à des Nigérians avaient été visés par des habitants en furie à Umbilo, quartier pauvre de Durban, grand port sur l'océan Indien.

"Une foule d'environ 200 personnes s'est rassemblée dans les rues, brandissant des bouteilles et des gourdins, et ont agressé des gens", a-t-elle déclaré à l'AFP.

Selon un porte-parole de la police d'Umbilo, le capitaine John Lazarus, cité par le quotidien local The Mercury, les attaquants demandaient aux étrangers de "quitter le KwaZulu-Natal", province la plus peuplée du pays.

Des commerces tenus par des étrangers ont également été attaqués dans les townships de Leslie et Embalenhle, près de la ville industrielle de Secunda, dans le Mpumalanga.

"Ils ont pillé six boutiques et en ont brûlé trois. Certaines appartenaient à des Zimbabwéens, d'autres à des Somaliens", a déclaré un policier présent sur les lieux, à l'agence sud-africaine Sapa.

De nombreux Sud-Africains accusent les étrangers, dont quelque trois millions de Zimbabwéens ayantfui le marasme politico-économique de leur pays, de prendre des emplois et d'être responsables de la criminalité.

La présidente de la Commission des droits de l'Homme, Jodi Kollapen, a averti mercredi qu'il serait difficile de réintégrer ces immigrés, qui continueront "à se sentir en danger". Elle dénonce le fait que les agresseurs "auront atteint leur but de les pousser hors du pays".

Ces violences, rappelant les affrontements sanglants de la transition démocratique en 1994, ternissent l'image de la Nation Arc en ciel, rêvée par le héros de la lutte anti-apartheid et ancien président Nelson Mandela.

"L'Afrique du Sud est le dernier pays qu'on aurait imaginé plonger dans la xénophobie", a déclaré le ministre kényan des Affaires étrangères, Moses Wetangula, rappelant que "pendant le chemin difficile vers l'indépendance, les Sud-Africains s'étaient expatriés sur tout le continent".

Last week, the ALP scored a major victory when, after 13 years of fighting the military's HIV-testing policy, the Pretoria High Court declared the policy unconstitutional. The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) has six months to come up with a new policy.

ALP executive director Mark Heywood said while government policy required that even undocumented migrants received medical attention at public hospitals, there was no budget, resulting in excessive pressure on service. As a result, some hospitals simply refused to attend to foreigners.

This comes at a time of violent attacks on foreign African nationals in Gauteng.

While there was not yet an intention to pursue legal action, the ALP wanted to ensure that the health department fully implemented its directive. "There will be a continuing strain on our health system because of our failure to deal with people from Zimbabwe," Fatima Hassan, also with the ALP, said.

However, Heywood said migrants' access to healthcare was not the only matter the ALP was looking into. One other was the "TB crisis and the insufficiency of the national TB plan". SA was battling with an outbreak of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) to which people with AIDS easily fell prey.

Last December, there were reports of 49 infectious patients with MDR-TB escaping from the isolation unit of an Eastern Cape hospital . Apparently, the patients wanted to spend Christmas with their families.

Local data showed that about 6% of 17615 MDR-TB specimens collected between 2004 and last October were extreme drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB). In KwaZulu-Natal 14% of 4701 MDR-TB cases recorded were XDR-TB.

Heywood said although legal action was never the first course of action, the ALP had no qualms about going to court, especially in matters of great urgency where there was no time for protracted negotiations with the government. "TB is, in our view, one of the most urgent issues at the moment."

Another outstanding issue is prisoners' access to treatment, even though the ALP won a court challenge two years ago. But after more than a year of negotiating with the government, "the prisoners at Westville still complain about what is happening to them," Heywood said.

Je vous l'avais dit!!!! En Afrique du Sud, c'est le bordel et les communautés se détestent, contrairement à ce que veut nous faire croire la "propagande" qui veut nous montrer une nation arc-en-ciel, un peu le monde de oui-oui... Mais la réalité est tout autre comme le montre les manifestations et les émeutes de ces jours-ci...

En Afrique du Sud, les violences contre les immigrés s'étendent désormais jusqu'à la ville côtière de Durban.

Des policiers d'élite ont été déployés à Johannesburg, où les attaques xénophobes ont fait au moins 24 morts. Si la situation semblait plus calme dans les quartiers pauvres de Johannesburg, dévastés par plus d'une semaine de meurtres, de viols et de pillages, l'éruption de la violence à Durban (province du KwaZulu-Natal) montre que la colère contre les immigrés ne se limite pas à la capitale économique sud-africaine.

La commissaire Phindile Radebe, porte-parole de la police du KwaZulu-Natal, a précisé que des commerces appartenant à des Nigérians avaient été visés par une foule en furie à Umbilo, quartier pauvre du grand port de l'océan Indien.

Selon un porte-parole de la police d'Umbilo, le capitaine John Lazarus, cité par le quotidien local "The Mercury", la foule demandait aux étrangers de «quitter le KwaZulu-Natal», province la plus peuplée du pays.

Déplacés

Quelque 13000 personnes, selon l'ONU, ont été déplacées par les violences xénophobes qui ont éclaté le 11 mai dans le bidonville d'Alexandra, mitoyen du quartier financier de Sandton, dans le nord de Johannesburg, avant de s'étendre à d'autres townships.

De nombreux Sud-Africains accusent les immigrés, dont quelque trois millions de Zimbabwéens ayant fui le marasme politico- économique de leur pays, de prendre des emplois et d'être responsables de la criminalité, l'une des plus élevées du monde avec une cinquantaine de meurtres par jour.

Image ternie

Des policiers d'élite ont été envoyés dans les zones affectées. Les violences, rappelant les troubles qui ont ensanglanté les townships lors de la transition démocratique en 1994, ont déjà terni l'image de la Nation Arc en ciel, rêvée par le héros de la lutte anti-apartheid et ancien président Nelson Mandela.

Le rand sud-africain a chuté mardi de 1,7% par rapport au dollar américain et de 2,6% par rapport à l'euro. Le ministre du Tourisme, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, a exprimé ses craintes quant à l'impact de ces attaques xénophobes sur l'un des piliers de l'économie.

Five regional brigades - southern, eastern, central, western and northern - were scheduled for activation in 2010 to respond to threats to peace on the continent. In southern Africa the ASF would be deployed through the Southern African Development Community (SADC) under AU or UN mandates, and would be on standby in the regional body's host country, Botswana.

A 1999 White Paper on Peace Missions stated that the South African Army would allocate two battalions to peace operations, one for deployment and one for rotation, "But we are constantly deploying about three," said Henri Boshoff, the military analyst for the Africa Security Analysis Programme at the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies.

The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) has approximately 3,000 troops deployed on various AU/UN peacekeeping missions: Burundi (900 troops), Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) (1,350), Cote d'Ivoire (38) and Sudan (318). Another approximately 1,500 troops are deployed domestically, primarily to assist police in fighting crime. In March, the government approved additional SANDF deployments to AU/UN missions in Uganda, Eritrea/Ethiopia and Nepal.

"The deployment of our forces in these countries is part of South Africa's fulfilment of international obligations, and a contribution to peace and stability in the continent and other parts of the world," said government spokesman Themba Maseko.

In effect, the clash between the over-deployment of SANDF and the reality of its funding and capabilities means that troops committed to the SADC brigade might not be available.

The deployment of our forces in these countries is part of South Africa's fulfilment of international obligations, and a contribution to peace and stability in the continent and other parts of the world

The SANDF, increasingly challenged to cover more peacekeeping and domestic duties without a corresponding budget increase, finds itself caught in "a mismatch of ambition and resources", according to Dr Thomas Mandrup, a military expert on southern Africa at the Royal Danish Defence College.

South Africa's defence budget has consistently been reduced and is projected to fall to 1.9 percent of GDP in 2009, down from a previous 4.4 percent. There are also other challenges: according to the SANDF, HIV/AIDS constitutes the biggest threat to its deployment potential and operational effectiveness - up to 25 percent of SANDF employees are thought to be HIV-positive.

A serious backlog of equipment maintenance is another stumbling block. In a paper presented at an SA army seminar in February, Mandrup said various UN inspections of SANDF equipment for the DRC mission had categorised the equipment as "non-operational".

"It indicates that the stated political commitment is not being followed up by actual commitment on the ground," Mandrup commented in his paper. An additional financial issue is that when the UN reimburses South Africa for peacekeeping missions, the funds go to the Ministry of Finance and are not necessarily paid over to the SANDF for its expenditures.

"The political level must realise that if it wants the SANDF to play the lead nation role, it must release more funds to it. The SANDF will have to cooperate with often weak African or SADC partners, meaning that the demands on the South African contribution are likely to increase - this is expensive," Mandrup said.

Boshoff pointed out that "What is in place now is that the SADC Brigade has been constituted, the paperwork has been done, they have pledges from countries, but ... can they contribute?"

The SANDF has been told to abolish discriminatory rules that exclude infected recruits and employees

The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) has lost its battle to keep HIV out of its ranks.

After 13 years of resistance, it has been forced in the Pretoria high court to drop its policy of discrimination against people with HIV in the military.

As of Friday, the SANDF is bound by a court order to revise its approach to HIV testing. Also, it may no longer automatically exclude HIV-positive people from recruitment, external deployment and promotion.

The case was led by Gilbert Marcus, SC, for the Aids Law Project, (ALP), which represented the South African Security Forces Union.

Also represented were Sipho Mthethwa, an Umkhonto weSizwe soldier turned combat training specialist, a personnel clerk and a trumpeter, all of whom were restricted or prohibited by the army’s blanket ban, based on HIV status.

On Friday, the SANDF admitted that its HIV policy was unconstitutional. It admitted that the policy violates the right to equality because it excludes HIV-positive people on the basis of their HIV status only, regardless of their fitness or ability to perform.

A court order on Friday gave the SANDF six months to present the court with a new health classification policy.

Out went the stereotyping of people with HIV – until yesterday labelled by the SANDF as automatically physically and mentally unfit – in keeping with the United Nations’ peacekeeping regulations which recommend that people with HIV should be assessed individually and not automatically excluded.

The court ordered the SANDF to “immediately consider” the promotion and foreign deployment of Mthethwa.

The SANDF had argued that the Defence Act requires all members of the military to be deployable into active combat if a war or state of emergency arises.

But Marcus pointed to a regulation that requires that when employees became permanently unfit “they must be discharged or allocated to a mustering to which they are able to perform”.

Although the Defence Act says that the SANDF comprises the South African army, the air force, the navy and the military health services, they do not have a uniform approach to HIV/Aids.

“The air force relies on an Aviation Protocol which uses a nuanced, individual approach to determine whether or not a pilot is physically and psychologically fit,” Marcus said. “An HIV-positive pilot may fly but an HIV-positive trumpeter is not allowed to play in the Air Force Band.”

Marcus referred to Hoffmann v South African Airways in 2000.

The airway’s refusal to employ Hoffmann, an HIV-positive recruit as a cabin attendant solely on the basis of his HIV status was successfully appealed in the constitutional court.

Citing this case, Marcus told the court that he could not tell the trumpeter, who had passed all the tests for entry into the SANDF orchestra, “we’ve won the battle but we lost the war”.

On Friday, the SANDF was ordered to employ the trumpeter immediately.

Mark Heywood, the executive director of the ALP and the national treasurer of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), who has, for 13 years, come up against denials and stony silences in his attempts to change the military’s HIV policy, said he was “elated” with Friday’s agreement.

His affidavit bears testimony to the “long, hard slog … that was over in a couple of hours”.

In July 1994, the year before Heywood joined the ALP as a researcher and set to work turning around the military’s HIV policies, the correspondence began between the ALP and the government. Ronnie Kasrils, then the deputy defence minister, said in a letter: “Persons who are aware of their seropositivity would be ill-advised to consider soldiering as a career.”

Heywood is the deputy chairperson of the South African National Aids Council and the chairperson of the UNAids Global Reference Group on HIV/Aids and Human Rights.

In 1997 he saw his appointment to the interim steering committee on the South African Civil Military Alliance as another opportunity to challenge policy and testing for HIV, which was then said to be under review by cabinet. But, by 1998, he was still demanding, this time of Joe Modise, the defence minister, that routine HIV testing be stopped as it was unconstitutional.

Heywood describes the case of a student nurse whose two-year contract was terminated early in 2000. This happened despite the fact that the initial test wrongly revealed she was HIV positive and was followed by another that showed she was negative. She is still seeking reinstatement. She is one of the many for whom the ALP have sought justice.

This week, Marcus challenged the SANDF’s contention that HIV is an unpredictable illness – he said it could be treated and managed.

Two muggers were arrested in Ohrigstad after ex-SANDF chief General Constand Viljoen, 74, put up a spirited fight against them in the street, the Sunday newspaper Rapport said.

Viljoen, now a farmer, chased the two into public toilets after he was robbed of his wallet while he had been in town shopping on Thursday.

He had chased after them in tattered trousers after the men had ripped the trousers apart to grab his wallet, Rapport said.

Initally no one would help Viljoen as he grappled with his assailants, said his wife, Risti, but later police and others descended on the area to apprehend the culprits amid a gathering crowd of onlookers.

‘npa will be emasculated’

Getting rid of the Scorpions will emasculate the National Prosecuting Authority and hamper its ability to act without fear or favour, the FW de Klerk Foundation said yesterday.

”The emasculation of the ability of the NPA to do the ‘necessary incidental’ investigative work hampers its independence and its constitutional obligation to act without fear, favour or prejudice,” the former president’s foundation said.

Two nabbed for burglary

Kempton Park police arrested two men yesterday for allegedly breaking into a hunter’s house in Bredel and stealing eight firearms and cash.

Constable Zenzile Murudi said a third man fled with the money, believed to be about R8 000.

Two suspects, aged 31 and 32, will appear in the Kempton Park Magistrate’s Court on Monday.

SANDF officers die in accident

Two officers of the SA National Defence Force were killed and two others injured in an accident on the N14 highway yesterday, Joburg Emergency Management Services said.

Two gunned down in Tshwane

Two people, including a police captain, were gunned down in cold blood in two separate robberies in Tshwane yesterday.

A police captain was killed in Soshanguve early yesterday morning, an unidentified man was shot at home in Lynnwood, and in a third incident, a cash-in-transit heist was foiled.

The police captain was from from Rietgat station. He was shot when a gang of about 20 men were running away after they were caught trying to bomb an ATM in a shopping centre.

“Four suspects were caught in the act, allegedly trying to bomb an ATM near the Spar… and a shootout ensued,” Rietgat police spokesperson Lolo Mangena said.

He said the police captain happened to be driving in their direction, and was shot. The officer died on the scene.

Mangena said one suspect was arrested.

In another incident, a 28-year-old Lynnwood man died in hospital after he was shot four times during a robbery at his home.

The deceased’s name has not been released.

Brooklyn police spokesperson Collete Weilbach said it appeared that only a cellphone was taken.

In Soshanguve, 12 armed men were involved in a failed cash-in-transit heist after two cars rammed into the cash van. No one was injured and no arrests were made. – Staff Reporter

Yengeni cop to go on trial

Former Goodwood, Cape Town, police station commander Siphiwo Given Hewana is to go on trial in the Parow Regional Court in September for allegedly interfering in the drunk-driving case against former ANC chief whip Tony Yengeni.

Hewana faces charges of attempting to defeat the ends of justice, incitement or conspiracy to commit perjury, and interfering with the drunk-driving investigation.

Alleged serial killer tracked down

Limpopo police have arrested a suspect believed to have been behind the killing of seven children and a woman. He has also been linked to the disappearance of three children.

The 45-year-man was arrested after forensic evidence linked him to the crimes, police said this week.

The man is due to appear in the Modimolle (Nylstroom) Magistrate’s Court on Monday.

Seven children and a woman went missing in the area between 2004 and 2008. Three children are still missing. blood donor Drive in Soweto

Gauteng Health MEC Brian Hlongwa has called on Sowetans to use the new blood donor centre that has opened in Maponya Mall.

Hlongwa said the SA National Blood Service’s decision to place a centre there showed that it was trying to overcome previous negative perceptions. The service came under severe criticism in 2004 for its policy to flag black donors as high risk, based on HIV/Aids prevalence statistics.

Hlongwa said the department supported the call to donate blood regularly, to help people in need as a gesture of ubuntu. He added, however, that potential donors should familiarise themselves with donor rules to avoid being turned away.

SAndf Defeated in landmark case

HIV-positive people will not be barred from employment in the South African National Defence Force on the basis of their status.

This follows a decision in the Pretoria High Court this week which found that policies of the SANDF, which currently bar HIV-positive people from employment, foreign deployment and promotion in the armed forces, were unconstitutional.

When Colonel Sibusiso Sihle Mbongwa died a month ago, his Umkhonto weSizwe comrades around the country had a decision to make.

Who would attend his funeral, and who would attend the funeral of MK stalwart General Andrew Masondo, who died on April 20 at 1 Military Hospital in Tshwane after a long illness? Both men were to be honoured for their brave lives, without mawkishness and sentimentality, on the same day.

For many who made the journey to KwaZulu Natal to remember Mbongwa, it was a decision buttressed by unabated comradeship. His funeral would be a more informal affair at which old soldiers had not been expected to wear their war uniforms or their medals. Their presence was tribute enough.

Masondo, on the other hand, was given the equivalent of a state funeral in the capital city, with all the pomp and orchestration befitting a general of the SANDF. Many comrades – alienated by the structures of government and feeling unwelcome in the midst of the old enemy, members of the former SADF – decided rather to be with Masondo’s mourners in spirit.

The loss of Mbongwa was deeply felt. It was a time for many former soldiers to reflect on their own harsh lives, and the sense of emptiness, the lack of fulfilment that democracy has brought them. They felt the sting again of no longer playing a role in SA’s social and political development.

Perhaps because of this, they had found particular poignancy in the beginning of Mbongwa’s end, which had happened at the funeral earlier this year of his own commander, Kevin Qhobosheane. Mbongwa had been addressing the mourners, who had come to honour a man who had led 1986’s Operation Butterfly for the ANC, when he collapsed. He never recovered.

Once, these cadres were young men and women, confined to camps in Southern Africa where they underwent gruelling military and political training as they awaited deployment to begin the war against class and racial oppression from inside the region – and, they hoped, the country. Today, too many are cut out by their unforgiving economic circumstances. It’s a disappointment which can elicit nervous, even dangerous introspection.

So the opportunity to become properly involved in society, to bring their experience and their training as soldiers to bear, is one many veterans would not turn down. Such an opportunity would surely be offered by the community policing forums (CPFs). Volunteering in the war against crime would surely be a natural fit for ex-combatants.

“But getting involved has not been as simple as that,” says Ayanda Dlodlo, general secretary of the Umkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans Association (MKMVA), based at the ANC’s headquarters, Luthuli House, in Joburg.

It was reported this week that the association had taken a decision at its weekend conference – the third such annual event – to deploy as many former cadres as possible into the CPFs, at least in Gauteng. Dlodlo reminds that “although we’ve been talking about this for a long time – even if you go back to the Hansard for the Gauteng Department of Safety and Security for 2001, you’ll see evidence of this – there has been a bit of reluctance to fund and ensure that social crime prevention projects become sustainable. After all, there is nothing binding individual station commissioners to make the deal flourish.”

At the same time, MKMVA national chairperson Kebby Maphatsoe confirms that MK veterans would, and do, work with CPFs, and says they have had many policing forums approach them to propose the involvement of former soldiers.

“Where this is happening,”he says, “it seems to be having a positive effect,” and he gives the example of the thriving CPF in Naledi, Soweto, which has seen crime gradually decline in its area. His belief is that this is so because of a sustained “process of bringing our comrades on board to defend the day-to-day issue of crime – not just when it occurs”.

In some townships, the involvement of ex-cadres has allowed traditional CPFs to transform into a bit of a hybrid as the philosophy of the powerful street committees of the early 1990s is being carefully integrated into their structures.

“There was a call from the president of the ANC to reinvent these street committees, and we are taking it very seriously,” says Maphatsoe. “This creates a scenario where so-and-so will say ‘I’ve seen this and that going on’, and we are able to use our neighbourhood intelligence to stop crime before it happens.”

Maphatsoe, like Dlodlo, feels that if MK cadres had been part of the Alexandra CPF, they could have done more to quell the considerable xenophobic brutality that has riven the township this week. Or they could have helped to prevent it altogether.

Goolam Karim, the chairperson of the Fairland CPF and a former CPF chair in the area police commissioner’s office, says he thinks it’s “a good idea to invite MK cadres, but rather than identifying them as such when we do this, we should simply bring them into the situation.

“There are those people who do not see them as having been properly integrated into our society”.

Karim immediately introduces a shameful obstacle: one which people do not always like to discuss openly. But it is true that there are many who mistrust former ANC cadres. They would not want to think of them being involved, especially not in suburban CPFs catering largely to white middle-class interests. Merely the words “street committee” would terrify some. And, of course, ignorance is no excuse for the misguided belief which too many have that Zanu-PF’s routing of the white farmer class was carried out by Zimbabwe’s apparently bloodthirsty former war veterans.

“That’s why it would be critical for us to integrate veterans from all the liberation movements,” says Karim, “as well as ex-military people from the previously white army. It would have to be widespread.”

Retired SANDF Colonel Jan Malan, who is part of the CPF in Lynnwood Manor, east of Pretoria, believes that people with military experience can contribute greatly to public safety.

“The big challenge in our anti-crime efforts is that there may be enough of everything, but in the wrong place and not properly mobilised. We tend to have a totally reactive system against crime, which means we wait until crime happens, and then we want to charge out after an alarm has gone.

“We need a control mechanism, where there is joint planning and execution of operations, just like there is in the military. There is a big difference in the mind of a military person and a policeman.”

His indignation about anti-crime efforts fuelled and darkened by suburban paranoia, Malan corroborates Karim’s warning about perceptions in some communities about race, class and political allegiance.

“Even former soldiers who would like to get involved in CPFs must have a standing in the community so that I and you will be able to trust them with our information. They must be put on a level at which we can trust them – and pay them for that so that it becomes a job.”

Karim feels it would be a pity if former cadres did not wait for an official resolution or policy on their participation in public safety, but simply joined their CPFs anyway – as ordinary members of the community. Dlodlo has no problem with this, but she would prefer it if the involvement of MK forces in CPFs was part of a proper social programme.

The SAPS would not comment.

Loud cheers followed the landmark ruling yesterday in the Pretoria high court allowing HIV-positive people to join the SANDF.

The victory followed the SANDF’s admission that its policy preventing HIV-positive people from being recruited, deployed or promoted was unconstitutional and discriminatory.

Before arguing their case, counsel for the SANDF agreed that the matter be settled in favour of the SA Security Forces Union (Sasfu).

Sasfu, with the help of the Aids Law Project, turned to court to have the SANDF’s policy regarding HIV-infected people set aside.

In terms of the agreement, the SANDF was directed to formulate a new health classification and testing policy within six months.

It must also immediately hire a man who had passed all his tests to be employed within the SANDF as a trumpet player, but could not join the force because he tested positive for HIV.

The SANDF agreed to abide by all the orders, except the one on the trumpeter.

Judge Roger Claassen was told this could open floodgates to others wanting to join the SANDF before the new health policy had come into effect.

The judge said he didn’t want to prejudice the SANDF, but would make an exception in the case of the trumpeter.

He said every case had to be looked at individually, and the man would not be “at the forefront of the battle”.

Claassen also ruled that the SANDF should consider the foreign deployment and promotion of and HIV-positive member who trains soldiers for combat.

He is 100% fit, but can’t be deployed abroad because of his HIV status.

Gilbert Marcus SC, acting on behalf of the union, had argued that fitness to perform duties was the relevant criterion in deploying soldiers, and not their HIV status. He said each person had to be evaluated as an individual and there should not be a blanket ban on recruiting, promoting and deploying HIV-positive people.

Marcus said medical sciences were so advanced that HIV-positive people could live healthy lives by only taking one antiretroviral tablet a day.

He said an estimated 23% of SANDF members were HIV-positive and it was “simply impossible to have an HIV-free defence force”.

He said the policy implemented by the SANDF was inconsistent with the HIV policy adopted by the cabinet regarding the military.

Sasfu deputy president Charles Jacobs said he was happy about the outcome. “This is not only a victory for members of the union, but also for the community.”

He expressed concern that the taxpayer would now have to foot the legal bill. “This matter could have easily been settled before it came to court.”

Mark Heywood of the Aids Law Project said he was happy that the issue for which they had been fighting for the past 13 years had been resolved.

“It’s a huge victory for the constitution and people living with HIV.”

He said this was a landmark ruling for military policies across the world.

This was the argument of Gilbert Marcus SC, who asked Judge Roger Claassen to declare the SANDF’s policy of not recruiting, deploying and promoting HIV-positive individuals to be unconstitutional. He is also asking for an order compelling the defence force to formulate a new HIV testing policy within six months.

Marcus said the crux of the case was whether the SANDF was entitled to impose a blanket exclusion of HIV-positive people from employment, deployment and promotion within the defence force, regardless of the category of employment and based solely on HIV status. He said this was clearly unconstitutional, as there should be an individual assessment to establish whether a person was fit, healthy and able to do the job. He said there was no dispute that HIV status alone constituted a complete bar to recruitment within the defence force. It was also not disputed that those in the service who were infected were not eligible for foreign deployment or promotion.

Fair

Marcus said the defence force admitted that its policy discriminated against HIV-positive people in this regard, but it contended that such discrimination was fair. He said the HIV policy adopted by the cabinet regarding the military was not consistent with the policy implemented by the defence force.

The cabinet had adopted a policy that HIV status should not exclude candidates from appointment in the SANDF, although it might preclude appointment to positions which required extreme physical fitness.

He said despite the defence force’s position that HIV-positive members were not “combat ready” and therefore not externally deployable, they were deployable within the country. The defence force’s stance was that potential recruits who were HIV positive were not employed because they did not pass the fitness test in order to be 100% physically and psychologically healthy to be combat ready and deployable.

Marcus said the defence force chose to rely upon “unethical, scientifically invalid, Nazi-like experiments” conducted in Zimbabwe for its stance.

Counsel for the SANDF asked for the matter to stand down to today following Marcus’s arguments. The court was told that the president, who was cited as a respondent, no longer opposed the application.

An estimated 23% of SANDF members are HIV-positive and it is “simply impossible to have an HIV-free defence force”, the Pretoria high court has heard.

This was the argument of Gilbert Marcus SC, who yesterday asked Judge Roger Claassen to declare the SANDF’s policy of not recruiting, deploying or promoting HIV-positive individuals unconstitutional.

He is also asking for an order compelling the SANDF to formulate within six months a new HIV testing policy that will not discriminate against HIV-positive people.

Marcus said the crux of the matter was whether the SANDF was entitled to impose a blanket exclusion of HIV-positive people from employment, deployment and promotion, regardless of the category of employment and based solely on their HIV status.

He said this was unconstitutional, as there should be an individual assessment to establish whether a person was fit, healthy and able to do the job.

Marcus said the SANDF admitted that its policy discriminated against HIV-positive people, but contended that such discrimination was fair.

He said the policy implemented by the SANDF was inconsistent with the HIV policy adopted by the cabinet regarding the military.

The cabinet adopted a policy that HIV status should not exclude candidates from appointment in the SANDF, although it may preclude their appointment to positions in which extreme physical fitness was a requirement.

Pilots, Marcus said, were required to maintain extremely high levels of physical fitness. They were, however, allowed to fly under certain conditions, notwithstanding the fact that they were HIV-positive.

He said the SANDF was not applying the policy contained in its key policy document.

He said despite the SANDF’s position that HIV-positive members were not “combat ready” and therefore not externally deployable, they were deployable within the country.

Marcus said it was clear that some HIV-positive members were fit and healthy and thus deployable.

He said the SANDF could not, in any event, give effect to its blanket exclusion.

Those tested for HIV during the “window period” (before it can be detected in a person’s system) would test negative and not be identified for exclusion.

“One of the striking features of this case is the sheer inability of the SANDF to explain or justify these anomalies.”

He said this was no doubt why the policy was being reconsidered.

Marcus said the virus developed in stages and a person infected was not necessarily sick and could still live a healthy and normal life.

He also said there had been significant advances in antiretroviral therapy, which included the need for only one tablet a day and no need for refrigeration of medicines.

“HIV-positive people are capable of high-intensity training and competing at the highest sporting levels. The stance of the SANDF is that HIV-positive people are by definition unfit and excluded from recruitment.”

The SANDF’s stance was that potential recruits who were HIV-positive were not employed because they did not pass the physical and psychological fitness test to be combat ready and deployable.

Marcus said the SANDF accepted that being barred from deployment was extremely demoralising and offensive to the dignity of those who had trained arduously to maintain their combat readiness.

Yet the SANDF maintained that its policy was rational.

He also criticised the policy of not promoting HIV-infected soldiers.

“Their career thus comes to an abrupt halt by reason only of the fact that they are HIV-positive.”

Marcus said the SANDF chose to rely upon “unethical, scientifically invalid, Nazi-like experiments” conducted in Zimbabwe for its policy.

Counsel for the SANDF asked for the matter to stand down to today.

The court was told that the president, who was cited as a respondent, no longer opposed the application.

Two officers of the SA National Defence Force were killed and two others injured in an accident on the N14 highway near Diepsloot on Friday, Johannesburg emergency management services said.

Spokesman Percy Morokane said two male and two female officers were on the way back to their base in Lenasia from a training course in Pretoria on Friday around 3pm, when their car rolled near Diepsloot.

A male and a female officer died on the scene. The two injured were taken to One Military Hospital in serious to critical condition.

"Quick response by emergency management led to two officers being stabilised on scene and taken to hospital," said Morokane.

The military hospital was not available for comment on Friday afternoon.

Johannesburg metro police could not immediately confirm the accident.

HIV positive people will be able to join the SANDF after it admitted in the Pretoria High Court on Friday that its policies preventing HIV positive people from employment, foreign deployment and promotion in the armed forces, were unconstitutional.

Settling on a concept agreement with the AIDS Law Project, acting on behalf of the SA Security Forces Union (SASFU) and individual members of the military, the SANDF agreed that discriminating against people on their HIV status alone was against the law.

The agreement, which was made an order of the court, also forces the SANDF to formulate a new health classification policy within six months, to consider the promotion and foreign deployment of one of its members with HIV and to immediately employ a man who passed all tests to enter the military but was denied employment on his HIV status alone.

"I think it's a huge victory for the constitution, I think it's a huge victory for people living with HIV," said Mark Heywood, executive director of the Aids Law Project

"We have a constitution that means our military has to justify its policy it cant just say 'we're the military, we are macho, we have to be combat ready, we can do whatever the hell we want to do' -- this military has to operate within the confines of the constitution and that's great," he added.

Yesterday, his case, and two others involving serving members of the military, formed the basis of an application brought before the Pretoria High Court.

"I had to accept two things at the same time: that I'm positive and that I can't do the job that I wanted to do," Thabo said .

Assisted by the AIDS Law Project, the applicants, together with the South African Security Forces' Union (Sasfu), argued that the military applied a "blanket exclusion" on prospective and serving members living with HIV. This was in contravention of the South African National Defence Force's (SANDF's) policy blueprint as well as cabinet resolutions and fair labour practice, they said.

HIV prevalence in the military is estimated at 23%. However, a treatment programme had been in place even before the national roll-out of anti-retroviral drugs three years ago. "It is simply not possible to have an HIV-free defence force; the question is how do you accommodate it," Adv Gilbert Marcus for the applicants said.

He said the SANDF's policies were inconsistent. "The policy documents emanating from the defence department all envisage an individualised approach," he said in his submission to Judge Roger Claassen.

Marcus stated that while HIV-positive members were not eligible for foreign deployment, they were considered for internal deployment since 2001. In addition, he said existing policy did not account for the HIV window period during which those testing negative were automatically admitted into the SANDF.

He said the SANDF did not give satisfactory answers to the inconsistencies save for painting an image of its members being perpetually on the frontline. Yet the role of the SANDF has changed since 1994. In the same way, major advances were made in antiretroviral treatment. The medication no longer needed refrigeration and the most recent treatment came in the form of just one pill a day.

Marcus spoke of "problems of extraordinary magnitude in the respondent's case", especially a study done in Zimbabwe on which the military based its assertions that exertion during training was detrimental to the immune system of an HIV-positive soldier. "HIV alone is not an indication, you have to look at the person's health," he said.

The respondents were demanding that the SANDF produce a "constitutionally-compatible" policy within six months and that each of the respondents' cases be considered on its own merits, he said.

It is impossible to have an HIV-free SA National Defence Force (SANDF) and a defence force policy discriminating against people with HIV is unconstitutional, the Pretoria High Court heard on Thursday.

The AIDS Law Project, acting on behalf of the South African Security Forces Union (SASFU) and individual members of the SANDF, brought an application before the court to force the SANDF to change its policy preventing people with HIV from being deployed externally, promotion as well as from getting a job in the armed forces.

"It is simply impossible to have an HIV-free SANDF," advocate Gilbert Marcus, SC, acting for the applicants, told the court.

He was asking the court to declare the blanket exclusion of HIV-positive people unconstitutional, order the appointment and promotion of individuals adversely affected by the policy, and order the SANDF to devise a new policy within six months.

He argued that people should be assessed individually since someone who was HIV-positive was not necessarily sick.

"HIV should not be the benchmark -- the benchmark should be how healthy you are," he said.

"The stance of the SANDF is that people who are HIV-positive are by definition unfit and therefore excluded," he added.

Marcus said current policy was shot through with contradictions and anomalies.

"It assumes that HIV-positive status alone means that an HIV-positive person can, by definition, never be combat ready. This flies in the face of both the medical science and the SANDF's own approach to, for example, internal deployment where those who are HIV-positive must also be combat ready."

He said the policy also contradicted Cabinet and even SANDF instructions on the matter.

Following Marcus' arguments the office of President Thabo Mbeki, one of the respondents in the matter, indicated that the presidency no longer opposed the application and would abide by the court's ruling.

This leaves the Surgeon General, Minister of Defence and the Chief of the SANDF as only respondents.

Their legal counsel was due to argue when the trail continues on Friday.

The SANDF admits that its policy discriminates against HIV-positive people but contends that the discrimination is fair based on the special nature of the military.

A few hundred members of the Treatment Action Campaign were protesting outside the court on Thursday.

They were protesting in support of an application saying implementation of SANDF policies was "irrational, unlawful and unconstitutional".

The South African military's blanket exclusions of HIV positive members is not medically justified and ignores government policy, lawyers for service personnel union told a court Thursday.

A lawyer for the South African Security Forces Union, which is attempting to force the military to review its HIV-AIDS policy, said the army had failed to implement its own and the government's policies.

"The HIV policy adopted by the cabinet in relation to the military and the department of defence is not consistent with the policy implemented by the SANDF (South African National Defence Forces)," lawyer Gilbert Marcus told a hearing at the high court in Pretoria.

"The cabinet has adopted a policy that HIV status should not exclude candidates from appointments to the SANDF, although it may preclude their appointment to positions that require extreme physical fitness."

Marcus said the SANDF's AIDS policy prohibits HIV positive people from being recruited, employed abroad or promoted if they are found to be positive during mandatory HIV testing.

This despite the fact that aviation policy allows HIV positive pilots to fly and infected soldiers are deployed within the country despite being considered "not combat ready".

After Marcus argued the SANDF had failed to refute any of the applicants evidence, lawyers retreated to discuss the case and asked for it to be adjourned without the defence force arguing its case.

An advocate representing the respondents also announced President Thabo Mbeki was withdrawing his defence and would abide by the decision of the court.

Mbeki and Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang were respondents alongside the military.

"If they (respondents) do present any argument or defence they would only be doing it on behalf of the military," said AIDS Law Project attorney Fatima Hassan.

According to Marcus, the SANDF has admitted that some 23 percent of its members are HIV positive.

"It is simply impossible at this stage to have an HIV-free defence force. The question is how do we accommodate this."

South Africa has the highest number of HIV sufferers in the world with around 5.5 million of the 47 million population affected by the virus.

President Thabo Mbeki will no longer oppose an application in the Pretoria High Court to force the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) to change its policy that discriminates against people with HIV.

The President was cited as the fourth respondent in a case brought by the AIDS Law Project, acting on behalf of the South African Security Forces Union (SASFU) and individual members of the SANDF wanting to force the defence force to change its HIV and Aids policy.

He and the SANDF Surgeon General, the Minister of Defence and the Chief of the SANDF were opposing the application, in their professional capacities, that asked the court to declare the blanket exclusion of people with HIV unconstitutional.

The applicants also wants the court to order the appointment and promotion of individuals adversely affected by the SANDF policy, and order it to devise a new policy within six months.

On Thursday afternoon counsel for the respondents told the court that the president had withdrawn his objection to the application and would abide by the court's ruling.

A few hundred members of the Treatment Action Campaign were protesting outside the Pretoria High Court on Thursday.

They were protesting in support of an application the SA Security Forces Union and three people with HIV were bringing to force the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) to change its policy that prevents people with HIV from joining the force or being deployed externally.

"End HIV Discrimination in the SA National Defence Force," and "Fight against the stigmatization of people living with HIV/Aids," some of their posters read.

In flyers they handed out, the protesters said the implementation of SANDF policies was "irrational, unlawful and unconstitutional".

Inside the court Advocate Gilbert Marcus was asking to court to declare the blanket exclusion unconstitutional, order the appointment and promotion of individuals adversely affected by the policy, and order the SANDF to devise a new policy within six months.

The protesters were restricted to one of the lanes of the street in front of the court as police and Metro Police kept the other lanes open to try and ease the traffic flow.

It is impossible to have an HIV-free defence force, the Pretoria High Court heard on Thursday.

The SA Security Forces Union and three people with HIV were bringing an application to force the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) to change its policy that prevents people with HIV from joining the force or being deployed externally.

The court is being asked to declare the blanket exclusion unconstitutional, order the appointment and promotion of individuals adversely affected by the policy, and order the SANDF to devise a new policy within six months.

Advocate Gilbert Marcus argued on behalf of the applicants that people should be assessed on an individual basis.

"HIV should not be the benchmark -- the benchmark should be how healthy you are," he said.

Marcus also told the court that 23 percent of SANDF members are already HIV positive.

"It is simply impossible to have an HIV-free SANDF," he said.

He said a blanket ban was unfair.

The SA Security Forces Union is bringing an application in the Pretoria High Court on Thursday, seeking to force the defence force to accept people with HIV.

The court is being asked to declare the blanket exclusion unconstitutional, order the appointment or promotion of individuals adversely affected by the policy and order the SANDF to devise a new policy within six months.

The union and three people with HIV -- who have been denied recruitment or promotion in the SANDF -- are challenging the defence force's policy of not accepting people with HIV into the force.

PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki opted for retired army generals rather than civilians to investigate claims of post-election violence in Zimbabwe, because military personnel and war veterans were allegedly involved, according to Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Aziz Pahad.

The ex-SANDF generals also had experience of violence by black people against other black people in South Africa’s turbulent 1990s, he told reporters yesterdays.

“With their experience, it might be better than civilians to go into areas to determine exactly what the nature of the allegations (is) and to verify the allegations … The feeling must have been, that the generals – given their own experience on black and black violence, could go and deal with the allegations,” said Pahad.

The generals, under Lieutenant-General Gilbert Romano, have reportedly uncovered shocking levels of state-sponsored terror.

It is understood that the retired generals also have a liberation struggle history, having served in Umkonto weSizwe and the Azanian People’s Liberation Army before integration into the SANDF.

Pahad did not confirm media reports that the generals were of the view that the continued violence made any chance of a peaceful election “almost impossible”.

Instead he said that if there was any substantiation of the violence coming from either the generals’ or other reports, then it would be up to Mbeki, as facilitator, to see how best to deal with it and “ try to get agreement from all parties that there will be steps to end any violence that is perpetrated”.

Asked whether the report would also be kept under wraps, as was the case with the one drafted by judges Sisi Khampepe and Dikgang Moseneke during the 2002 Zimbabwean elections, Pahad was quick to dismiss suggestions that the government was hiding something by not making them public.

“The problem with facilitation is that it ties our hands. You cannot negotiate through the media. If you do it through the media you make it impossible for facilitation. It’s not that we are hiding things. If anything is misinterpreted, one side or the other, will accuse you of being anti the other side … and that is difficult for a facilitator.”

The SANDF’s policy of excluding all people with HIV/Aids from recruitment into the force or from foreign deployment and promotion was to come under the spotlight in the Pretoria high court today.

The court was to be asked to declare the exclusion unconstitutional and to order the SANDF to draft new policy within six months.

The Aids Law Project (ALP) is assisting the SA Security Forces Union (Sasfu) and three HIV-positive people who have been denied recruitment or promotion in the SANDF.

The application is against the surgeon-general, the defence minister and the government.

In terms if the policy, anyone who tests positive for HIV is automatically excluded from being employed, deployed or promoted.

The SANDF has justified the policy, saying that HIV-positive people would be unable to handle stress and physical exertion, and that they posed a risk to other soldiers.

Gilbert Marcus SC was to argue on behalf of Sasfu that this unfairly discriminated against people with HIV and that there was no medical evidence to justify a blanket ban.

The ALP organised a march against the policy today. It was to start at City Hall at 11am and then proceed to the court.

A union representing South African soldiers is to take the country's armed forces to court Thursday over alleged discrimination against HIV-infected personnel, the union said Wednesday.

The South African Security Forces Union (SASFU) is accusing the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) of discriminating against HIV-infected people by refusing them employment, promotion or deployment to foreign posts.

"They have got a policy of mandatory testing. Being HIV-negative is a pre-requisite to gain employment in SANDF," said SASFU deputy president Charles Jacobs.

He said after being employed, members of the military had to undergo mandatory HIV testing once a year during a health assessment, and every time they applied for a promotion or deployment overseas.

Jacobs said South Africa was the only country in the world whose military operated under these "unconstitutional" policies.

With five and a half million HIV infections in a population of 48 million, South Africa has the world's worst AIDS problem, and according to Khumalo up to 35 percent of defense force personnel was infected in 2004.

According to the Aids Law Project (ALP), which fights for the legal rights of those living with HIV/AIDS, the defence ministry has argued the army is too strenuous a place for those living with AIDS.

"The argument that you cannot employ someone with HIV has been a lame excuse used by employers for a very long time," said Nonkosi Khumalo, a researcher with the ALP, at a Johannesburg press conference.

She said the ALP was representing SASFU and three individuals in the Pretoria High Court hearings which hoped to have the policies reviewed and set aside.

"The problem is there, the issue is they haven't found better ways of dealing with the problem," she said.

Defence Minister Mosiua Lekota has been quoted as saying HIV-positive people could not be recruited as people were needed who can "withstand difficult missions."

However SASFU and the ALP argue that HIV-infected people were able to function as normal and healthy citizens for many years with the correct medication.

Deputy President phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka addresing the SANDF last year, said "HIV-positive individuals in the military should be given every opportunity to do the tasks for which they have been trained and which they are still fit to perform."

He told a parliamentary media briefing that the special audit conducted by the auditor- general's office of the SAPS performance in protecting national borders had been conducted in the very early stages of the government's exit/entry strategy.

The strategy was aimed at removing South African National Defence Force (SANDF) personnel from many of the border control functions and replacing them with SAPS staff.

The police took over the border protection function from the defence force in 2004 and the goal was to have 5300 borderline security personnel by next year.

Pruis said there was a "huge difference" in personnel numbers then and now. "Far more" than 1000 personnel were being deployed for the security of air, land and sea borders.

The auditor-general's report had claimed a huge undercapacity of 70% of SAPS forces on the borders but Pruis said it should have included SANDF personnel still operating there then.

The auditor-general's report said that with vacancies of 71% last July in the SAPS border protection service, there had been 3-million to 5-million breaches of border control and security on SA's sea and land borders.

There were 19 police officers to control 3600km of coastline and 283 to control 5000km of land borders.

Pruis said the SAPS focus on crime-fighting in its border control activities had had results in the arrest of criminals, especially after using satellite information. In the year to end-March for example, the SAPS had dealt with 35258 undocumented persons crossing the borders, 289 cases of drug dealers, four of human trafficking, 14 murders, 23 armed robberies and 30 involving housebreaking.

The auditor-general also expressed concern there were no cargo scanners at SA's points of entry. That means about 60000 vehicles entering and 75000 leaving SA did not have their cargoes scanned, contributing to an increased risk of smuggled goods entering the country.

Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula told the briefing that a new mobile cargo scanner had been installed at Durban harbour.

"The technology will curb smuggling of illegal and counterfeit goods into the country. The scanner is the first of 18 to be introduced at different ports," he said.

Nqakula said a progress report would be submitted to the July cabinet lekgotla on the work the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation was doing to establish why crime was often accompanied by excessive violence. The final report is to be submitted to the government at the end of the year and discussed at the lekgotla next January.

Un syndicat de militaires sud-africains va assigner les forces armées en justice jeudi pour discrimination envers leurs personnels contaminés par le virus du sida, a-t-il annoncé mercredi.

Le Syndicat des forces de sécurité sud-africaines (SASFU) accuse la Force de défense nationale sud-africaine (SANDF) de faire de la discrimination envers les séropositifs en refusant de les employer, de leur accorder des promotions ou de les envoyer en poste à l'étranger.

"Ils appliquent une politique de dépistage obligatoire. Etre séronégatif est indispensable pour obtenir un emploi dans la SANDF", a dénoncé le vice-président du SASFU, Charles Jacobs.

Il a ajouté que les personnels de l'armée devaient se soumettre à un test obligatoire lors de leur examen de santé annuel et à chaque fois qu'ils postulaient pour une promotion ou un poste d'expatrié.

Selon M. Jacobs, l'Afrique du Sud est le seul pays au monde où l'armée applique de telles mesures "anticonstitutionnelles".

Avec plus de 5,5 de ses 48 millions d'habitants contaminés, l'Afrique du Sud est le pays le plus touché par le sida.

Selon l'association Aids Law Project (ALP), qui milite pour le respect des droits des malades du sida et représente le SASFU devant le tribunal de Pretoria, le ministère de la Défense estime que l'armée est un environnement trop dur pour les séropositifs, qui en 2004 représentaient 35% de son personnel.

"L'argument de ne pouvoir employer quelqu'un qui est séropositif est une mauvaise excuse utilisée depuis longtemps par les employeurs", a dénoncé Nonkosi Khumalo, chercheuse pour ALP, lors d'une conférence de presse à Johannesburg.

"Le problème est là. Ils n'ont pas trouvé de meilleure solution pour le résoudre", a-t-elle déploré.

Le SASFU et l'ALP arguent que les séropositifs peuvent occuper les mêmes fonctions que des personnels non contaminés pendant des années, s'ils disposent d'un traitement médical approprié.

Speaking at a Justice, Crime Prevention and Security Cluster media briefing in Cape Town on Tuesday, he said attacks on foreigners was becoming a problem, but that it had not reached crisis proportions.

He said the violence was located only in hotspots and it was not a countrywide phenomenon.

The minister was answering questions following the recent violence against foreigners, the latest of which occurred in Alexandra, Johannesburg on Monday.

Residents from Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique were wounded in a late night mob attack.

Reports state that a mob broke into the residents' shacks and demanded they move out of the area. The foreigners were allegedly whipped, shot at, robbed and had stones thrown at them.

A number of residents were arrested in connection with the attacks.

The minister said it was difficult to control these incidents with conventional police methods as they were social crimes.

While police would deal strongly once at the scene, it was important for communities to be educated.

"This is not essentially a police matter that can be dealt with conventional police methods as police only come after an eruption.

"To this extent that government intervenes via communications, where we try to win over communities to be against this violent behaviour.

"As government we implore people to stop such behaviour."

He said they should be aware that some foreigners who have become victims have become permanent residents here.

People often came to South Africa because they had been violently ejected from their own countries, he said, added that many others were in fact permanent residents of South Africa.

"It is very wrong to deal with the matter in this way," he said.

Police only come to the scene after the crime is perpetrated, he said. The community needed to understand the political necessity to accommodate people from other countries.

The Department of Home Affairs earlier this year warned individuals who were fueling the violence against foreign nationals that they would be dealt with severely.

In a bid to find a lasting solution to this challenge, the department facilitated discussions last month with the relevant stakeholders and refugees and immigrants, who are now living in South Africa after fleeing their homes in various African countries.

South Africans needed to be sensitised to understand that they too benefited heavily from immigration communities during the apartheid era.

Government said it was to increase border control as one of the factors to deal with the streaming in of foreign nationals into the country.

The South African Police Services has increased its service levels dramatically on the Swaziland and Mozambique borders for borderline security since the withdrawal of the SANDF, the cluster said.

By 2009 the police levels would be as high as 5 300, however, certain functions would remain with the SANDF.

Border control continues to receive serious attention from the cluster. A new mobile cargo scanner has been installed at the Durban harbour.

The technology will curb the smuggling of illegal and counterfeit goods into the country. The scanner is the first of eighteen to be introduced at different ports.

Led by Lt-Gen Gilbert Lebeko Ramano, former South African army chief, this group is part of the Sadc mediation initiative led by South African President Thabo Mbeki.

SANDF is intervening under the banner of the Sadc Organ on Politics, Defence and Security.

The group arrived in Zimbabwe Monday last week and was given the mandate by Sadc "to intervene in all conflicts arising within the region." It is under this banner that they are currently in Zimbabwe.

This has been revealed by religious leaders who are part of the Presidential Religious Working group, after a meeting with President Mbeki in Pretoria.

Mbeki told religious leaders that the South African was investigating the violence and was speaking to victims and would report to him soon.

"It is intended that once that report is received, they will take steps to ensure that the run-off takes place in as free and fair manner as possible," said the Ashwin Trikamjee, co-chair of the group.

The religious leaders said that they had agreed with President Mbeki that the question of Zimbabwe had to be settled as quickly as possible.

As soon as the generals had made a full assessment, further steps could be taken to ensure that the next election took place peacefully.

This is not the first time SANDF have been involved in missions in Zimbabwe. They are currently on patrol duties and borderline operations in Lompopo, at the Zimbabwe-South Africa border.

SANDF is a robust national military that was reorganized in 1994 with the integration of the apartheid-era force with the militant nationalist groups. SANDF has participated in peacekeeping operations in Lesotho, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Sudan, and elsewhere.

One of the latest hi-tech gizmos being considered by the government is an early warning system called the Erieye, which is designed by Swedish defence company Saab.

Though made for military use, Erieye is increasingly being used in civilian applications. It is mounted on aircraft and can survey a specific area .

Saab Surveillance Systems director Peter Hultin said the system was designed to detect aircraft in a radius of up to about 450km around the aircraft to which it is fitted. From its elevated position, the device gives monitors a bird's-eye view and, depending on where it is positioned, can even help monitor ships on the horizon.

In contrast, ground radar can perhaps scan the near-ground environment to a range of about 50km, taking into account the curvature of the earth.

SA would most likely need at least two of these Erieye surveillance systems to cover a wide part of the country during the games to ensure that no aircraft flown by intruders or terrorists threaten the stadiums.

It can also be used to track above thick bush and forests and even to track tiny inflatable boats out at sea.

"This is a valuable feature of the system in the search-and-rescue role or for detecting piracy or illegal fishing activities," Hultin said.

Business Day understands that senior defence force officials recently witnessed a demonstration and listened to a presentation by the manufacturers of the device.

The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) was interested in testing the equipment and leasing it for use during the 2010 soccer events.

Though the SANDF denied yesterday that it was looking at the system, the South African Police Service's senior superintendent Vish Naidoo confirmed that "part of the procurement for the 2010 security includes a very hi-tech surveillance system".

Brazil, Sweden, Mexico and Greece have used this airborne surveillance system primarily for law enforcement, search-and-rescue and disaster relief.

Brazil has been using it over the vast Amazon basin with success for some years. It boasts a record of 84 arrests in its first month of use for aircraft used illegally, including for drug- running. Authorities have also closed 30 illegal airfields spotted by the device.

The Pakistani and Thai governments are the latest purchasers of the system.

Hultin said that once in orbit, the technology could monitor air traffic, border lines and ship movements at a distance and fight cross-border smuggling and sea smuggling efficiently.

He said a single aircraft could monitor approximately a quarter of SA's lowest airspace.

Introduced by Department of Defence Minister, Mosia Lekota during a sod turning ceremony of the army palliative care centre (hospice) in Lenasia on Friday, the Works Regiment will enable members of the defence force to acquire skills in construction.

"The creation of the Works Regiment has come about at a time when our facilities throughout the country are in dire need for maintenance and repair and it is our belief that by creating such a capability within our environment we will be able to keep these facilities in good conditions and be able to ensure that they last longer," the minister said.

It is through this initiative, he said, that the department would begin to create a pool of people who will be able to repair and maintain buildings and other facilities thus ensuring buildings and other facilities are at an acceptable standard.

This process will begin to address the skills shortage and thus allowing the department to embark on a process of re-skilling and training of members in the required discipline of built environment.

"The department's Works Regiment must be seen as part of our strategy to enhance the national initiative of Asgi-SA and JIPSA in re-skilling defence personnel for the creation of the required skills that can be deployed throughout the entire Department of Defence and the country."

According to the minister, the cooperation between the department and the construction industry through the Works Regiment will ensure that that large pool of skills in this area are developed while allowing SANDF members gain practical and valuable experience which can be utilised throughout the country.

"This is part of our contribution to the required scarce skills in our country, in particular the area of artisans," Mr Lekota said.

South Africa’s military top brass have warned that the rate at which soldiers, sailors, pilots and technical personnel are being poached from the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) poses a serious threat to the country.

The loss of pilots to the Australian Air Force alone recently prompted the chief of the South African Air Force Lt-Gen Carlo Gagiano to appeal to his Australian counterpart for an end to the poaching.

“I said to him: this is not on – you can’t keep poaching from me. He promised me it was not him or his force – that it was other organisations – but I think I need to follow up on that conversation,” he told MPs last week.

The military officers were presenting the SANDF’s strategic plan for the next three years to the national council of provinces’ select committee on defence and constitutional affairs. Even musicians are in demand as a military violinist was recently recruited by a foreign fighting force. But the exodus of technicians and other specialists is far more serious.

The air force lost 218 technical specialists last year and 253 the year before. Fifty more packed their bags in the first three months of this year and April alone saw 23 technicians leave for greener pastures. Pilots are also leaving in droves.

“I have lost my Cheetah Squadron Commander to the Australian Air Force, my Hawk Squadron Commander, my senior instructor on the Hawks and just yesterday I heard that my most knowledgeable person on the Oryx helicopter is now leaving for the Australian Air Force,” complained Gagiano.

He warned that the loss of air crews – particularly to the Middle and Far East – “is going to have a huge impact on the economy of the country”.

Skills

All in all, the SANDF lost 910 technicians in 2007 – more than 11% of its entire technical staff. One official explained that this would seem like an acceptable loss of skills to some, but that the amount of money and time that went into training these members would make it impossible for the SANDF to get a return on their investment.

It has also caused a juniorisation of technical staff, leaving only a handful of experienced personnel to guide and mentor the rest who average two or three years of experience.

Chief of policy and planning in the defence secretariat Tsepe Motumi said the problem was “across the board” in the SANDF and that the organisations was suffering from “poaching on a month-to- month basis”.

Chief of the SA Navy V-Adm Johannes Mudimu sketched a dismal picture of sailors, divers, submariners and navy engineers leaving for higher wages elsewhere.

“Many divers are going to Nigeria to work on the oil rigs. Others are going to the Central African Republic to work in their oil industry. We have members who have left for Australia, New Zealand and the British Royal Navy,” he said.

But the haemorrhaging of skills is not only attributed to foreign recruiters.

Local aviation companies, engineering firms, transport companies and the merchant navy are also stripping the military of much needed skills.

According to Mudimu, the Airports Company of South Africa (Acsa) has recruited many navy drivers and fire-fighters as the company gears up for the anticipated influx soccer enthusiasts in 2010.

Merchant mariners apparently lure young navy cadets literally under the noses of military brass. “We train them for three or four years at universities and technical colleges. They are sought-after individuals.

“You know, when I attend a parade to graduate these members, there are people in the audience with fat cheques. By the time I give him a trophy this youngster has already entered into an agreement (with another employer),” said Mudimu.

Study

In other cases, companies or foreign governments simply buy South Africans out of their study contracts.

The navy chief conceded that losing trained personnel to the South African economy was “not so bad”, but complained that many companies in the field no longer spent money on their own human resource development – they simply wait for the military to train staff.

He also emphasised that the problem was not limited to white military officers.

“Every week the navy loses people – even Africans. When we were building these new frigates in Germany, we sent a lot of blacks to Germany to train. When they came back they served the navy for one or two years and then they all left,” he complained.

He said the navy lost 75 Africans last year.

The SANDF has set aside R408 million to provide incentives to those with scarce skills, but officials pointed out that – in the long run – the demand for skills was a global phenomenon and that it is hard for South Africa to compete.

Details of South Africa’s arms trade over the past three years remain under wraps after a planned meeting between MPs and the committee charged with supervising the trade to discuss its outstanding reports was postponed.

It is the umpteenth time MPs have failed to secure a meeting with the National Conventional Arms Control Co-ordinating Committee (NCACC), which is supposed to report quarterly to Parliament.

MPs have not been briefed on reports by the NCACC for several years.

Now, the NCACC has forwarded to Parliament reports covering the period up to the end of 2006 but MPs don’t yet know what these reports contain.

The defence portfolio committee chairman, Fezile Bhengu, last month instructed the NCACC, which is headed by cabinet minister Sydney Mufamadi, to appear before his committee.

His letter followed the international furore that erupted over the NCACC having issued a permit for a large arms consignment aboard the Chinese vessel An Yue Jiang to be transported through South Africa to Zimbabwe.

Bhengu also planned to get the NCACC to explain its reports.

But the meeting which was scheduled to take place last week was postponed because Mufamadi was unavailable.

The lengthy delay and apparent secrecy surrounding the NCACC reporting has outside observers baffled.

Noel Stott of the Institute for Security Studies said he had no idea why the reports were not made public as required by law.

Piers Pigou of the SA History Archives said he had been repeatedly refused access to the outstanding reports and Saha was considering legal action to get the information made public.

The NCACC oversees the country’s conventional arms trade and its reports detail South Africa’s arms exports and imports as well as listing permits that were granted.

Problems experienced with getting the NCACC to report to MPs were raised in the joint portfolio committee on defence annual report last year, and Bhengu has raised the matter with Speaker of Parliament Baleka Mbete.

DA spokesman on defence Rafeek Shah said the NCACC has not fulfilled its reporting obligations to Parliament and its functioning should be reviewed.

During the long wait to get the NCACC to report to Parliament, a secret forensic probe commissioned by the secretary of defence, January Masilela, revealed numerous irregularities, including problems with the conventional arms permits. The investigation was completed in late 2005 but the report has never been made public and it is unclear whether the recommendations were implemented by the Department of Defence.

The investigation looked at the donation of a Ratel to the King of Jordan; allegations of tender irregularities at Armscor; the flooding of the American market with South African National Defence Force surplus ammunition in its original form by Spreewerk Lubben as well as alleged irregularities/illegal activities with regard to the issuing of permits at the Directorate of Conventional Arms Control.

Its findings included that not only surplus SANDF ammunition was exported and re-exported but also Portuguese, Israeli and Austrian ammunition.

There were no permit applications for the export and the re-export of this foreign ammunition.

SA’s stance is a partial ban but Mbeki could change his mind

The new South Africa has a brief but proud history of promoting disarmament. It played leading roles, for example, in extending the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1995 and in securing the passage of the anti-personnel mine ban treaty of 1997.

Yet SA is now refusing to back a proposed total ban on controversial cluster bombs which contain hundreds of bomblets that often do not detonate immediately but lie around to explode later, often killing or hurting civilians.

On May 19 most countries of the world, including SA, will gather in Dublin to try and negotiate a convention banning or heavily limiting the use of cluster bombs.

Some countries want a total ban, others a partial ban and some, no ban at all.

SA only wants a partial ban, believing that cluster bombs can be legitimate weapons of war, if properly regulated to prevent “unacceptable harm” to civilians.

This has isolated SA in Africa where all other countries but Egypt support a total ban.

Some critics have accused SA of wanting to protect its endangered parastatal arms manufacturer Denel, though it strongly denied this, saying it has decided not to manufacture cluster bombs any more and that our stockpiles are negligible.

SA’s basic position is that cluster munitions are legitimate weapons if they are not used in civilian areas, and if the bomblets are so well made that they are at least 98% certain to detonate on impact and not lie around to detonate later and harm civilians.

SA’s isolation in Africa is not as damning as it might at first look as the rest of the African countries, apart from Egypt, neither possess nor have the ability to manufacture cluster bombs anyway and so are making a virtue of necessity.

And further afield, SA finds itself in pretty respectable company, not least that of Norway which also wants some tactically-useful cluster bombs to be left out of the ban.

But partly because it is leading the charge for a treaty, it has not attracted the same criticism as SA.

The issue is indeed a bit more complicated than many disarmament activists would admit. Some countries say a total ban on all cluster bombs would include all munitions that contain sub-munitions and that many of these are no worse than other weapons which would fall outside a total cluster bomb ban.

Some cluster weapons are also deemed necessary by military tacticians to destroy tanks.

The Dublin meeting will have many a headache trying to make sense of it all.

But even if SA’s position looks better when put in a wider context, it is still a bit puzzling that it has chosen to risk its squeaky-clean disarmament credentials for the sake of what looks like a rather limited military application of cluster bombs – especially when SA is supposed to be using its military increasingly for peacekeeping not war-making.

Analysts believe that one reason for this is that the Department of Foreign Affairs, which should be the lead agency on this issue, has conceded that role to the SA National Defence Force, which naturally sees the world through the sights of a gun.

The simplest reason for the DFA conceding the leadership to the SANDF may be that the DFA no longer has the skilled disarmament experts who helped negotiate the Mine Ban Treaty.

The wider reason could be that President Mbeki has been seeing an ever-larger role for SA on the world stage, partially to counter what he regards as the aggressive expansion of the US and other Western powers.

There has already been evidence of this, for instance in Mbeki’s support of a proposed deal to waive the NPT rules to allow India to trade in civilian nuclear technology, even though it openly possesses nuclear weapons.

Even so, there are signs that SA is rethinking its position and might support a total ban in Dublin.

Possibly a sign of Mbeki’s waning influence?

DURBAN’S Metro Police will have a large role to play in the province’s massive 2010 safety and security campaign which is to be presented to high-ranking Fifa officials within weeks.

But details of the city’s massive security strategy were almost not heard by the council’s Health, Safety and Social Services Committee as it was initially voted against being shown at a Metro Police presentation.

It was the intervention of ANC councillors and chairwoman Nomvuso Shabalala that led to the critical presentation on city preparations being shown after much debate.

In revealing the multi-disciplinary strategy, Metro Police deputy head Steve Middleton said up to 10 000 reservists, 2 500 policemen and a contingent of 1 400 Metro cops would hit the streets during the event.

Live video feeds and inter-linked radio telecommunication systems would all filter into various joint operations centres manned by emergency services. Middleton was quick to point out that security plans were of a multi-dimensional aspect, and included most arms of the SANDF, police, national security agencies and private security companies.

Standby

Security at both land and port points of entry are to be beefed up to new levels in the run-up to the tournament, while the SA Air Force would be on standby to intercept any errant or suspicious aircraft.

And, while the multi-billion rand Moses Mabhida Stadium would be the focal point of the tournament, it is Durban’s “fan festivals” that will require one of the biggest policing operations in the city’s history.

Hooliganism, terrorist threats, food security and public order are to feature heavily in the policing of the fan fests as well as at the stadium.

Ticketing, cyber security and the commercial rights of Fifa and its sponsors will be also be focused on during the World Cup tournament.

“The stadium is nothing compared to the fan parks, where we are expecting 200 000 or more people to party for 45 days, 24 hours a day. Policing requirements there are astronomical,” Middleton said.

Although subject to change, the area stretching from Blue Lagoon to Laguna Beach has been identified as Durban’s fan fest area.

If not large enough to accommodate revellers, the beachfront strip could be extended to the Suncoast area.

South Africa’s LOC will release the operational strategy to Fifa by June 30, but Middleton said plans were well ahead of schedule.

“There has been a lot of work done by a lot of people in the country and city.

“All other host city work streams are also way ahead of schedule and we are 10 000% confident of an extremely successful World Cup,” Middleton said.

Judge Sisi Khampepe’s insistence that the Scorpions is still relevant in fighting organised crime has reinvigorated opposition parties’ determination to save it.

In her 144-page report, completed in 2006 but only released in full now, Khampepe said the Scorpions had a “place in the government’s law enforcement plan”.

Khampepe discredited arguments that the Scorpions was no longer relevant because crime was decreasing.

“Despite indications that crime levels are dropping, it is my considered view that organised crime still presents a threat that needs to be addressed through an effective comprehensive strategy,” she said in the report.

The report was released by the Director-General in the Presidency Frank Chikane in Pretoria yesterday.

Chikane said President Thabo Mbeki’s decision to release the full report was aimed at informing the public and those engaged in the debate on the status of the Scorpions and the review of the criminal justice system.

But despite Khampepe’s recommendation that the Scorpions remain under the auspices of the National Prosecuting Authority, it will be disbanded and incorporated into the police.

The cabinet recently approved two bills to allow for that.

DA leader Helen Zille yesterday said her party would fight for the Scorpions.

“We will fight against these bills when they come before parliament’s portfolio committee on intelligence and during the parliamentary debate.

“If that fails, we will go to the court.”

Zille accused the cabinet of insincerity by adopting the bills after it had adopted Khampepe’s recommendations.

Chikane confirmed that Mbeki had accepted all but one of the judge’s recommendations.

Zille also accused Mbeki of failing to ensure that there was “necessary co-operation between the Scorpions and the SAPS through timely and proper executive action”.

However, Chikane said Mbeki has “done all we have to do” to ensure that the Scorpions functioned properly.

“We got all the ministers and DGs who deal with security related matters. All those who are affected, including the national director of public prosecutions.

“That’s where the president did the reprimand and admonition, and got commitment that the people will work in a particular way,” said Chikane.

The Inkatha Freedom Party also said the cabinet’s decision to approve the bills had nothing to do with “bolstering” the fight against crime, but was the ANC’s final push to finish off the Scorpions.

United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa – who is also considering a constitutional court challenge – said the Scorpions saga was a sign of Mbeki’s administrative failure.

He accused Mbeki of protecting Selebi.

Cosatu called for the speedy dissolution of the Scorpions, saying the unit had been “running wild”.

In her report, Khampepe recommended that the Scorpions be kept on a tight leash under a powerful Multidisciplinary Vetting Structure (MVS), led by Selebi.

She recommended that the MVS include the directors-general of the National Intelligence Agency and the SA Secret Service, the head of the Scorpions, a representative of the SANDF, a representative of Correctional Service, a representative of the financial sector and a representative of civil society.

Chikane said Mbeki rejected this recommendation, in part because of the inclusion of a civil society representative.

Explaining the course to BuaNews on Tuesday, Colonel Peter Mills said the purpose of the two-week course was to equip officers with the relevant knowledge to enable them to serve in a logistic position at any level in a PSO mission or in their national headquarters.

"The course will provide an understanding of the requisite skills, techniques and procedures to plan prepare and execute deployments in support of PSO missions."

Those attending the course at the recently established Peace Mission Training Centre in Thaba Tshwane, he said will also be able to draw from the experiences of officers previously deployed on peace missions.

"They will lecture on operational and logistic realties and areas where the supply chain had floundered."

Moreover, participants will learn theory and information on key institutions such the African Union, United Nations Headquarters, Department of Peacekeeping Operations, Department of Field Support and UN Logistics Base.

Legal framework, including the Status of Force Agreements, Status of Mission Agreements and UN Privileges and Immunities will also be presented to the participants.

Regarding the target group for the course, Colonel Mills told BuaNews it would include members of the defence force with in the rank group of Major to Colonel, South African police and civilian officers who are or are about to be working in a logistics position on a PSO mission or a national headquarters.

The course stars on 7 July 2008.

The South African government has always been commitment to peace on the continent.

South Africa has about 1 300 military personnel in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 540 in Darfur, and 750 in Burundi, a total of 2 600; but the numbers in Burundi are being increased to about 1 500 and reinforcements are also being sent to Darfur, which means that, in the near future, South Africa will have some 4 500 troops deployed abroad.

South Africa is currently focused on bringing peace to Western Sahara, Ivory Coast, Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Family and friends of pilot Jane Kekana were touched by an angel – because angels fly.

Kekana (21), who died in a helicopter crash with Altech Netstar co-pilot Peter-John Winterbottom last Saturday, was laid to rest at the weekend.

Well-wishers attended the service at the Pretoria North Roman Catholic Church, were they were told how Kekana was a shining light to her family.

Friend and colleague Precious Mathebela said she had been flying with Kekana since 2006. “There are no words to describe how I feel,” she said.

Netstar air tracker Kathleen Moonsamy said Kekana was a great pilot.

“It takes a lot of skill to be a Netstar pilot. We have lost someone really good.”

Kekana’s uncle, James Gabanakgosi, described the fatal accident. “She landed at Rand Airport at about 10am to refuel.

“She spoke to her sister, then returned to the helicopter to take off, but something went horribly wrong.

“It got off the ground, but soon started coming down. She tried to control the machine, but it lost power.

“As it landed, it started skidding. Sparks from the skidding set fire to the refuelled helicopter; there was no way to survive.”

Kekana and Winterbottom died on the scene.

Rand Airport managing director Anton Kruger said witnesses reported that the rotor blades clipped the hangar and the helicopter then hit the tarmac.

Kekana matriculated from Clapham High School in 2004 and enlisted with the SANDF where she completed her basic military training with the SA Air Force (SAAF).

After the basic training she was channelled into air traffic control, but she wanted to join the flying wing.

When the SAAF could not offer her training, she resigned to join Eskom, which was scouting for women to train as helicopter pilots.

Her application was accepted after a national selection process conducted by Eskom and by management from 43 Air School in Port Alfred.

She completed her training in December last year.

In order for her to complete 2 000 flying hours, which are mandatory before deployment to the duty of live-wire maintenance, Eskom sent her and two colleagues on an internship with Netstar.