Mon séjour en Afrique du Sud (Cape Town)

The head of the SANDF’s infantry formation has blasted South Africa’s soldiers for their lack of discipline and spirit.

At the SANDF Infantry Formation’s 54th anniversary celebrations in Thaba Tshwane yesterday, Major-General Themba Nkabinde said the parade was not one to show military might and pride.

“To say that this is a parade ‘as usual’ would be preposterous.”

Instead, the parade had to be used to highlight the serious challenges that faced the army’s infantry.

“I am using this parade to raise issues that lay bare challenges that cause multidimensional problems in the infantry.

“There are challenges facing us as the infantry that need to be addressed because we are getting to a stage where radical intervention is needed to stop us from descending into a state of chaos,” Nkabinde said.

One of those challenges was the lack of discipline.

“No army is worthy of the name without discipline.

“There is no army without organisation and all organisation is defective if they neglect any means to strengthen the unity of combatants,” he said.

Nkabinde said external deployments bore testimony to the true state of affairs in the infantry.

“Soldiers, no matter how well drilled, who are assembled haphazardly into companies and battalions will never have, and never had, the unity which is borne of mutual acquaintanceship,” he said.

Nkabinde said as an organisation, the infantry was struggling to define its culture and establish a solid doctrine.

“We tend to treat the two separately and attempt to develop a doctrine outside culture. This always leads to dismal results. Proof of this is in the training and quality of our troops.”

He said another challenge facing the infantry was the availability of structures and deployable personnel.

“We need to stop with silly power games and engagements in competence assassinations, trying to prove how incompetent, inexperienced or visionless this commander or that staff officer is.

“The infantry cannot afford the luxury of such idiosyncrasies,” said Nkabinde.

He said these were problems that wouldn’t be solved with prescriptive or “science-fiction solutions”, but with simple solutions that would build up companies and battalions.

“This can be done through proper staffing, training, equipping and utilisation if the discipline and spirit is to be returned to the infantry,” Nkabinde said.

n The SANDF Infantry Formation budget manager delivered a crippling budget in Pretoria yesterday.

Parachuting into the anniversary celebrations, Adriaan Penz had to be rushed to hospital moments after landing, apparently after fracturing his ankle.

Penz, who was conducting his ninth tandem jump, together with 44 Parachute Regiment tandem master, Major Laurel Thatcher, slipped on loose gravel as the duo landed to deliver the budget.

Infantry Formation spokesperson Major Merle Meyer said: “We will have to wait for another day for our budget to be delivered.”

The country’s first black senior military judge, Colonel Phildah Nomoyi, has been admitted to the critical high-care unit at the Thaba Tshwane military hospital.

According to sources close to the Department of Defence, Nomoyi (42) is alleged to have doused herself with petrol and set herself alight on Wednesday night.

The department and the SANDF refused to release details of the incident.

The department could only say that a military judge was in a stable condition at one of its military hospitals.

Last night Pretoria police said they had not been informed about the incident.

Pretoria police spokesperson Captain Tessa Jansen said: “Nothing was reported to us about that incident.

“Only criminal cases are reported to us for investigation.

“If the victim is believed to have attempted to commit suicide, we will not be called in to investigate.”

Gauteng police spokesperson Superintendent Eugene Opperman last night said it was “too late” to get any information, and he would enquire about the incident this morning.

“It sounds like an attempted suicide, but that is not a crime and we can’t investigate.

“But there still must be evidence that shows that it was an attempted suicide for us not to investigate,” said Opperman.

When the Pretoria News contacted Defence Department spokesperson Sam Mkhwanazi, he said he did not know anything about the incident and wanted to first investigate.

When Mkhwanazi returned for comment, he said he was not sure whether the matter had been referred to the SAPS.

“This may appear to be a straightforward story.

“It’s tricky because this is a private matter – as far as we know it did not take place within the military base,” said Mkhwanazi.

Neither the SAPS nor the department could say where the incident took place.

Mkhwanazi said the department wasn’t sure whether Nomoyi, a mother of three, had set herself alight. “The first time I heard her name (Nomoyi) was when you called me.

“If you could get to the family, they might give you more information, but we don’t even have grounds to release her name.”

Another defence spokesperson, Petrus Motlhabane, said he wasn’t sure whether military police or the SAPS were investigating.

Nomoyi was one of three judges who presided in the case of former SA Air Force sergeant Flippie Venter.

In August last year, the Thaba Tshwane military court found Venter guilty of the murder of a Burundian teenager.

Two soldiers escaped injury on Thursday when their truck overturned near Eersterivier, Cape Town, the SA National Defence Force said.

One of the trucks was towing another when it left the road and rolled around 3pm, said spokesman Colonel Petrus Motlhabane.

Both drivers escaped unhurt and were treated for shock.

The SANDF would investigate the cause of the accident.

Defence Minister Mosioua Lekota and his Benin counterpart Issifo Kogui Ndouro on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) seeking to develop and formulate procedures for military cooperation between the two armed forces.

"The agreement includes promoting the training of military personnel through the exchange of trainees, instructors and observers," Minister Lekota said.

South African Air Force personnel will provide training to the Benin Air Force personnel with a view to improving their skills.

"We are also going to cooperate on the acquisition of military equipment, technical cooperation as well as in the area of military medical services."

The agreement will also pave the way for an exchange of knowledge and training in the carrying out of United Nations and African Union peacekeeping operations where needed, particularly on the African continent.

"We are aware of your vast experience in peacekeeping missions, which therefore creates a solid platform to draw lessons from one another," the minister said.

In response, Benin Defence Minister Ndouro said he was excited to forge a partnership with a country like South Africa.

"South Africa has a great role to play not only in our country but the continent as a whole. The signing of the agreement is in line with the building of meaningful solutions," he added.

He assured Minister Lekota that the government of Benin will do everything possible to sustain the relations between the two countries.

To date, the SANDF had signed a number of agreements with a number of African countries in the line of defence.

The SANDF owes hotels and guesthouses in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) hundreds of thousands for accommodating South African soldiers.

Eighty-seven SANDF soldiers, who were supposed to be accommodated at Mura Military Base, now stay in guesthouses in the southern DRC area of Likasi.

It is believed the SANDF owes nearly R300 000 in accommodation bills for June.

The South African troops were deployed in February. They were sent there as part of a memorandum of understanding between South Africa and the DRC. They are supposed to be training up to 800 of their counterparts.

The SANDF has admitted that there have been logistical setbacks with the base, but would not give any specifics.

A South African soldier who contacted the Pretoria News from his guesthouse said the “entire thing is a complete mess”.

He said: “How are we meant to do any training if we can’t even set up a base properly? This makes us the laughing stock of the world’s defence forces. These guys think we’re amateurs.”

The officer said they initially paid accommodation bills of $80 (R640) a day, but when they heard they would have to foot the bills, they negotiated a reduced rate.

“We managed to get the bills reduced to $30 a day on condition that the bills would be settled.”

The soldier said the base was a health hazard. Two DRC soldiers had died of cholera in the past few months while there.

“It is terrible. No one should be staying at that base. Not even an animal should be living there.”

He said the base was meant to be completed before their arrival, but there was still no running water, showers or other amenities.

“It is impossible to live there.”

The soldier said they had been paying for their accommodation out of their own pockets.

“We’re given a daily allowance and were told that if we didn’t want to stay in the base, we had to make alternative arrangements and sort ourselves out.

“We were told that it is not the responsibility of the defence force to accommodate us, but that’s ridiculous. You can’t deploy troops and then expect them to sort out their own accommodation.”

Bagadele Hotel owner Haider Pordanderwala said he was owed more than $9 000 for providing rooms to 10 South African soldiers.

“When they told me what was happening, I agreed to reduce the rate from $80 to $30.

“I feel sorry for them and it’s really bad that the South African army doesn’t want to pay for its soldiers. It’s a shame and the army chiefs should be embarrassed.”

He said the soldiers had been good to him and his family. “They are among the best guests I have ever had. I’ll continue allowing them to stay here because it’s impossible for them to live at that base.”

A military source said this was a major embarrassment for the SANDF’s top brass.

“The last thing they want is for the country to know that they can’t pay the accommodation bills for soldiers being deployed on foreign missions,” she said.

SANDF spokesperson Major Ronald Maseko said the soldiers would be paid back.

“Every cent that is owed will be paid back,” he said.

This was a major victory for people with HIV in SA and internationally. It established in the military what was already accepted in all other areas of employment: that people with HIV should not be discriminated against solely on their HIV status.

The victory has been widely acclaimed but there is one insufficiently publicised issue. In response to hundreds of pages of expert medical evidence put forward by the applicants, the SANDF's main "scientific" defence of its HIV policy was an undated, unpublished study conducted during a Zimbabwean military training course.

This study, in its own words, "(sought) to prove the hypothesis that the type, intensity, frequency and duration of exercise" in a military environment will lead to "opportunistic infection(s) and an early onset of (full-blown AIDS) among HIV-seropositives". In other words, the study's goal was to subject people with HIV to conditions directly harmful to their health.

This is contrary to even the most basic grasp of medical ethics, which stand and fall on the principle of "do no harm" and is underscored by the fact that six HIV-positive participants died as a result.

It is alarming that Surgeon-General Vejay Ramlakan had little understanding of the ethical problems inherent in this study, else it would not have held such prominence as the main point of defence. Leslie London, a member of the National Health Research Ethics Council and a professor at the University of Cape Town, argued that the fact that the study made no statement as to whether antiretrovirals were made available to participants invalidated its relevance and raised echoes of the Tuskegee study perpetrated on African-American men in the US. The Tuskegee study is infamous for infecting men with syphilis and stopping them from getting treatment, to map the progression of the disease. More than 100 participants died as a result.

Here, if this study was done without access to antiretrovirals, it is inapplicable to the SANDF, where they are available. More worrying is the possibility that antiretrovirals were available, but were withheld to track the declining health of the HIV-positive participants. If so, it is a gross violation of medical ethics.

While the ethical failings of this study alone call into question any reliance on its results as being biased and untrustworthy, it is also worth noting how London's affidavit dissected in minute detail the fundamental errors in its methodology, data collection, data analysis, presentation, and interpretation of its findings.

Based on this, London concluded "the study may have been entirely fabricated -- in other words, that there was no such study conducted or that there was a study that was so poorly done or returned undesired results that the researchers simply filled in results suiting their a priori hypothesis".

The constitution sets a high standard for respect of human rights by all parts of the government, including the SANDF. It is unacceptable for high-level SANDF officials not to critically evaluate their "evidence" to ensure it is in line with these principles. An unethical study stays unethical, regardless of who commissioned it, who conducted it or who brought it to their attention.

This was lost on the surgeon-general, whose response to the critiques set out above was that "the SANDF did not commission or participate in the Zimbabwean study ". This is a wholly inadequate response, as it still wil fully ignores the study's basic scientific failures.

As London said: "Critical appraisal of research is a standard competency our medical and other health professional students are expected to achieve (to) distinguish good-quality evidence from poor research (not fit) for clinical decision-making or policy development." This study should never have made it to the courtroom. It rather belongs in a medical ethics classroom as an example for future researchers of how research can fail so disastrously to respect the dignity and human rights of research participants.

For the government to rely on the results of flagrant human rights abuses is to advocate for such abuses to occur in the future. Real medical science requires careful analysis and respect for the people involved, neither of which is shown here.

There is already a long history of denying the integrity of medical science by this government, especially as it relates to HIV. This is yet another unacceptable example.

Here, though, Ramlakan has gone the further step of trying to mislead and confuse the judiciary on the state of medical science, and ultimately to establish in law that unfair discrimination is acceptable under the constitution. It is not; nor is this conduct. SA has been down that path before.

Honermann is Tolan Fellow in International Human Rights at the AIDS Law Project.

The ANC committee set up in January to report on the notorious multibillion-rand arms deal appears to have made as little headway as German prosecutors.

The Dusseldorf public prosecutor’s office this week closed its investigation into whether former employees of ThyssenKrupp, the giant steel and arms manufacturing group, had paid any bribes to South Africans in connection with the sale of four corvettes to the South African navy.

Among those negatively implicated in the German segment of the arms deal – these connections were not made by German prosecutors but by Der Spiegel, a German news magazine, and some South African newspapers – were President Thabo Mbeki and Chippy Shaik, the SANDF head of arms acquisition in the late 1990s.

“We found that some former employees had been involved in wrongdoing, but this had nothing to do with the sale of corvettes to South Africa,” prosecutor Arno Neukirchen said on Wednesday, “and we have ended our investigation”.

The ANC panel was set up in the days immediately following the Polokwane conference, at which Jacob Zuma was elected party president, with the mandate of drawing up a “detailed factual report” on the arms deal. Zuma and certain senior ANC leaders had previously complained about being unfairly targeted, saying they believed the arms deal tainted other leaders in the party.

Damp squib

The committee is chaired by Kgalema Motlanthe, the ANC deputy president, and includes Mathews Phosa, treasurer-general; Jeremy Cronin, national executive committee (NEC) member and deputy general secretary of the communist party; former national defence force general Siphiwe Nyanda; Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele, an NEC member; Naledi Pandor, the education minister; Cyril Ramaphosa, an NEC member; and Lindiwe Sisulu, the housing minister.

On Friday, ANC spokesman Jessie Duarte said the committee was “still working”. It had issued an interim report recently, but the arms deal had not been “properly discussed”. The party had no comment on the German prosecutors’ decision.

One committee member said not much seemed to have happened. “There’s been one report, but it didn’t contain much”.

A senior ANC member, who did not want to be named, said the committee seemed to be a damp squib. “It was formed in a hurry following Polokwane. So its mandate was not very clear. It seems to have been put in place to find Zuma not guilty. But the ANC is not an official investigative body anyway.”

Patricia de Lille, leader of the Independent Democrats, who was among those who first raised a hue and cry about the arms deal in the late 90s, said she intended soldiering on to reach the truth. “We still don’t know how ThyssenKrupp suddenly won first place in the tender process and we know Mbeki met the Germans. What happened at that meeting?”

De Lille said the German prosecutors had clearly not received assistance from the South African authorities. This was why they had been stymied.

Helmoed Römer Heitman, a defence analyst and the local correspondent of the authoritative Jane’s Defence Weekly, said he was not surprised the German prosecutors had come up with nothing.

“There was an arms deal worth about R30 billion. Obviously there was some greasing of palms and bribery. But I insist that this took place in the off-set deals and the lower levels. At top level nothing happened.

“If it did, where is the smoking gun? It’s all babble. All we’ve been presented with is Tony Yengeni – who got a discount on his car. Is this multimillion-rand arms deal corruption?”

Heitman said Shaik had done “first-class work” when he was in charge of defence acquisitions. “Chippy Shaik really drove a hard bargain, and we profited from it.”

Heitman remained convinced that the corruption allegations on major aspects of the arms deal came from “bitter contractors who lost out, politicians looking to remind the public they are there, and old-style whiteys who can’t accept this government actually scored a good deal.”

There is division in the SANDF. In fact, it is divided into four groups, and once a year this division comes to a boiling point when four platoons compete in a drill competition.

The Department of Defence had its own Youth Day celebrations yesterday.

The event at the Thaba Tshwane Military Sports Club included a parade and drill competition between the army, the SA Navy, the SA Military Health Services (SAMHS), and the SA Air Force.

Military Skills Development System students and those younger than 26 in the Core Service System took part.

The navy walked away with the trophy. The air force was second, the SAMHS third, and the army last.

Deputy Defence Minister Mluleki George said: “This momentous day reminds us of the courage, determination and sacrifices displayed by the young men and women of our country in dismantling the shackles of oppression.

“By so doing, they set the stage for a new democratic South Africa 18 years later.

“With courage and enthusiasm to extinguish the demon of racial discrimination in our society, they enhanced the struggle for emancipation and contributed to the creation of a just and peaceful society.

“It will always remain a wonder that such young people could display such resilience and unity, that nothing was able to distract them from their will to live in a free society.

“Their spirit and relentless commitment to social justice are exemplary and should continue to guide and inspire you and all young people for generations to come.”

Meriam Koko (20), who was part of the air force platoon, said she would recommend the military to young South Africans.

“It’s a great place for young people to learn discipline and self-control,” she said.

Laurindo Luciana (20), of the SAMHS, agreed.

“The military also provides young people with moral guidelines.”

There were other Youth Day events yesterday.

Policewomen donated food and blankets to disabled pupils of Mpho E Ntle High School in Ga-Rankuwa.

The Freedom Front Plus handed over a memorandum to the Department of Education for equal opportunities of all students on campuses.

Deputy Correctional Services Minister Loretta Jacobus addressed youngsters in the Refilwe Community Hall in Cullinan.

SOUTH Africa has accused Britain and Australia of "poaching" its best-trained military personnel in a move which seems likely to undermine a UK Government appeal against legislation which could cost the British Army almost 900 of its most experienced soldiers.

As reported by The Herald on Monday, Ministry of Defence officials are seeking "urgent talks" with their counterparts in Pretoria to prevent the potential loss of more than a battalion's-worth of South African volunteers.

Under anti-mercenary laws due to come into force this autumn, any South African serving without permission in even an official foreign military force would be subject to five years in prison and the forfeiture of citizenship.

Tsepe Motumi, of the South African National Defence Force (Sandf) said the problem was "across the board" and t was suffering from "poaching on a month-tomonth basis".

The UK has hired 880 South Africans soldiers . Many of them enlisted after becoming disillusioned with the increasingly dilapidated state of the Sandf, which, sources say, is saddled with 50-yearold equipment and riddled with incompetent officers appointed because of their loyalty to the ruling party

Selon un communiqué de l'armée parvenu à l'Angop, à Kuando Kubango, le dépôt qui a été détruit le 5 juin dernier contenait 14 charges de grenades, 94 mortiers de 81 mm, 64 munitions de 14,5; 89 projectiles de RPG -7 et huit de 81 mm, entre autres.

Cette région était le scénario de plusieurs et grandes batailles durant le conflit armé, notamment la bataille de Cuito Cuanavale, du 12 au 20 janvier 1988, opposant les militaires angolais, épaulés par des Cubains, aux combattants de l'UNITA soutenus par l'armée sud-africaine.

Australia’s high commissioner to South Africa has rejected the claim that his country’s defence force is recruiting skilled people from the SA National Defence Force.

But high commissioner Philip Green says the Australian government cannot stop SANDF people from applying for jobs advertised by the Australian Defence Force.

Green was commenting on recent report in Independent Newspapers that the Royal Australian Air Force was believed to have poached 30 senior engineers in just two months from the SA Air Force.

The chief of the SAAF, Lieutenant-General Carlo Gagiano, appealed to his Australian counterpart to stop the poaching. But Green said it was wrong to suggest that the Australian Defence Force was recruiting SA personnel.

“We have given a specific undertaking that there will be no recruiting of South Africans. However, there is an Internet portal by which people can look up what jobs the Australian Defence Force is offering. There is nothing we can do about that,” Green said.

SA’s generals have warned that the exodus of skills to foreign militaries and to civilian firms is undermining the ability of the SANDF to operate all its equipment and is therefore jeopardising national security.

Technicians at the Ysterplaat air force base in Cape Town had said that if the brain drain continues, the SAAF could lose all its top technicians by December.

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

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

“The South African government shouldn’t be moaning – they should rather be reviewing their salary scales,” the technician said.

l Why all these complaints about the navy? The navy was run perfectly competently before Van Riebeek arrived by locals who hadn’t been to sea either.

l When SA entered World War 2 the first thing we did was replace the majority of the senior permanent force officers, as our soldiers’ lives were to valuable to be led by these incompetents. History always repeats itself with leaders who have the attention span of overfed goldfish.

l Can the powers that be in the SANDF tell us how many non-seafaring men head any navy in the rest of the world? It’s like including non-swimmers in our Olympic swimming squad.

l Jane’s Defence analyst’s article on the obvious practical problems of having HIV+ soldiers shows political correctness has overridden common sense.

l It is simply not practical to exclude people who are HIV-positive from the SANDF. They do not have the manpower to replace them. It is an impossible dilemma.

l Do people actually pay for and read the Daily Sun? I always thought it was just there as a cheap toilet paper subsitute, but not as soft.

l What irony. The people who excuse their attacks on the victims of xenophobia say they are doing it because of crime and lack of jobs. They are the ones who are doing crime.

l Bronwynne Jooste, your article was an eye-opener and what some of us suspected. Well done.

l Pahad’s ‘third force’ consists of Tito’s interest rate, Eskom’s electricity, Mbeki’s absence, failed ANC goverment policies and ineffective police.

l If the government lowers my fuel levy I am prepared to lower my top speed to 100km/h. Truly a win-win, including lower imports and safer roads.

l It is now cheaper to smoke your appetite away while you feed your children. I smoke 10 a day so that my animals can eat. How are poor people feeding their pets when we can’t feed ourselves? Please, big business, help us.

l Mboweni may have to raise interest rates again, but a word of advice for him: Don’t stand there again in your pinstripe suit and tell the country with a smirk on your face to eat chicken wings. Many can’t even afford the feet. Next it will be cake, and we all know what happened after that.

l With food prices rising why doesn’t the goverment drop VAT to 10%? That will offset the price increase.

l John Pilger is insulting both Mr Mandela and all South Africans who have embraced change and democracy. Does he think only whites support the Boks?

l As a gesture of repentance, Brian Mujati should donate 80% of his 2008 match fees and bonuses to Tienie Martin’s family.

l Re the animals shot by police when they ‘get in the way’ during raids, would the same happen to curious children? People need to have more respect for animals.

l The police have their priorities mixed up. Violent, dangerous, criminal killers need to be shot nine times, not harmless dogs.

l Ban people from erecting shacks as they please. The Nationalists called it influx control, Sisulu. Take the factories back to the small towns, give incentives and get rid of the idiots running those towns. The Nationalists did it and the ANC destroyed it.

l If the accounts of Richard Sterne’s behaviour are correct, he is an embarrassment and should be ashamed of himself.

l Mo, why should we feel sorry for Schabir? He knew he was guilty from the start and had a chance to reach a settlement with the NPA. Had he done so, he would not have been in jail. He is the architect of his own misfortune.

l How can the SABC expect us to pay for TV licences if it fritters the money away on legal fees for needless and frivolous litigation instead of buying content? It is not the right thing to do.

l Like the story on the pot luck for easy cooking. Would like to see more of these articles on cookware itself as well as energy saving.

l A recipe for disaster: fill the country with unskilled people, and let the skilled leave.

l Dear Sasol employee who was not offered shares as they are reserved for blacks: I remember a time when shares were affordable to most whites and the insurance giants offered particular policies (which were obviously superior to those available to blacks) to whites only, irrespective of whether the blacks were employed by these companies. Very few whites saw the error in those policies.

l An outside energy company to supply electricity? Are they crazy? Foreigners took over Iscor and steel prices are killing small business along with petrol and now electricity.

l How would Mr Mbeki and the ANC have reacted had Mr Mandela been detained just before our 1994 election?

Questions

l If property prices go down by 40% will municipal property valuations also be reduced, and therefore our rates?

l I seem to have ‘lock-key-in-car syndrome’ but Willy of the AA got my keys out in a flash at Kenilworth Centre. Thanks a million.

l Is the Mouille Point idiot who crashed the light blue Maserati a while ago now back in a grey Lamborghini? They drive the same: like total idiots.

l I am so bored with Mbeki I could run head-first into a wall. Is he still alive or has he died and been stuffed? He is like a one-legged man at an arse-kicking competition.

On May 16, a historic settlement between the South African Security Forces Union (Sasfu) and several individuals living with HIV on the one side and the president, the surgeon-general, the chief of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) and the minister of defence on the other, ended years of conflict over the SANDF’s refusal to employ, deploy or promote people with HIV.

Both parties agreed to an order by the Pretoria high court which stated that: “the consequences of the ... policy … is unconstitutional in that it unjustifiably infringes the rights of HIV- positive recruits and members: a) not to be unfairly discriminated against ..; b) to privacy..; c) to dignity..; d) to fair labour practices; and e) to administrative justice ...”

This means the SANDF may no longer apply a blanket exclusion of HIV-positive recruits or members. If it does then it is acting unlawfully.

The SANDF was also ordered to “immediately” employ one applicant as a trumpeter – a position he had previously been denied; and to “immediately reconsider” the foreign deployment of the second applicant – a healthy soldier living with HIV who has been in the SANDF for more than a decade.

Finally, the court directed that the SANDF formulate a new policy for “health classification” within six months – one that would not stereotype all people with HIV as automatically unfit. The order required that the new policy be lodged with the court and gave Sasfu the right to reply if it was still not satisfied of its fairness.

This was a far reaching and historic settlement indeed. It was a refreshing and rare example of government lawyers giving in to better judgment. It seemed that the SANDF had at last accepted, without even leading oral argument in court, that its policy was unlawful.

An attack on the case’s lawyers and litigants by an “analyst” for Jane’s Defence Weekly published in The Sunday Independent last week has little foundation in reality. Instead, Helmoed Roemer Heitman’s is a Boys’ Own depiction of army life. It adds insult to injury by suggesting that people with HIV cannot be mentally or physically fit for any job in the military.

It adds to stigma, to hysteria about the risks that people with HIV pose in the workplace by betraying its authors’ ignorance of how HIV is transmitted, medical knowledge and the reality of HIV/Aids in the militaries of Southern Africa.

The Aids Law Project (ALP), the lawyers in the case, never sought to deny the relevance of HIV to the military. The question was how it is managed. The surgeon-general accepted that prevalence of HIV in the SANDF is 23 percent. He also conceded that the aspects of life in the military make it an unusually high-risk environment for the transmission of HIV through unprotected sex.

Based on these sensible admissions, the suggestion that the military should be treated as if it is – or could ever be – HIV free became absurd. In fact, the real danger to military readiness lies in a refusal to put in place proper procedures for the management of HIV, on and off the battleground.

The ALP presented voluminous expert evidence to the court. This showed that HIV has become a manageable illness. An individual health assessment will determine fitness for deployment – not a blanket assumption that everyone with HIV is “sick”. Ironically, recognition that a nuanced approach to HIV is necessary had already led the SANDF to develop a protocol for HIV-positive aviators that allows them to continue to fly with some limitations. But, despite this, they continue to deny employment to trumpeters in the air force band.

The SANDF made wild justifications for its policy. But expert evidence made a mockery of this: ARV treatment can in fact be as simple as one pill a day (no different from malaria); antiretroviral side-effects can be appropriately managed; that the risk of contracting HIV from a bleeding soldier is 1 in 3 300 and that physical exercise is beneficial for people living with HIV.

Finally, the SANDF accepted that not all its employees engage in active combat. Indeed, government policy is that it is primarily a peacekeeping force. An accomplished trumpeter – one of the applicants – will not be in the frontline of battle.

Fortunately, South Africa is not a military state. The SANDF is subject to the constitution. Our courts have already held it to be so. As a result, the SANDF must conduct itself in a manner that respects fundamental rights. Like any other employer it must base its policies on sound scientific and factual data.

Therefore, it seemed eminently sensible when at the end of the applicants’ oral argument, lawyers for the SANDF asked for an adjournment and began to talk of a possible settlement. Indeed, after lunch, their senior counsel told the judge that she had been in touch with the office of the president, which was no longer opposing the matter.

This was apparently recognition that the practice of mandatory exclusion of HIV was in contradiction even with the cabinet which – the ALP showed – had stated on several occasions that people with HIV cannot automatically be denied employment, and that an individualised assessment was required. The policy was therefore inconsistent even with the government’s own stated position on HIV within the military.

This is why it is disturbing that, since the court order, several generals in the SANDF and acolytes, such as Heitman, are trying to re-open an issue that has been closed by legal agreement. It is unclear what they are trying to protect other than their comic-book romance of battalions of iron men, ready to drink blood, wade across roaring rivers and jump from planes to defend the fatherland.

The SANDF would serve us better by urgently revising its policy so that it properly addresses HIV prevention and treatment, and develops appropriate health standards according to job classification, post and mustering – as required by the law.

l Mark Heywood is the executive director of the Aids Law Project

l The SA Navy recently lost 22 qualified firefighters to the private sector due to outdated equipment and vehicles and non-payment of technical incentives resulting in extremely low morale.

l So Rear Admiral Litchfield-Tshabalala is back in office. As an officer and convicted criminal, what a fine example she is to her subordinates.

l I am in the air force and dying to leave because of politics, poor salaries, the boetie-boetie syndrome … and these are just a few of the issues. I wonder if the president knows he has such a messed-up Defence Force? Is there a way these issues can be dealt with on TV?

l Eskom, education, health, SAA and now the navy. Well-trained people are leaving these institutions in droves. All for the same reasons. Find out how many people have left Telkom. – Red van de Walt

l The South African Navy has as its leader, the Chief of the Navy, a man who has never served at sea. The appointment next year of the next Master at Arms of the Navy (the most senior Warrant Officer) has also never served at sea. I thought the navy was all about serving at sea. What a joke.

l I was at Langebaanweg Air Force Base for 20 years as a technician. I was awarded worker of the year in the air servicing unit that was the best in the air force for the year – and I did not receive a performance incentive. This is a good example of what’s going on.

l Admiral, a 1% per annum increase in salary as an incentive for working well is ludicrous. Where are our promised allowances? Time to set sail, guys.

l Wake up, admirals of the fleet, with your fat cat salaries. Your crews are starving and can’t provide for their families.

l I was forced to hand in my resignation because I demanded that white officers and two coloured instructors return PCs that were taken from SANDF premises to be used at home by their children. What the (black) admiral did is what the whites got away with for many years. – Senior comms technician

l With lies, no discipline, poor salaries, corruption, no leadership and prejudice coupled with nepotism, what defence force?

l Grants are unacceptable. They encourage dependency on the state which is funded by the real workers in society and not the politicians.

l Skweyiya, the poor don’t want grants, they want jobs. Where are the jobs the ANC has been making a noise about since 1994? You shouldn’t be giving grants to young, healthy people.

l Zola, I agree that the basic income support grant should be urgently tabled and implemented as many people have no work and are starving. A new age of prosperity will dawn.

l In many First World countries tail-docking is illegal and has been for years. A rottie without a tail is scandalous. Mutilation is what it is. Don’t kid yourself and think docking is quick and painless. I’ve been a veterinary assistant for years and the way puppies carry on makes me want to cry. Cruelty is cruelty, no matter how you look at it. – Victoria Butler, Darling

l Albany, New York, Louisiana, Maryland, Richmond, Virginia – these are all names that existed in America before it got independence from Britain. Washington was built by the Americans, not the British. Keeping the original names has done the US no harm. South Africa should follow the example. The new SA should give names only to cities and places created since 1994.

l Mr Jordan, the population is forecast to double by 2050. We need two of every town we have. All this growth is black. The white population is not growing, so race and history issues do not arise. I hope all these new towns will have new names so map-reading will be easier. We can keep the old and add the new, so doubling the number of towns.

l The letter from M Riordan-Bull last Saturday sums up our country and government, and it seems as if we are rushing down this lane without South Africans realising it. We are heading for complete disaster.

l M Riordan-Bull, the ANC became blatantly racist when Mbeki and his racist ‘leftenant’ Pahad took control.

l Does Rob Henry think his disability excuses him?

l Re ‘Mboweni’s madness’, at last someone sees reality. With inflation driven by factors Mboweni cannot control, like fuel and energy prices, it is no use increasing interest rates. Thanks, Weekend Argus.

l Higher interest rates assist in retaining foreign capital, strengthen the rand and thus fight imported inflation. They also discourage the creation of artificial money (ie credit) not linked to GDP which in itself weakens the currency.

l Jabulani, if only our leaders had your brains and your understanding we would all as Africans, no matter what our skin colour, be much better off.

l William Saunderson-Meyer, my husband has been a traffic officer in Cape Town for 34 years. About two years ago he suspended 60 derelict taxis over a period of five months and the thanks he got was to be investigated for being a racist after the taxi association complained. So please do not make out that traffic officers do not attempt to safeguard our roads.

l To the Nigerian drug dealers who keep giving my young daughter 'free' drugs, I hope you burn in the depths of hell.

l Is there any particular reason why there have been no lights on the N1 for four or five months for 500m from the Woodstock bridge incoming?

l To that woman who drives a blue Audi TT convertible from Table View in the mornings, get off your cellphone as you cannot keep to your side of the road.

The SA National Defence Union (Sandu), the country’s biggest defence force union, has called for the immediate resignation of Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota.

Hundreds of its members marched on the Union Buildings yesterday to hand over a memorandum of demands and grievances to President Thabo Mbeki.

The union also demanded the immediate resignation of Defence Secretary January Masilela, and a 19% wage increase. The demands have been met with outrage by the SANDF. Army chief Lieutenant-General Solly Shoke said: “It is unheard of in a democratic state for soldiers to ask for the resignation of a minister, a politician or any senior official. This conduct is a threat that requires immediate and urgent attention as it has the potential to develop into them even calling for the government to resign.

“We as soldiers have to serve the government of the day. This implies that soldiers are above party politics.”

The memorandum stated the Department of Defence was being crippled by weak leadership and bad management practices.

“After receiving five qualified audit reports, surely the further employment of Masilela as accounting officer of the Department of Defence is intolerable.”

Sandu said the last qualified audit report noted that millions of rand had been unaccounted for in connection with subsistance and travelling allowances. “This can only indicate poor and incompetent financial control and management.”

Sandu highlighted several problems in the SANDF.

“Bases are showing signs of decay and dilapidation. Many of the military houses pose a threat to the lives of our members and their families. In some bases there is no sanitation or water. In others, members are cramped into overcrowded military bungalows.

“Members who brought these matters to the media’s attention have been charged with divulging ‘state secrets’.

“Our attempts to address these issues with military authorities are being ignored.

“A disease of denialism has entrenched itself in the department’s management.”

Hundreds of soldiers are expected to march on the Union Buildings on Friday.

They're angry over what they call the exploitation of SANDF [South African National Defence Force] soldiers as well as inadequate working conditions and pay.

The union is calling for Defence Minister Mosioua Lekota and the Secretary of Defence to step down.

The union's Pikkie Greeff says they will hand over a memorandum to the President's office.

He says they are marching against Eskom, fuel and food price hikes as well as xenophobia.

Meanwhile, the protest action comes as Khutsong residents are expected to march to the ANC headquarters in the Johannesburg CBD.

They want to hand over a memorandum, protesting against the incorporation of the Merafong Municipality into the North West province.

Khutsong, which used to be part of Gauteng, falls in the Merafong area which straddles the border between Gauteng and the North West.

Police arrested three SA National Defence Force members in Musina on Wednesday for possession of illegal Zimbabwean-made cigarettes, Limpopo police said.

"They were in possession of 622 cartons of illegal cigarettes that were being transported into the country in a SANDF bakkie," said Superintendent Mohale Ramatseba.

Police stopped the men in Musina, and then arrested them.

They would appear in the Musina Magistrate's Court on Thursday, Ramatseba said.

Skilled and experienced workers who are critical to the maintenance of the SA Navy's fleet and its operations could lose their jobs, trade union UASA said on Wednesday.

In a statement UASA said the Navy had advertised positions presently occupied by its members, who were employed through labour brokers, as vacant permanent positions -- which meant that the incumbents were faced by sudden unemployment.

It said this comes despite the critical importance of their work to Navy.

Some had been deployed for the last 5 to 16 years by the Navy through various labour brokers.

"UASA is of the opinion that it would be in the interests of the Navy to appoint the incumbents to the advertised permanent positions without requiring them to apply for their own jobs, so as to retain the continuity, skills and experience of these key workers," said André van Zyl, operational manager of the metal and engineering division of UASA in the Western Cape.

He said the union tried to take up the issue with the Chief of the Navy as well as the Minister of Defence but to no avail.

"It would appear as if the SANDF, as with many other employers, has little or no regard for the principles of fairness and equity as enshrined in the labour laws of our land," said Van Zyl.

The Department of Defence was not immediately able to comment.

South Africa’s army chief has queried the existence of defence force unions, saying they have potential to cause chaos in the military.

Lieutenant-General Solly Shoke tore into the unions at an annual media briefing on the state of the army recently.

He said the unions had to be reined in and that he was “gravely” concerned by their conduct.

“If their conduct is not controlled, it may very well lead to anarchy in the defence force,” he said.

Shoke said he respected the ruling of the courts in establishing mechanisms through which soldiers could raise issues.

But he was unsure if the decision to establish unions for the military was right.

“We need to explore alternatives to ensure whether it is correct to have unions in the defence force.

“Soldiers are not ordinary citizens.

“They are the last line of defence for the republic.

“Their discipline and reliability should therefore not be in question,” he said.

Shoke said the taking to court of the defence force and defence minister over the proposal to dismiss a soldier who allegedly killed his commanding officer was the perfect example why there should not be unions in the defence forces.

“This can’t and shouldn’t be happening within the SANDF,” he said.

But the defence force unions criticised his “unfounded” statements.

SA National Defence Union national secretary Pikkie Greef dismissed Shoke’s claims, saying: “The lack of control, as the general puts it, shows the union is doing its job and protecting the rights of its members from unlawful conduct by the employer.

“It’s Shoke and his management’s blunders that are causing the anarchy.

“If defence force management was abiding by the labour laws and following the law, there would be no space for the union to obtain interdicts against the SANDF,” he said.

Greef said Shoke’s argument that unions, if not controlled, could cause anarchy was rejected by 12 constitutional court judges.

“Anarchy and chaos will only occur in the defence forces if management continues to mistreat its members.

“This mistreatment will result in low morale, which will inevitably result in a downward spiral of discipline,” he said.

SA Security Forces Union acting general secretary Matile Mmagare agreed.

He said the union “will be here forever and will continue to assist our members in the defence forces from across the world”.

The South African Security Forces Union is probably quite pleased with itself, having forced the SANDF to change its policy in respect of people with HIV.

In reality, the union has done us all, and its members in particular, a grave disservice; one that will sooner or later cost someone his or her life.

Advocate Gilbert Marcus is quoted as having told the Pretoria High Court, in arguing against the army’s exclusion of HIV-positive soldiers, that “this case is not about the relevance of HIV in the military context. The case is about the exclusion from recruitment, deployment and promotion of HIV-positive people, without any individual assessment of the state of their health”.

Mark Heywood of the Aids Law Project is quoted as saying, “It’s not like everyone loves combat, it’s that for many people, the military is a job”.

They both make a fundamental mistake: The key issue should have been the relevance of HIV in the military context; and military service is not “just a job”.

There is much that differentiates the military from other employment:

o Military personnel are subject to operational deployment;

o Military personnel are at risk of being wounded;

o Military personnel are expected to provide immediate aid to a comrade who is wounded.

It is primarily these factors that make HIV an issue that goes somewhat beyond any individual health assessment.

Deployment

Consider the realities of operational deployment.

Logistic support is always a difficult matter, and can be a nightmare in Africa: the distance to the theatre of operations and the distances within that theatre can be immense, which is complicated by road networks that are grossly inadequate at best and often an almost complete lack of infrastructure and little availability of even ordinary goods.

It will, therefore, not be a simple matter to ensure that there is a ready supply of ARVs and any related medication available at every base to which an HIV-positive soldier might be deployed.

It could also be extremely difficult to arrange quick replacement of medicines lost in an accident or to theft.

Supply flights are not a daily occurrence, are costly and can take time to arrange.

It is also not just a matter of getting the medicine from South Africa to the logistic hub of the peacekeeping force. It must still get from there to the South African unit, which will depend on priorities set by the Mission Headquarters and not by the unit, and then to the forward patrol base where the soldier is stationed.

All of that can prove to be an effectively impossible task if the weather closes the only available airfield, or if the one road to the base becomes insecure because of rebel ambushes and raids.

There can also be other difficulties. The Sudanese government, for example, will only allow medicines approved by their own authorities to be delivered to units serving with the AU/UN force in Darfur.

Worse, they require the complete waybill of every flight two weeks ahead of time, and will not allow even minor changes.

Let us assume for the moment that the actual supply of medication can be assured. We must now still ensure that the soldier always has sufficient medication with him. But patrols and operations often run longer than anticipated and move into areas outside the original planning.

Moving to a worst case situation, what happens when a patrol is ambushed and must abandon its personal kit?

In such circumstances it is not unusual for soldiers to be on their own for several days before being able to rejoin their own forces.

What happens to the HIV-positive soldier whose medication is lying in his abandoned pack? Even in a case where the soldiers win the fight and return to their kit, it may well by then have been picked up by the opposing forces or stolen by local civilians.

One might, of course, argue that HIV-positive soldiers could be held back in the bases and not sent on patrol. That would be grossly unfair to the other soldiers.

It would also not be the perfect solution: not so long ago a Nigerian Army company was forced out of its base in Darfur by guerrillas, some of its soldiers being dispersed for several days before being rescued by other patrols.

Clausewitz said that “everything in war is simple, but simple things are very difficult to do”.

In theory, it is a simple matter to ensure that an HIV-positive soldier always has his medication to hand. In practice it may not be so simple at all.

There are other aspects: How to ensure that the deployed soldier sticks religiously to his medication regimen? How to deal with unexpected side-effects of the medicines?

What is the impact of stress, irregular and poor diet, extreme temperature gradients and lack of personal hygiene?

Those are all problems that are normal during operations.

There is also, of course, another potential problem: what happens to the HIV-positive soldier who is captured?

That does happen, even in peace support operations. If he is captured by regular forces there will be some chance of ensuring access to medication once he is away from the front area. If he is being held by bandits, rebels or terrorists, the chance of that is close to zero.

Wounds

By far the greatest danger, however, lies in the little technical problem that the soldier is at risk of being wounded.

The first step is always “buddy aid”, his comrades stop the bleeding, cover the wound to keep dirt out, and so on.

Will they be willing to do that for a soldier known to carry HIV?

Bear in mind that real wounds can be very different from those shown in the movies. The effects of high-velocity bullets, large artillery fragments and blast can be very messy indeed. Large, open wounds and massive bleeding are not unusual.

Worse, most of the soldiers around the victim are likely to have minor injuries, ranging from cuts caused by moving fast through rough terrain, through bullet splash and small splinter wounds, to small but quite bad burn injuries.

The soldier rushing to aid a wounded comrade is not going to have latex gloves and other protective equipment. He runs a very real risk of his open wounds being soaked with the wounded soldier’s blood and body fluids.

That is before we even consider mouth-to-mouth resuscitation for a soldier who may have been wounded in the face, neck or lungs.

It gets worse: It is not unusual in heavy combat for a soldier to be hit by a spray of blood from a wounded comrade, or even by pieces of tissue of a soldier blown up by a shell or mine.

Again, there is no protective clothing and there is no mask to keep blood out of eyes and mouth.

There is also the question of getting a wounded and perhaps burned soldier out of a knocked-out combat vehicle. That will at times be impossible to do without becoming covered in the blood and tissue of other crew members who may have been killed by the shell that hit the vehicle.

Evacuation

Nor will the medical orderlies that work directly with the troops be much better off. Yes, the medic will have latex gloves, a resuscitation device and perhaps even a face mask. But will there always be time to pull the gloves on? More to the point, will he have time to change gloves between treating different wounded soldiers, or will he be transferring blood, fluids and tissue from one wounded soldier to another?

Evacuating wounded soldiers under combat pressure can also be messy. There will be times when wounded soldiers are piled higgledy-piggledy into whatever vehicle is at hand, to get them out of the contact area and to where they can be treated. They will be lying in each other’s blood and fluids.

It is all very well to complain that the SANDF’s policy is unconstitutional, and to say “this case is not about the relevance of HIV in the military context”, but we need to be clear in our minds that the changes that are being forced on the SANDF will kill some of our soldiers sooner or later.

The union and its lawyers may enjoy their posturing now, but will they be there to stand up and explain when someone asks why their son or daughter was infected with HIV while helping a wounded comrade?

Or why that son or daughter died bleeding and screaming on the ground because no one would take the risk of infection and help them?

Or why a son or daughter died because the essential medication could not be supplied, or because unexpected side-effects could not be treated?

I expect not.

As a country we must take a more responsible view. We have a responsibility to our soldiers not to risk their health and their lives unnecessarily.

Putting someone who is HIV-positive into a situation where essential medication cannot be guaranteed, where there is a real risk of him or her being wounded, is not responsible. That is placing the health and life of that soldier and those of his or her comrades at unnecessary risk.

And that is immoral.