Mon séjour en Afrique du Sud (Cape Town)

The air force has been described as close to collapse.

This is after Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota yesterday revealed that the SAAF has only 20 fighter pilots and in the past three years has lost 91 pilots and 822 technicians.

Answering a parliamentary question from Freedom Front Plus MP Pieter Groenewald, Lekota said reasons for skilled staff leaving included better salaries, more chance of flying actively and the perception by white staff that their career opportunities were restricted.

Responding to the news yesterday, Groenewald said bluntly it seemed that the air force was collapsing.

Helmoed Römer Heitman, military expert at Jane’s Defence Weekly, said the SAAF was indeed “on the cusp of collapsing” and warned that the situation was getting close to becoming “irrecoverable”.

Lekota, in his written reply, said the air force was training 123 new pilots and had four trainee fighter pilots.

Defence chiefs earlier this year told MPs the situation was bleak. They said they were losing skilled staff in droves to foreign countries, including Australia and the Middle and Far East, as well as to the private sector in South Africa.

They revealed that many of those who had quit were squadron commanders and said the SANDF had further lost about 910 technicians in 2007 – more than 11% of its entire technical staff.

Heitman said it was a fact of life for air forces everywhere that some of their trainees would later seek work in the private sector, and this was important for the economy.

He said the SAAF’s small operational budget meant that instead of flying 20-30 hours a month, some crews were flying as few as four hours and this was not only boring but well below the minimum required for safety.

Heitman said in addition to the factors Lekota mentioned, there was also dissatisfaction in all the country’s forces with the calibre of some of the officers who were promoted.

Technicians were often not well treated and were frustrated by a system that operated on the basis of maintenance being done “just in time” rather than “just in case”.

Groenewald said that, apart from the concern about the pilots, the “true crisis” was the huge loss of technicians.

“Without technicians, aircraft cannot be maintained or flown. This is also one of the main reasons why the Cheetah fighter jets were phased out four years earlier than originally planned,” the MP said.

The FF Plus had warned Lekota since 2005 that affirmative action and a restricted budget would lead to the air force collapsing, he said.

l Last year deputy minister of defence Mluleki George said in his budget speech that the Defence Department had devised a strategy to counter the exodus of pilots and technicians by introducing an incentive scheme and that they were looking at ways to encourage pilots to join the reserve force.

Sipho Mthethwa, along with two others, took the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) to court in May, successfully arguing that the military's policy on HIV/AIDS was unconstitutional.

He said despite winning the battle in court, the department overlooked him in its foreign deployment, a month after the milestone court victory.

During the court case, the three maintained the military discriminated against prospective members and serving soldiers seeking promotion, training and external deployment opportunities.

The Pretoria High Court ruled that the military was to draft a new policy by November.

The court also ordered the military to consider Mthethwa for foreign deployment, a sought-after privilege that allows soldiers to earn more than their usual salaries. The court also determined that the military was to provide employment to a trumpeter whose job application had been turned down because of his status.

The Aids Law Project, which represented the South African Security Forces Union (SASFU) , said it had written to the state attorney demanding an explanation for Mthethwa not having been deployed.

"Failure to do so would again result in court action," said Mark Haywood, executive director of the organisation . "We believe that in spirit they are contemptuous of the very order of court that they consented to."

Mthethwa, a physical fitness instructor and also an expert in gun technology, this week said he had been overlooked when a team was deployed to the Democratic Republic of Congo about a month after the court judgment.

No explanation was given except that the chief of the defence force was yet to issue an order permitting his deployment -- the first time the SANDF would have allowed an HIV-positive member on an external mission.

Mthethwa, who is on anti-retroviral drug treatment, said another infantry unit was also preparing to deploy to Burundi next month but he has still had no word. "It is frustrating because the court order said that I must be considered for deployment immediately," he said.

A spokesman for the defence department , Sam Mkhwana zi, said HIV/AIDS was not the only health reason for a soldier being disqualified from deployment. "When you go through the comprehensive health assessment you must be 100% ," he said. Mthethwa said he went through such an assessment in January. "The only thing wrong with me was that I'm HIV-positive," he said.

Defending its HIV/AIDS policy in court, the SANDF argued that science could not yet guarantee that HIV-positive people could withstand the extremely stressful conditions associated with deployment. Fearing a deluge of applications before it had set guidelines spelling out how to deal with job applications from HIV-positive people , the SANDF had also sought to delay offering employment to the trumpeter.

Yesterday SASFU national treasurer Matile Mmagare said he believed the trumpeter had not yet been employed by the military as he was away on a performance tour scheduled prior to the court ruling.

The Honeysucker is one of the world’s great euphemisms.

That sweet sounding device is actually the machine that sucks the sewage out of the conservancy tanks of homes in some small towns around the Cape.

You don’t want to be downwind of this beast when it starts pumping the stinking waste into its belly. Its operators are the modern mechanised version of the bucket-men who used to carry the excrement on their shoulders (and sadly still do in a few parts of the province).

To my eyes and nostrils this is a deeply unpleasant task and yet the Honeysucker guys in overtime action in Stanford on Sunday were full of good humour and solid competence.

I thought little of that until the city council garbage truck came backing down my Rondebosch road in the cold and dark hours of yesterday morning. Bang on schedule, as they have been every week for 10 years, including holidays such as Boxing Day, the refuse team cleared the street’s bins containing the preposterous amounts of rubbish generated in prosperous suburbs with levels of efficiency, energy and enthusiasm that I have rarely seen in any office context.

It was an impressive operation which was carried out with what I was about to describe as military precision until I realised that such a swift and clinical execution of a task is now completely beyond any part of the SANDF who would anyway have ordered a R3 billion submarine to do the job.

Along with the fresh memory of the Honeysucker heroes, the performance of the refuse collectors gave me a strange surge in optimism.

It’s been a grim couple of years in which the already tenuous thread of trust in the government and public services at every level has frayed very thin.

Few people now approach any contact with officialdom in any form with a belief that the process will be logical, quick and beneficial because, rightly or wrongly, there’s a dangerous prevailing assumption that politics, dishonesty, disinterest or incompetence (if not all four) will be encountered.

Horror stories abound about passports, pensions, planning approvals, speeding tickets, BEE fronting on tenders and learner’s licences to the point where it now seems almost macabre that Thabo Mbeki was initially characterised as Mr Delivery – the man who was going to shift the focus from theory and policy to actually getting things done.

Yet here are our refuse collectors, the frontline troops of the public service with, in many people’s terms, the worst jobs in the world, functioning superbly. I am aware of one international study that shows garbagemen to be the happiest workers of all but there was no explanation as to why. My best guess is that its far better to collect rubbish than to listen to it which is what most employees have to do all day.

I have dabbled with the thought of setting myself up as a management guru to spread the lessons of the disposal men to the cabinet, city council and the boardrooms. I would call the programme “A Load of Old Rubbish” which would be different from every other magical management formula only because of its honesty!

The potential is enormous.

All politicians and CEOs would be compelled to spend time with the Honeysucker so they could learn what their words really smell like.

As an incentive scheme for more moderate executive pay packages, the director with the highest number of options gets to do the clean out of the truck’s waste tank.

I would send the marketing team of any financial services company out to collect all the junk mail that has been sent in their name so they would finally realise how many of those wasteful envelopes are unopened when they hit the bin.

Supermarket bosses would also be confronted with just how much completely unnecessary polystyrene and plastic packaging they are generating.

As for the management of Eskom, they would be forced to try asking for their annual bonuses door-to-door, as the garbagemen do with their Christmas boxes, rather than just determining themselves that they deserve it.

The education department bosses would learn about the true meaning of something being Outcomes Based – the bins are either emptied or they are not.

In a broader context we could all benefit from a tour of duty with these guys if only to learn about how staggeringly wasteful we are.

Military legal boss Brigadier-General Ernest Zwane has claimed defence force top brass knew he was a convicted fraudster before they made him head of military prosecutions.

And, in a letter addressed to Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota and SANDF chiefs, Zwane claimed he himself informed one of the minister’s top advisers – Major General Bailey Mmono, the chief (adjutant general) of the SANDF’s military legal services division – that he was unqualified for the job.

Zwane, convicted of falsifying his qualifications and the illegal possession of arms and ammunition in 2005, wrote the letter in reaction to his administrative discharge from the SANDF last week.

He wrote: “I was emphatic to the adjutant general that I didn’t meet the requirements for the post in that I didn’t possess the requisite departmental courses in military law.

“I was mindful that I wasn’t of sound character as required by the Military Discipline Supplementary Measures Act and confirmed same with the adjutant general.

“It’s extremely unfair that I should be the fall guy in the event that the minister appointed me to the post on recommendation of the adjutant general, not based on a due and diligent inquiry whether I was a fit and proper person.

“I withheld nothing. Claims that my conviction and sentence were unknown to the department are artificial.”

Lekota’s spokesperson, Sam Mkhwanazi, yesterday said Lekota stood by his comments that, at the time of Zwane’s appointment, the information about his convictions was not made available to him.

Zwane said he had “no interest” in a position as director of military prosecutions, from which Lekota dismissed him shortly after news of his convictions broke.

Since Lekota axed him, Zwane said, he had “endured undue public crucifixion as a result of the innuendo that I had ambitions to the post ... whereas I was at the receiving end of a vicious anti-transformation campaign”.

He added: “All blame has been heaped on me for the minister’s lapse, by those who bear the greatest responsibility for the minister’s slip.”

The SANDF last week confirmed that Zwane had been given an administrative discharge, 23 months after Lekota reversed his military prosecutions post.

In this time, Zwane served as director of the SANDF’s legal support services – a position in which he was responsible for the recruitment, training and disciplining of military lawyers, and the appointment of military judges.

In response to questions about why it had taken the defence force so long to discharge Zwane, a departmental e-mail stated: “The department ... had to follow its internal processes to conclude the matter.”

Zwane said in his letter he had yet to receive any official record of his discharge from the defence force and therefore remained “a member of the SANDF in good standing”.

He said he would seek “redress” should Lekota not resolve his grievances over his “unreasonable and unfair” discharge.

Zwane’s grievances include claims that at least seven high-ranking defence force members retained their positions despite being convicted of serious offences. “The senior echelons of the SANDF are top-heavy with generals and flag officers with criminal convictions against their names for which they have not received amnesty,” he said.

He was seeking amnesty for his convictions.

Military legal boss Brigadier-General Ernest Zwane claims South African National Defence Force top brass knew he was a convicted fraudster before they made him head of military prosecutions.

And, in an explosive letter addressed to Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota and SANDF chiefs, Zwane claims he himself informed one of the minister’s top advisers, Adjutant-General Major-General Bailey Mmono, that he was unqualified for the job and not “fit and proper” to do it.

Zwane, who was convicted of falsifying his qualifications and the illegal possession of arms and ammunition in 2005, wrote the letter in reaction to his reported administrative discharge from the SANDF last week.

In the document, he states: “I was emphatic to the Adjutant-General that I didn’t meet the requirements for the post in that I did not possess the requisite departmental courses in military law.

“I was mindful that, regrettably, I was not of sound character as required by the Military Discipline Supplementary Measures Act and confirmed (the) same with the Adjutant-General …

“It is extremely unfair that I should be the fall guy in the event that the minister appointed me to the post on recommendation of the Adjutant-General, not based on a due and diligent inquiry whether I was a fit and proper person. I withheld nothing.”

Describing his arrest by the Scorpions as “Hollywood-style” and highly publicised, Zwane said “claims that my conviction and sentence were unknown to the department are artificial”.

Lekota’s spokesperson, Sam Mkhwanazi, yesterday said the minister stood by his comments that, at the time of Zwane’s appointment, the information about his convictions was not made available to him.

While the SANDF has confirmed his discharge, Zwane, however, claims in his letter to Lekota that he has yet to receive any official record of his discharge and therefore remains “a member of the SANDF in good standing”.

The report that an officer convicted of fraud for cheating while on his staff course has been appointed to command one of the army’s two brigades is deeply disturbing and bodes extremely ill for the army and the national defence force.

The battlefield is an exceptionally harsh and unforgiving environment, one that all too often punishes incompetence with death. The same holds true for aviation and the sea.

All three are also uncompromisingly equal-opportunity killers. It matters not whether you are white, black, male or female, or whether someone owes you something. All three kill with utter impartiality: foul up and you die.

Or, if you are an officer, someone else dies.

That is why there is no place at all in the military for incompetent officers – they kill their own soldiers.

That simple fact is well understood in all serious armed forces.

It is also well understood by the minister of defence. In November 1999 Mosiuoa Lekota in an interview by Jane’s Defence Weekly said: “To have someone placed in a command appointment who is not properly trained and qualified, would be like putting people into an aircraft flown by a half-trained pilot. It would border on criminality to entrust the lives of men and women in a war situation or in a peacekeeping operation to under-qualified leadership.”

An officer who cheated to pass a staff course was demonstrably not “properly trained or qualified” and was definitely “under-qualified”.

Why, then, has this officer been appointed to command a brigade?

Equally, there is no place in the military for dishonest officers. A task left undone and lied about, a report fudged because an officer could not be bothered to check the facts but had to get the report in on time, or equipment or stores sold on the black market will all, sooner or later, kill someone.

An officer who cheats to pass a course is clearly not honest.

Any officer found to be dishonest or incompetent should be shown the door. There is no excuse at all for retaining such people, let alone promoting them or, of all things, appointing them to command combat units.

Sadly this appointment and promotion are not entirely unique:

l In 1999 14 officers sued the Ministry of Defence to be awarded “passed staff course” certificates issued after the Army College declined to do so pending an investigation for cheating. The ministry backed down.

l A brigadier-general convicted of two cheating offences during a staff course was merely demoted to lieutenant-colonel instead of being cashiered, and was then rewarded by being sent on a foreign staff course. That is something that is normally reserved for exceptionally good officers. It is not normally used as a back door to allow a dishonest officer to once again be promoted, as happened in this case.

l An officer convicted of presenting forged degree certificates was nonetheless promoted to brigadier-general, reluctantly removed from a post after reports in the press, but still continues to hold that rank and fill a post.

l A rear-admiral convicted of assaulting a subordinate and of fraud, apparently remains in service in that rank.

There are also examples of officers who demonstrated extreme incompetence while in command appointments, who have been happily promoted since then – one of them into a critical training post.

One would also like to hear what has happened about the brigadier-general who shot to death a school friend of his daughter’s and the colonel who apparently sold off the trucks flown to Kinshasa for use by an SANDF detachment there. Are they, too, still in the defence force? Have they, too, perhaps been promoted?

One would also like to know what is being done about the reports that the SA National Defence Union chairman, a serving member of the SANDF, has threatened that “the next time we come here we will be in our uniforms and with our guns. We will lay siege to these headquarters until our demands are met”. Surely that is sedition? Is the matter being investigated? Will he be charged and brought to trial if he did make that statement?

And don’t forget the senior officer who made the country a laughing stock by having the military police seize and tow away the prototype vehicles on display at the War Museum in Johannesburg.

None of this has escaped the notice of other armed forces. One need merely speak to the defence attaches stationed in South Africa to appreciate that. The sometimes very scathing comments made by officers of other African armed forces are also witness to that.

To paraphrase comments made by some African officers: “Have you gone crazy? You are destroying a perfectly good defence force.”

Nor has this escaped the notice of serving officers, white or black, with the inevitable effect on their morale – and on the likelihood of them staying in the defence force. Good officers will not for long put up with incompetents being promoted and placed in key appointments.

They vote with their feet and leave the military.

And note the phrase “white or black” used above: it is not only white officers who are competent and who are upset by such unsuitable appointments and promotions.

There is any number of black officers who are extremely competent and professional, and who are equally unhappy.

For a time much of this was excused as being an unavoidable outcome of affirmative action. Certainly it was inevitable that some officers would be appointed to posts for which they lacked the experience, and the defence force was strong enough to absorb that.

Perhaps more to the point, many of those officers understood that, and made the effort to catch up and meanwhile drew on the advice of more experienced colleagues. While this was not an ideal situation, it was one that could be handled.

There was never, of course, any excuse to appoint or promote officers who were not willing to make the effort to become competent, or who were dishonest.

Today, 14 years after the integration of MK and Apla with the SADF and the TBVC armies (Transkei, Venda, Bophuthatswana, Ciskei) to form the SANDF, there is also no longer any reason for affirmative action to be a factor in deciding appointments and promotions.

Anyone who has not managed to muster the knowledge and experience to justify an appointment or promotion on merit, either could not be bothered to do so, or is simply too stupid to master the necessary knowledge and skills.

No such person should be kept on, let alone be appointed to key posts or be promoted to senior ranks.

Soldiers worldwide expect only two things of their officers, competence and integrity.

They want to be sure that you know what you are about, and they must to be able to trust you. They will overlook or forgive almost anything else.

Surely we owe it to our soldiers to ensure they can expect their officers to be both competent and honest?

Or do we simply not care if our soldiers die because their officers are incompetent and dishonest?

Le leader cubain Fidel Castro a adressé à son ami sud-africain Nelson Mandela, un message de félicitations pour ses 90 ans, dans lequel il le qualifie du "symbole le plus noble de l'humanité".

Dans un texte publié dimanche par le quotidien cubain Juventud Rebelde, mais rédigé vendredi, jour anniversaire de Mandela, il rappelle ses 27 années d'emprisonnement et l'assure que "ni la calomnie, ni la haine n'ont pu entamer ta résistance d'acier".

Fidel Castro, qui fêtera bientôt ses 82 ans, dont deux loin du pouvoir en raison de sa santé, entretient une forte amitié avec Mandela, qui reconnaît que la défaite de l'armée sud-africaine en Angola par les troupes cubaines, a contribué à la chute du régime de l'apartheid en Afrique du Sud.

"Tu a su résister et, sans le savoir ni le vouloir, tu est devenu le symbole le plus noble de l'humanité", écrit Castro à Mandela.

Et il ajoute : "tu vivras dans la mémoire des générations futures, et avec toi les Cubains qui sont tombés en défendant la liberté de leurs frères sur d'autres terres du monde".

Mandela a reçu les hommages de nombreuses personnalités politiques parmi lesquelles le président des Etats-Unis George W. Bush, et le candidat démocrate, Barack Obama.

SAPS spokesperson Sally de Beer said the operation, dubbed 'Exercise Shield,' is aimed at honing in security-related skills to ensure a safe environment in host cities during major events.

The operation includes securing the national airspace and the maritime environment as well as other strategic key points, meaning uniformed members, vehicles, aircraft and vessels will be stationed in and around the city and at its airport and harbour.

Joint activities will be intensive between 30 July and 1 August with aerial simulations both during the day and night.

"Some of the most elite members and units within the security forces will engage in simulated scenarios and enact certain aspects of our emergency contingency plans in order to neutralise any form of airborne, seaborne and land-borne threat.

"This operation is considered to be an excellent training opportunity for the security personnel to be deployed during the 2010 FIFA World Cup, which is just 23 months away," said Director de Beer.

The SAPS units to be utilised during this exercise include the Special Task Force; the National Intervention Unit; the National and Provincial Air Wing; Borderline and Ports of Entry Components; Emergency Services, which include the Flying Squad and Dog Unit; Crime Intelligence and Organised Crime Units; the Counter Assault Team as well as hostage negotiators and bomb disposal experts.

The Defence Force will also deploy various categories of personnel from the Air Force, the Army and the Navy with the necessary equipment and machinery.

"Assistance from Disaster Management coordination structures, the Civil Aviation Authority, the Air Traffic Navigation Services (ATNS) of the Department of Transport and various other structures will be integral to ensure inter-departmental support to the SAPS.

"The Civil Aviation Authority has already issued an Aeronautical Information Publication (AIP) which restricts - but does not ban - flights within 40 nautical miles of the Port Elizabeth airport," Director de Beer said.

With the exception of scheduled or official state flights, all other aircraft wishing to enter into the stipulated airspace between 31 July and 1 August must conform to the restrictions.

This entails applying for permission at least 24 hours in advance, submitting a flight plan and being subjected to a vetting process.

Any aircraft observed entering the temporarily restricted airspace without the prescribed authority will be subjected to interception, interrogation and possible prosecution, read the statement.

Ms de Beer said Operation Shield is an essential exercise to allow the security forces to merge their expertise to ensure that any crime or terror related threat is dealt with.

"We ask that the people of Port Elizabeth exercise patience and we regret any inconvenience, especially in terms of noise, that it may cause to some individuals.

"This exercise will afford us the opportunity to hone our skills and make all South Africans proud of their security forces and their country," she concluded.

Military prosecuting boss and convicted fraudster Brigadier-General Ernest Zwane has finally been fired – nearly two years after Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota claimed he’d already done so.

But the SA National Defence Force has denied there was anything untoward about Zwane’s 23 months in the job from which he was supposedly axed.

Zwane received nearly R1-million in pay in this time.

“Please be informed that the Department of Defence had to follow its internal processes to conclude the matter,” spokesperson Colonel Petrus Motlhabane said.

The Star has established that 42-year-old Zwane – re-elected first vice-president of the International Association of Military Justice – is “furious” at his discharge, and considering legal action, despite being guilty of faking qualifications

Zwane’s grievances include claims that at least seven high-ranking defence force officers have retained their jobs despite being convicted of serious offences.INTERNAL PROCESSES: Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota.

THE South African Air Force is set to declare ``war'' on the Royal Australian Air Force for poaching its top-gun fighter pilots and technicians.

An angry SAAF chief, Lieutenant General Carlo Gagiano, recently phoned his RAAF counterpart, Air Marshal Geoff Shepherd, to tell him to lay off, but was politely told the Australian Defence Force did not poach anyone.

Despite its ``no poaching'' policy, the ADF last year hired 30 highly trained former South African National Defence Force (SANDF) personnel. The RAAF took on 21 pilots, technicians and administrators.

The army picked up seven South Africans, including two chopper pilots, two air-defence officers, an infantry officer, intelligence officer and military policeman.

Even the navy got in on the act hiring a lieutenant commander (warfare officer) and communications technician.

Government policy prohibits the ADF from hiring serving members of foreign defence forces, but that hasn't deterred the South Africans who are drawn to Australia by higher pay, better conditions and lifestyle, and the opportunity to operate the latest military hardware.

They also want to be part of the ADF's high global operational tempo.

``He (Air Marshal Shepherd) stressed the first contact is always made by the foreign military member considering joining the RAAF, in most instances word of mouth and the Defence Jobs website are the catalysts for the approach,'' the RAAF told The Sunday Telegraph.

However, civilian airlines and engineering companies have no such restrictions and use recruiting agents to poach skilled South Africans. White officers are leaving the SANDF in droves in response to what many see as reverse discrimination where black officers are fast-tracked.

But, according to military commentator Helmoed-Romer Heitman, the frustration is also due to poor working and living conditions.

``Many white soldiers, whether they are in specialist service or not, believe that their promotion prospects in the South African Defence Force are very limited,'' he said.

The Weekend Argus newspaper reported South Africa's top brass had warned last April that the rate at which soldiers, sailors, pilots and technicians were being poached posed a serious threat to national security.

South Africa’s largest defence force union has threatened an armed siege of the military’s headquarters if its demands are not adhered to.

Delivering their week-long protest outside the Department of Defence’s headquarters in Pretoria, the South African National Defence Union yesterday (Sandu) said this was its final warning.

The protesters were soldiers from various infantry battalions and units around the country.

The warning comes a week after the general officer commanding of the army’s infantry formation, Major-General Themba Nkabinde, blasted soldiers in the infantry for ill-discipline and called for an urgent and immediate turn-around before an unstoppable state of chaos descended on the defence force.

Carrying posters calling for the head of Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota and Defence Secretary January Masilela, protesters, the majority of whom were from 4 South African Infantry Battalion, based in Middleburg in Mpumalanga, and the War College in Pretoria descended on the defence force headquarters.

Nearly 200 demonstrators marched up and down a picket line outside the headquarters.

The soldiers demanded wage increases as well as the immediate dismissal of Lekota and Masilela.

Sandu chairman Tshepo Motlhajwa, based at the Army War College, said: “The next time we come here we will be in our uniforms and with our guns. We will lay siege to these headquarters until our demands are met.”

Jeff Dubazana, Sandu’s chief negotiator, said the protest was a continuation of their protests from June.

Dubazana said while they had reached an earlier wage agreement, those agreements were only verbal and had now been reneged on.

Defence spokesperson Sam Mkhwanazi said in terms of Regulation 8 of Chapter 20, members of the SANDF have a right to peaceful and unarmed assembly, demonstration, picket and petition and to present petitions in their private capacity – but that such rights shall not be exercised by members while armed or in uniform.

Tshwane executive mayor Dr Gwen Ramokgopa has been honoured by the SA Military Health Services (SAMHS).

Ramokgopa was yesterday appointed as Honorary Colonel of 6 Medical Battalion Group of the Reserve Force Battalion of the SAMHS.

Her appointment was marked by a parade in her honour at Church Square and City Hall.

Ramokgopa, who was involved in the ANC’s armed wing Umkhonto we Sizwe, is the first executive mayor to be appointed as an honorary colonel in the SAMHS, as well as the first honorary colonel for the 6 Medical Battalion Group.

She is also the first honorary colonel to be appointed in the Reserve Force unit.

Other honorary appointments have been made only in the Regular Forces.

Other politicians who are honorary colonels in different units of the SAMHS are Health Minister Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, KwaZulu-Natal ANC provincial chairman Dr Zweli Mkhize and Limpopo Premier Sello Moloto.

Ramokgopa said she was honoured by the appointment and was looking forward to making a contribution to the SAMHS.

“I accepted this honour, being fully aware that there are many people in the country who are more befitting of it,” Ramokgopa said.

She lauded the SANDF for its positive work in the country and on the continent.

“The force was very instrumental during last year’s public service strike when hospitals were hugely affected.

“They also preformed their duties well when they supported the police during the recent xenophobic attacks that had rocked the country.

“They fully carried out their duty of maintaining peace in the country,” Ramokgopa said.

SANDF Surgeon-General Vijay Ramlakan said one of the reasons they chose Ramokgopa for the appointment was because she was a health-care worker and a medical doctor.

He said as a woman, Ramokgopa had eloquently and elegantly championed the cause of women over the years.

South Africa’s largest defence force union has threatened an armed siege of the military’s headquarters if their demands are not met.

Delivering an ultimatum outside the Department of Defence’s headquarters in Pretoria yesterday, the SA National Defence Union (Sandu) said it was a final warning.

The protesters were soldiers from various infantry battalions and units around the country.

The warning came a week after General Officer Commanding of the army’s infantry formation, Major-General Themba Nkabinde, blasted soldiers in the infantry for ill-discipline and called for an urgent turn-around before chaos ensued in the force.

Carrying posters calling for the heads of Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota and Defence Secretary January Masilela, nearly 200 protesters descended on the department’s headquarters.

Most of them were from 4 SA Infantry Battalion, based in Middleburg in Mpumalanga, and the War College in Pretoria.

Military Police prevented them from entering the headquarters, so they marched up and down a picket line, taunting several generals who passed them.

Singing protest songs, shouting “shoot to kill”, toyi-toying and blowing vuvuzelas, the soldiers demanded wage increases and the immediate dismissal of Lekota and Masilela.

Sandu chairman Tshepo Motlhajwa, who is based at the War College, said they would not tolerate the defence force’s continued “abuse” of soldiers.

“Next time we come here, we’ll be in our uniforms and with our guns. We’ll lay siege to these headquarters until our demands are met. We’ll do what the metro police did on the highway,” he said, referring to the recent shootout between Johannesburg Metro Police and the police on the M2.

“If it means we must use our guns and shoot to get the attention we need, we will. We’re tired of toyi-toying, handing over memoranda and trying to talk sense to these people.

“It is clear they don’t care about us. The buck stops here. We won’t allow this abuse to continue,” said Motlhajwa.

He said they were prepared to lay down their lives for a living wage.

Jeff Dubazana, Sandu’s chief negotiator, said the protest was a continuation of their protests from June.

“Our demands are that Lekota and Masilela step down immediately and that our wages be increased by 19%,” he said.

Dubazana said while they had reached an earlier wage agreement with the defence force, the agreement was only verbal and had been reneged on.

“We were prepared to compromise, but the defence force wasn’t.

“Our picket is a warning to the defence force that we won’t tolerate this abuse any longer.

“If the defence force doesn’t agree to our demands within a week, we’ll have a continuous picket outside the headquarters.”

Defence spokesperson Sam Mkhwanazi said members of the SANDF had a right to peaceful and unarmed assemblies, demonstrations and pickets, and to present petitions in their private capacity.

“Sandu has been exercising these rights without any interference from the Defence Department.

“But in terms of Section 200 (1) of the South African constitution, the SANDF must be structured and managed as a disciplined force.

“Any member or members of the SANDF who, by act or omission, causes actual or potential prejudice to good order and military discipline shall be guilty of an offence and as such the department will ensure that such member(s) are severely dealt with in terms of the law,” said Mkhwanazi.

Arrested on scores of charges from murder to terrorism, high treason, the Internal Security Act – even 12 charges of malicious damage to property, the members of an elite uMkhonto we Sizwe unit based in Mamelodi had been operating underground for an unprecedented 10 months before their arrest in April 1987.

But they refused to mount a defence, because to have done so would have been to legitimise the court case – and the state – and acknowledge their actions in the resistance to apartheid had been criminal. It was left to their lawyer, Peter Harris, to find a way of guarding their principles – and save them from the gallows.

His book, In a Different Time is the true story, albeit one written like a blockbuster thriller, of the Delmas four and their times, just as the entire edifice of the apartheid state began imploding. The book has been well received, something that’s taken the modest former human rights lawyer a little by surprise, but something nonetheless that’s given him a warm glow of satisfaction.

“A lot of people have said it was quite uplifting, taking them back to a time when people still believed anything was possible, a time when there was hope and high ideals.

Harris, who studied law at Rhodes University, was brought up in a firmly non-racial family in Port Elizabeth. It was as a first-year law student that he had his epiphany, entrenching those principles, when he read Nelson Mandela’s statement from the dock as Mandela faced the death penalty.

On graduation, he moved to Johannesburg where he did his articles after working at the Legal Resources Centre with Arthur Chaskalson, who would become the first president of the constitutional court and later chief justice.

He and another Michaelhouse old boy turned lawyer, Fink Haysom, along with Halton Cheadle and Clive Thompson, recognised though that more needed to be done so they formed Cheadle, Thompson and Haysom in the mid-80s.

“We wanted to start a big hitting firm that would specialise in resistance cases. Things were moving fast. We’d all come from big firms and we were practising serious law.

“Looking back, some people might think the times were ‘chilling, menacing or even exciting’, but at the time it just seemed endless. It was hectic.”

The Delmas Four was just one of Harris’ cases. At the time he had three or four on the go simultaneously. He was also drawing up papers in other matters and preparing urgent interdicts against the police, but it stood out for so many reasons. “It was an extraordinary story, a circle within circles, drawing in people like Chris Hani, Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma, but that’s the thing with South Africa, everything always connects.”

And his clients were extraordinary too. “They were ordinary guys, really nice guys and you can’t say that about all your clients. They had a quiet courage about them, a determination,” he remembered this week. “They didn’t become cabinet ministers or directors-general after liberation and they turned down senior positions in the SANDF.

“They said they’d had enough of war and just wanted to get on with their lives in the society that they’d fought for.”

The atmosphere in court was another thing that still stands out in Harris’ mind.

“A death sentence case is a heavy thing, it’s a blanket that hangs over the entire court smothering everything. It’s a coldness that goes straight to the bone.”

The police were obstructive and hostile, the prosecutors were something else altogether.

“They thought you were the enemy, they wanted the guys to hang. This wasn’t a job for them, it was their mission, their passion.”

Masina, Masango, Potsane and Makhura’s decision not to put a defence made the case open and shut. “That was it,” he said, “they would be sentenced to death, there was no defence, only one way to go.”

The four refused to do anything that would save their lives without the official sanction of the MK high command and the ANC executive. Harris would fly backwards and forwards to Lusaka, meeting Chris Hani, he would also see Govan Mbeki in Port Elizabeth. At first it was to inform them of the four’s stand, later it was to get the ANC’s permission to take the death sentence on appeal.

“The way the judge (Marius de Klerk) turned, accepting our extenuation case that they had been soldiers involved in a war was unprecedented in South African legal history. The way his two assessors then outvoted him was just as unprecedented.”

Just as unique was the fact that the four were able to stand in court on the day of sentencing clad in full MK combat uniform, as soldiers of a liberation army – something that had never been seen before in SA.

Masina, Masango and Potsane were sentenced to death and sent to death row in Pretoria, Makhura was sent to Robben Island. On death row, the three would meet Almond Nofomela, the police death squad killer from Vlakplaas. As activists Anton Lubowski, David Webster and lawyer Griffiths Mxenge were murdered by state assassins, it would prove to be a fortuitous link.

Those who remember their recent history will remember that Nofomela made a death cell confession that ripped open the hitherto secret can of worms that had been the regime’s death machine; how Nofomela’s former commander, police captain Dirk Coetzee defected to the ANC; how State President FW de Klerk set up the Harms commission to investigate the allegations, just before he unbanned the ANC and freed ANC leaders, chief among them Nelson Mandela.

Harris was part of it all. He and his junior, Bheki Mlangeni, found themselves in London as Judge Louis Harms took evidence from Coetzee at the South African embassy.

And, just as South Africa was on the cusp of democracy, the conspiracy that the book begins with, namely the building and despatch of a bomb, takes the book to its final thrilling and shatttering conclusion.

In the run-up to the watershed April 1994 elections, Harris was in charge of the Gauteng region of the National Peace Accord as South Africa struggled to bring about a state of affairs in which free and fair elections could be held. During the 1994 elections, he was in charge of the Independent Electoral Commission’s Monitoring Division with the responsibility for ensuring that the elections could be free and fair.

After this he led the establishment of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration.

From there his career, as MD of the Resolve Group, led him throughout Africa and all over the world advising governments on best practices, drafting policy on judicial reform and electoral practices.

If there’s one regret he has, it is the time he lost with his children when they were young and he was immersed in political trials.

He’s making up for that now and he’s heartened by the response to the book from people young and old.

“I’ve been getting e-mails from people I didn’t even know. I was a bit worried that young people might not be that interested in the ’80s, but the response has been phenomenal.”

It’s something that Harris believes stands the country in good stead for the challenges it faces now, 14 years into democracy.

“This country needs reminding of where we’ve come from and what we can achieve. The capacity of this country to surprise good and bad is phenomenal.

“There’s an inability in certain areas of government to deliver, plus there’s been a denialism in certain key areas of government. There needs to be an acknowledgement of the precise state of affairs and an accountability.”

The recent spate of xenophobia is a case in point. “It was a profound disappointment, that there were desperate people still living in poverty 14 years on. It was a basic failure of government to deliver on housing, human security, health, sanitation, jobs and schools, yet it can pay billions on an arms deal.”

But he is not without hope.

“I believe that while there are a lot of things that are saddening, this country is filled with good people with a lot of determination and commitment. It almost seems in the last year that the stark realisation has dawned that we’re in a tough place, we’ve realised that we’ve got a lot of work to do to deliver what we said we would to the people.

“Daily miracles do occur, bringing a lot of hope. We have exceptionally fine people and fine institutions that we must jealously safeguard because without them we will become another Zimbabwe. People must be careful of what they attack.”

n See a review of In a Different Time on Monday’s books page.

Around 200 defence force members are demonstrating outside the Defence Ministry's headquarters in Pretoria.

The soldiers want better salaries and are calling on President Thabo Mbeki to fire Defence Minister Mosioua Lekota.

They say Lekota is mismanaging the department.

Last month, the soldiers marched to the Union Buildings to highlight their problem and say that they still have not had a reply to the memorandum they handed over at the time.