Mon séjour en Afrique du Sud (Cape Town)

Intake of more than 4400 a boost for peacekeeping operations in Africa

THE largest number of new recruits to join the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) in 10 years reported throughout the country last week for two years of training.

Swelling the ranks and funding a personnel exit mechanism are key to overcoming the problems of SA's poor military preparedness due to an ageing army burdened by health problems, including HIV/AIDS.

This intake of more than 4400 new recruits, which is the most substantial step the defence force has taken since 1994 to rejuvenate itself, will increase the number of soldiers who can be sent on peacekeeping operations in Africa.

About 9% of the defence force's personnel has been recruited in the past three years, and if its goal of an intake of 7000 a year is achieved, it will solve the problem of an ageing, ill army.

Last year the army had nearly 3000 terminations of service, almost 30% due to death.

Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota declines to put a price on a large-scale exit mechanism to speed up the departure of old and ill SANDF personnel.

It will, however, add impetus to the achievement of the government's desired racial profile of the defence force, but a sizable exit programme will also result in a huge loss of skills.

Lekota hopes this month's intake under the military skills development system, which entails a voluntary two-year national service programme, will be followed later this year by an intake of about 3000.

The defence department does not have the budget for a second intake and Lekota says he will ask the labour department whether it can fund aspects of military training from its budget.

Last year 75000 people applied to join the SANDF, most of them unemployed.

The multibillion-rand arms deal and the salaries of the topheavy SANDF have severely constrained funding for training a larger intake, an exit mechanism and operations.

With increasing demands for peacekeeping, SA is not in a position to supply any more troops than the 3000 in Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi, and the small contingent in the Darfur region of Sudan .

The SANDF dismantled a large part of its training infrastructure when compulsory national service was abandoned by the apartheid government . At its peak the system could handle more than 10000 national servicemen in two intakes each year.

The military skills development system does not guarantee a job in the SANDF. But, of an intake of 1690 in 2003 and about 2000 last year, only 200 recruits left the army last March at the end of their two-year stint.

The army recruits will receive basic military training at infantry battalions in Kimberley and Oudtshoorn until mid-April. They will then receive specialist corps training in such areas as infantry, armoury and artillery. The next stage is officers' training.

At the end of the two years, recruits who show the potential to become soldiers and officers will be offered the opportunity to stay in the SANDF or return to civilian life.

The programme is a critical, but small, part of achieving the defence force's goals outlined in its human resources strategy 2010 document released last year .

It warns of the threat HIV/AIDS poses and calls for a discarding of the "cradle-tograve" employment ethos.

Lekota has said that if the defence force continues with its current intake rate and its policy of rejecting applicants with serious health conditions, including HIV/AIDS, it can achieve a force where only 10% is HIV-positive.

Currently, he says, this figure is between 20% and 22%, but he insists this is not the prime health problem in the SANDF.