Mon séjour en Afrique du Sud (Cape Town)

Disadvantaged youngsters benefiting from defence department-funded training should look elsewhere for help if they did not intend working back their dues, Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota said on Monday.

"Anybody that wants to buy their service afterwards and go away, no thanks, we don't want you," the minister said.

Beneficiaries should be willing to do something for their country because their country did something for them, Lekota said.

He was briefing reporters on efforts to upgrade the SA National Defence Force's human resource base, including the so-called Youth Foundation Training Programme.

It provides young South Africans subjected to the vestiges of inferior apartheid-era education with an opportunity to upgrade their matric marks in mathematics, science, biology and geography.

They can then pursue sponsored tertiary studies in fields like medicine and engineering, with a view to securing skilled staff for the military.

R11 million was set aside for 225 students registered for the programme in the current financial year.

Beneficiaries needed to commit themselves to plough back two or three years' paid service to the military, Lekota said.

"After that time, if I should so choose to go to civilian life ... I should leave behind two or three years of service so that the SANDF may be able to continue to do the same for those in similar circumstances than myself.

"And if at any future time the SANDF or my country should call upon me to come and join the service for a period, I remain available as part of the reserve forces."

Anyone not prepared to accept this approach "must go look for a bursary somewhere else, must not join this programme", the minister said.

A total of 883 people have completed the programme since 2001, of whom 715 were appointed in the Department of Defence.

Lekota said the military skills development system, aimed at ensuring a continuous intake of young, deserving, healthy South Africans, aimed to increase its annual uptake from the current 6000 to 10,000 within two years.

This programme provided youngsters not only with military skills but also others they could use in civilian life after completing their military service, the minister said.

"It also provides our youth with employment opportunities."

As to the department's Mobility Exit Mechanism, Lekota said it was not a retrenchment tool but a means of boosting the "rightsizing" and rejuvenation of the human resource component over the medium term.

Members who accepted it as an option, could choose to migrate to other government departments or take a retrenchment package.

Lekota said the department had downsized its staffing levels from 101,353 in 1996 to 76,000 currently without retrenchments.

In the current financial year, more than 1000 members have applied to exit the department.