Mon séjour en Afrique du Sud (Cape Town)

South Africa’s defence force has had to content with its fair share of controversy this year as it battled to ensure that its fighting forces are healthy, properly trained and equipped to carry out various tasks at home and across the continent.

The decommissioning and sale of the air force’s Cheetah fighter squadron and the loss of scores of pilots and ground crew have seen the air force battling to keep itself afloat as it awaits the delivery of state-of-the-art Gripen fighter jets which are expected to be fully commissioned by 2012.

The sale, along with no medium nor long range anti-aircraft missiles means that South Africa has been left with virtually no fighter cover or air defence capabilities needed to protect its ground forces and cities should a major crisis erupt.

While four of the Gripens have arrived, it is still a long way until the full complement of 24 is acquired.

This, along with the admission by the SANDF’s Surgeon-General Vejay Ramlakan that 28% of the defence force, which mirrors the country’s population, is infected with HIV/Aids, shows the crisis facing the defence force as it enters 2009.

The alarming disclosure comes after the army sharply criticised the Pretoria High Court for ruling that the army could not discriminate against people infected with HIV/Aids.

The criticism was by army chief, Lieutenant-General Solly Shoke, who said to defend and protect the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, the army required fit and healthy soldiers.

Shoke, in his annual state of the army media briefing, criticised the court, saying it unfortunately had not considered the broader picture when making its ruling.

The ruling – that the SANDF had six months to formulate a new health classification and testing policy – was made after the South African Security Forces Union and the Aids Law Project (ALP) turned to the high court to have the SANDF’s policy regarding HIV-infected people set aside.

The ruling came months after a sex scandal rocked the South African Military Health Services.

In February, Pretoria police along with their military counterparts openly clashed with military medical students during a raid following apparent drunken “sex orgies” at defence force barracks in Thaba Tshwane.

The clashes forced MPs to request back-up from the Pretoria flying squad and surrounding city police stations after they were attacked with bottles, furniture and other objects when they tried to restore order after over 100 students barricaded roads within the Military Health Training Formation compound with tables, dustbins and chairs as they partied through the early hours of the morning.

During the clashes, students, many of whom were caught in the throes of various sexual exploits with civilians, took control of strategic positions on stairwells and in passageways as police stormed the barracks.

Another controversy which haunted the defence force this year was the report about nine anti-aircraft gunners who were killed last year during the annual army combat readiness exercise, Exercise Seboka.

The report, made public by then defence force minister Mosiuoa Lekota at the beginning of the year, showed that a mechanical failure had led to the deaths and the injury of 15 others.

According to Lekota, the mechanical failure occurred when a metal pin on a Swiss/German Oerlikon 35mm MK5 anti-aircraft gun sheared during a live firing exercise at the army’s combat training centre in Lohatla.

Lekota claimed the failure was caused by a known defect, which was allegedly kept secret by the gun manufacturers, Oerlikon Contraves AG (OCAG), based in Switzerland.

It appears nothing has come from Lekota’s allegations.

However, a high note appeared to be the arrival of the US nuclear aircraft carrier, the USS Theodore Roosevelt in Cape Town, showing the belief and increasing interest foreign navies have in South Africa as a powerful naval ally, especially when it comes to the continent’s defence.

Another high was the arrival of the navy’s third submarine, SAS Queen Modjadji I, which sank various foreign vessels during an international maritime exercise while coming home on its maiden voyage from Germany where it was built.

Exercise Atlasur 7 saw the Modjadji pitted against some of the world’s most sophisticated warships during the international naval exercise conducted off the South African west coast.

The soon-to-be acquired six in-shore and off-shore patrol vessels and the formation of the maritime reaction squadron (MRS) will put the navy back on the international naval power map.

The new vessels, along with the MRS, will help South Africa to protect both the continent’s and its own coastal and inland waters from foreign aggression, terrorists and criminals such as pirates and poachers out to plunder Africa’s sea resources.