SANDF heads back to border
THE South African National Defence Force is preparing to resume its operations at the country’s border posts, defence chief General Godfrey Ngwenya has said.
The SANDF began pulling out of border posts last year, ceding authority of manning the borders to the police. It had withdrawn from the Namibian, Botswana, Lesotho and Mozambique border posts, but remained on duty along the Zimbabwean border.
Speaking after the parliamentary debate on the Department of Defence and Military Veterans’ budget on Friday, Ngwenya said the police had earlier indicated that they would cope with the task of manning the borders. He said the SANDF was preparing to return to the borders, but stopped short of saying the police were not coping.
Minister of defence and military veterans Lindiwe Sisulu told parliament that the defence of borders should remain in the hands of SANDF. “This will ensure we can release the police to deal with crime in the country.” She added that the SANDF needed to play a “more active role in assisting the SAPS to deal with crime issues”.
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05 Juillet 2009 à 11:13 dans
- zsandf (anglais)
