Mon séjour en Afrique du Sud (Cape Town)

Pay for those accused of crimes, including Boeremag treason trial trio, amounts to millions

THE MILITARY is struggling to win the battle of disciplinary hearings against its own members.

The SANDF has spent millions keeping soldiers accused of crimes on its payroll – including three of the accused in the Boeremag treason trial. The three have been on paid suspension since 2002.

Colonel Machiel Burger, Major Jacques Olivier and Major Pieter van Deventer, all from the South African Army, were arrested in August 2002 and later released on R10 000 bail each.

They all face charges of high treason and were suspended on October 9 2002. The details were in a defence ministry response to a written question in Parliament by DA MP James Lorimer.

The SANDF said the three Boeremag accused were awaiting civilian court proceedings and a decision on possible administrative discharges.

The SANDF did not provide costs of the suspensions but the DA has calculated that the three together cost the SANDF about R11.4 million while they were suspended.

Another expensive suspension is that of Colonel MD Kungwane, who was suspended in November 2002 and is on trial on fraud charges relating to the alleged submission of R380 000 in false demobilisation claims. The DA estimates that Kungwane has since then cost taxpayers R6m – more than 15 times as much as the amount of which he is accused of defrauding the state.

The SANDF listed 22 officers suspended with pay and another 14 suspended without pay. They face charges in military or civilian courts.

Those suspended with pay include members facing charges of treason, fraud, theft of military equipment, rape, armed robbery, attempted murder and extortion.

They also include members appealing against convictions of setting fire to a military office and killing a colleague, rape and culpable homicide.

They include Brigadier-General Nzima Nobanda, convicted in September 2003 in Kempton Park of shooting dead his daughter’s friend, Shane Coetzee, 19. At the time it was reported that the court heard that Nobanda had previous convictions for illegal possession of a firearm, drunk and reckless driving.

The DA estimated that paying Nobanda since his suspension in August 2007 had cost R1.1m.

Those suspended without pay include members facing charges of threatening senior officers, theft, housebreaking, rape, attempted murder and assault. These cases include a warrant officer accused of housebreaking and theft of a pair of boots, and a corporal acquitted in November last year of threatening a senior officer. He is still on suspension without pay pending his bosses briefing superiors on the case.

The DA estimate of R25m is two-and-a-half times the amount that the military records for suspensions.

Department of Defence annual reports for 2001/2 to 2007/8 state that suspensions cost a total of R10.5m.

According to the reports:

l The report for 2001/2 gives no details of suspensions.

l In 2002/3, seven people were suspended at a total cost of R319 445.

l In 2003/4, five were suspended at a cost of R151 191.

l In 2004/5, 14 were suspended at a cost of R421 854.

l In 2005/6, 12 were suspended at a cost of R312 046.

l In 2006/7, 44 were suspended at a cost of R4.9m.

l In 2007/8, 43 were suspended at a cost of R4.3m.

Most were suspended for more than a month but the reports do not indicate the length of individual suspensions nor the number on full pay.