DEFENDING THE RAINBOW NATION
In
2002 year Brigadier-General Ernest Zwane, head of the South African National
Defence Force's legal department, was arrested by the Scorpions after claims
that his CV was decorated with an illicit BA degree from the University
of Fort Hare and a B Proc and LLB from Vista University. He joined the
SADF in 1996 with the false tertiary qualifications and was initially appointed
lieutenant colonel. Bail was set at R5000.
He was found guilty of
two cases of fraud and sentenced to five years imprisonment, suspended
for five years, after both degree certificates proved to be false. For
the illegal posession of a firearm and ammunition he was fined R4 000 and
R1 000 respectively, or one year and six months jail sentence.
Zwane was elected 1st
Vice-President of the International Association of Military Justice; the
Statute of which states inter alia:
"VII
– promote the highest standards of Military Justice and Human Rights enforcement."
On the picture at left
above he signs the Statutes of the Association at their second international
meeting, after being elected 1st Vice-President.
He was promoted to Brigadier-general
in 2006 and in August of the same year Min Mosiuoa Lekota, minister of
defence, approved his appointment as Director of Prosecutions, explaining
that "for his previous position he did not need any legal qualifications,
but he has potential." He also failed the advanced military law course,
which all military law officers must pass before being able to undertake
any legal work in die defence force.
The
South African Defence Force (SADF) boasts with the lowest ratio of the
number of defence force staff to generals in the entire world.
Defence minister Mosiuoa
Lekota repeatedly assured the public that he is "intensively" looking into
the matter of reducing the number of generals. Despite this, it was announced
in November 2003 that a further 19 new generals would be appointed - four
for the navy and army (the latter the largest section of the SADF) each,
and eleven for the air force. This is over and above four military attachés
abroad, whose ranks were also raised to that of brigadier-general.
During the previous year
the SADF already boasted 207 generals, which for a total staff complement
of 70 000 gives a ratio of one general for every 338 soldiers.
Compared with this, the
army and navy (marines) of the United states has one general for 4000 and
2000 soldiers respectively. A country such as Sweden has only 15 generals
for a total force of 270 000 soldiers, which gives a ratio of 18 000 sodiers
per general.
It is known that a number
of SADF generals has already been on two years home leave, whilst continueing
to receive full salaries. Some of them have even been promoted during this
time of leave, although they never go to work. Most of them are elderly
"officers" from the previously so-called "liberation armies" who
were integrated into the SADF after 1994 and are waiting for a more favourable
pension dispensation.
The
decline in the fortunes of the SA Army began after the handover of power
to the ANC in 1994, when members of the armed wings of both the ANC, and
a smaller more radical black movement, the PAC, were incorporated into
renamed South African National Defense Force (SANDF). These two armed wings
were known as MK and Apla respectively.
Signs of racial enmity within the ranks of the SANDF, driven by the presence of former MK and APLA cadres, boiled over into naked murderous racist anti-white sentiment in 1999, when on 16 September of that year, a former APLA guerilla who had been inducted into the SANDF, killed eight white soldiers at the Tempe military base in Bloemfontein. (1)
A special police investigations team were "reluctantly forced to admit" that Lieutenant Sibusiso Madubela, 28, had brushed aside black colleagues to kill six white officers and a white civilian woman and wound five white soldiers. (2) He was given a hero's burial in his hometown of Umtata.
According to a South African parliamentary subcommittee briefing on defense, held in July 2002, the SANDF suffers from the following problems:
This means that a total of 474 soldiers in 1 SA Infantry Battalion, or 77,5 percent, have bad teeth, which renders them unfit for service. Speculation is rife as to the cause of the bad teeth pandemic, with theories ranging from Aids causes through to indiscipline. The SANDF has refused to comment. (15)
Colonel Mokhosi also told MPs the general state of health was so poor that the unit received 175 sick notices a week in winter, which was preventing the battalion from participation in certain training program. (16)
Many of the army's other 38 000 unfit soldiers also have dental problems. (17)
It seems as if the SANDF suffers not only from bad teeth, Aids, and no equipment, but also from general staff members who have faked their qualifications in order to land themselves plum jobs.
At least two SANDF generals, Ernest Zwane and Petronella Mari, both former members of the ANC's armed wing, MK, were arrested in November 2002 for forging their tertiary qualifications. (18) Zwane was found guilty of two cases of fraud and sentenced to five years imprisonment, suspended for five years, after two degree certificates proved to be false. For the illegal posession of a firearm and ammunition he was fined R4 000 and R1 000 respectively, or one year and six months jail sentence.
In addition, police arrested two other ex-MK soldiers, a SANDF colonel and an ex-colonel, on charges of fraud of about R20 million of the SANDF demobilization fund in 2001. (19)