More army sexcapades
2003-07-17 08:22
Erika Gibson
Johannesburg - A South African soldier probably faces a large civil claim after fathering a child with a 14-year-old girl in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
He could also be charged with statutory rape even if the girl consented to sex.
Senior officers said this week the defence force was just as much to blame for this mess because condoms are made freely available to soldiers.
"You don't give someone a licence, and then tell them not to drive," said a soldier.
The corporal from Johannesburg was stationed in Kisangani last year as a cargo handler.
The girl apparently told him she was 17 - a year older than the minimum age of consent in the DRC.
The girl apparently phoned him to say she was pregnant after he had returned to South Africa last October.
He presumably admitted to his superiors the condom he'd used had split. Soldiers say this happens regularly with the "inferior products" they are given.
He apparently told her he would return to the DRC to sort things out. In April he was redeployed to the country.
Shortly after his arrival the girl arrived with the newly born baby at the South African base in Kinshasa. She threatened to abandon the child there or throw it away.
The South African welfare official apparently had her hands full with trying to help the girl. Everything from clothes to baby food was sent from South Africa.
The girl is apparently being urged to make demands. She apparently wants $5 000 maintenance as well as a house.
The United Nations (UN), under whose control the South Africans fall, are currently investigating the case and offering support to the corporal.
The girl, who apparently began to waltz into the camp whenever she felt like it, has been banned from the base.
She refuses to undergo DNA tests to establish beyond doubt that the corporal is the child's biological father.
The corporal apparently has an excellent track record at work. He has been giving the girl money for the child, and has since been transferred to another base.
Senior officers say the defence force now wishes to make an example of the case and "ruin a wonderful guy's career".
"What did the defence force expect would happen after they handed out condoms so freely. Discipline is the keyword, and that's what the defence force should concern itself with."
A defence force spokesperson admitted on Wednesday the case was being investigated, and more details would only be released later.
When the South African soldiers were deployed in the DRC two years ago they were warned by defence force law officers that civil claims could be brought against them if they fathered children with local women.
UN investigations have found that women in poor countries where UN soldiers are deployed, regularly regard such children as passports out of desperate poverty.
- Beeld