SANDF members in sleazy video

2003-07-27 07:42

Sphiwe Mboyane

Johannesburg - City Press is in possession of a secret video-tape showing members of the South African Air Force on a drinking spree and a uniformed white female stripping off her bra and showing her breasts to a bemused group of male officers.

The sleazy film comes at a time when black soldiers are becoming increasingly vociferous, often privately, about how they get punished for the same things that white soldiers get away with, often because it is covered up.

The video and an accompanying CD-ROM also show a female officer touching her male colleagues' private parts and another female officer smoking dagga during a crime operation in which bags of dagga were recovered.

In one scene, a female officer and her male counterpart are seen squeezed together in a single bed.

The raunchy video was recorded two years ago during the officers' command staff training in Polokwane.

The video has apparently been kept by the defence intelligence unit and is understood to have been viewed by the Air Force board. City Press has a copy.

Gyrated

In another scene, Captain Natasha Dames is shown taking off her bra and showing off her breasts to admiring male officers, who watch gleefully.

It was apparently recorded on April 5, 2001 and took place about 23:00.

As if that was not enough, Dames moves over and sits on Captain Deon Smit's thighs.

He seems more than happy to tie her bra and slip his hand right under her pants.

"Moenie jou gat vir my wys nie (loosely translated as 'Don't show me your behind')," another officer says during the incident. She then climbs on top of the table, unzips and gyrates in front of her colleagues. Lieutenant-Colonel R Laubscher, a senior directing staff officer who was lecturing during the training course, is seen wearing a captain's rank and, elsewhere on the video, Dames is shown donning the badge of a lieutenant-colonel.

Captain Yolanda Klein-Schutter and directing staff officer Lieutenant-Colonel Kruger are shown in one shot cosying up to each other in bed. It was about 01:00.

In one of the scenes, Laubscher is seen boasting to his colleagues of how he is going to "kak" with the female officer in the room.

"Ek gaan haar lekker lek" (meaning 'I am going to lick her nicely'), says Laubscher, closing the door.

Search for copies

A senior general in the Air Force this week confirmed to City Press the board had viewed the video.

There have been several desperate attempts to find any existing copies of the video.

According to Section 33 of the Defence Act, an officer who is drunk on or off duty shall be guilty and can face up to a year in jail.

Section 44 of the same act stipulates that any officer who wears any decoration, medal or clasp or any other decoration or medal ribbon or worn stripe to which he is not entitled shall be guilty of an offence and can face up to three months in prison.

In one incident on the CD-ROM, Klein-Schutter is wearing a skimpy skirt with a red star embedded on her thighs.

The picture was previously published in a Sunday newspaper, leading to her children accusing her of embarrassing them.

There are also pictures of a glass of beer covered with a bra, bottles of beers all over the room, and officers engaging in sexually suggestive poses during the training programme.

An SANDF spokesperson, Colonel John Rolt, said the SA Air Force condemns the behaviour, which is contrary to military discipline and the code of conduct.

Unfitting behaviour

"The Air Force is, however, currently not in a position to respond to the statement and the questions raised in your inquiry. Further investigation is required in this regard," he said.

The bizarre revelations come in the wake of a military tribunal at Thaba Tshwane in Pretoria where Major Ria Vivier is in the dock on charges of unfitting behaviour and public indecency which arose out of her alleged sexual involvement with Corporal Neil Sanna.

Vivier maintains the charges levelled against her stem from racism because of her alleged involvement with a black man.

A reputable defence lawyer who has represented several soldiers in military courts said last week the officers involved should, like Vivier, face charges of lewd behaviour that threatened military discipline, unbecoming behaviour and public indecency.

- City Press