'Cops not viable as commandos'

2003-03-17 17:04

Cape Town - South Africa needs to establish a paramilitary force to replace the commandos, which are to be phased out, says Jane's Defence Weekly southern Africa correspondent and defence analyst Helmoed Heitman.

Addressing a New National Party seminar at parliament on Monday, Heitman said there was no chance President Thabo Mbeki, because of political considerations, would reverse his announcement that the commando system would end. Alternatives now had to be considered.

Although Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula had said the South African Police Service would extend its sector policing strategy from urban to rural areas as the commando system was phased out, this would not work.

It would be impossible for police, as things stood now, to take over all the many and diverse functions of the commandos. This would leave a big gap.

Among other things, there were about 800 to 900 commandos on duty on any given day, out of an active force of about 47 000, many of them working without pay.

These could not be simply replaced with 1 000 new permanent police.

Police 'field force' needed

Furthermore, the commandos, being virtually area bound, knew their districts and people well - something that could not easily be replaced.

Heitman said it was necessary to establish a "police field force" of some kind, possibly along the lines of the European gendarmerie or constabulary model, falling under the defence department.

As a reserve force, it would not be very expensive, and the existing commando structures could easily be used as a basis for the new force.

Heitman said young South Africans also could be enlisted into the force on short-term contracts, and possibly be given the opportunity to learn a trade or other skills at the same time, to prepare them for when they returned to civilian life.

Speaking at the seminar, military analyst Willem Steenkamp agreed on the need for a reserve-force constabulary or gendarmerie.

However, in the past the reserve forces had done a good job.

The commandos themselves were formally established about 1658, "but the roots of the concept can be traced back at least 150 years before that, because it resulted from cross-pollination between the tactical doctrines of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and the Khoi".

Almost half of the commandos were black - some units only black - while many others had been fully integrated since the early 1980s.

Steenkamp said less than 1 000 commandos were deployed each day, and from January to August 2001, they carried out more than 79 600 "area actions", including road blocks, foot and vehicle patrols, farm visits, and cordon-and-search operations.

- SAPA