NNP offers new commando plan

2003-05-06 13:10

Donwald Pressly

Cape Town - New National Party national leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk was to take a proposal to government ministers on Tuesday that the commando system be replaced with a new constabulary, but which would fall under the defence department.

The party describes it as a new dual-purpose paramilitary patrol force that could become known as the South African constabulary.

The plan was to be put to Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota and Safety Minister Charles Nqakula on Tuesday afternoon, said Van Schalkwyk.

At a news conference in parliament, Van Schalkwyk, who is also Western Cape premier, said he believed there had been a change in thinking from scrapping the existing system. The NNP was taking the gap and proposing that it be converted.

Acknowledging the commando system was dominated by white leadership while much of its lower ranks were "not drawn from the white community", Van Schalkwyk said the new system would inject greater representivity in the upper ranks.

The constabulary would consist of a "mobile, lightly-armed patrol force, comprising both full-time and part-time elements and incorporating not only the elements of the commandos, but also personnel from a number of other sources".

Proper training for all

"Ideally, the fully developed force would consist of about 20 000 full-time members - the national constabulary - grouped into companies stationed in specific magisterial districts to provide a nationwide network.

"A major source of these members would be selected from the army who are surplus at present, particularly slightly older members in the lower ranks and short-term service members whose contracts had expired," he said.

They would join, he suggested, about 100 000 part-time members - the regional constabulary - recruited from the existing commando reserve, plus new recruits who would undergo proper training.

Commandos, which are an inheritance from the Dutch colonial era, have been involved in vehicle patrols, roadblocks, manning of vehicle-control points, farm visits, border listening posts, railway station protection and cordons for police raids.

While carrying out police-like duties mainly in rural areas, the new constabulary could be used also for defence purposes in times of war, the NNP is proposing.

- I-Net Bridge (Business)