End of the road for sex major

2003-11-23 21:46

Erika Gibson

Pretoria - The case against Major Ria Vivier, the female officer who had affairs with two junior officers, is not about high or low moral values or a soldier's right to freedom of association.

That is what judge Ismail Hussain of the Military Appeal Court in Thaba Tshwane said when he ratified the military court's earlier decision against Vivier and corporal Neil Sanna, her fellow accused and one of the married men she had a relationship with.

He said it was about the effect their escapades had on military discipline and whether the defence force should tolerate it.

Although Hussain upheld the military court's guilty verdict against Vivier, he changed the sentence from cashiering to dismissal.

He upheld Sanna's sentence of dismissal.

After the ruling, Vivier said she was shocked and disillusioned. She and Sanna plan to take the matter further in the High Court.

"I do not believe either of us deserved such a sentence. I have 22 years service in the defence force and a clean record before this case.

"It leaves a bitter taste - especially because there were so many good times."

Vivier, Sanna and sergeant Eddie van Meyeren, with whom she also had a sexual relationship, were part of the South African contingent of the United Nations peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of the Congo when they "set tongues wagging".

In their appeal case, Vivier and Sanna alleged that they did nothing wrong, and that there had been a racist conspiracy against them.

The court found no evidence of this and Hussain rejected the claims of racism.

Hussain said that Vivier had no remorse about her actions.

"She was also not shy to share the intimate details about the incidents with the country's media."

- Beeld