SANDU: Soldiers are exploited

2008-05-22 18:43

Johannesburg - The SA National Defence Force Union (Sandu) on Thursday said it was concerned about calls to involve soldiers in dealing with the current wave of xenophobia-related attacks.

"The calling of the military to deal with a situation which falls directly within the responsibility of the law enforcement agencies of South Africa is undesirable," said secretary Pikkie Greeff.

"It is morally, legally and politically indefensible and would carry with it the message that soldiers were free to be abused for political ends."

He said soldiers were on daily basis suffering exploitation and indignity in their workplace, due to their inadequate salaries and management practices that were corrupt.

"Those who hastily call (for) the deployment of soldiers conveniently forget the reality that soldiers were exploited or simply do not care."

Legal and political risk

He said SANDF was not a law enforcement agency. "Its first and foremost task in our democracy is to defend our country against military aggression. To this purpose SANDF members are trained in conventional warfare which is not compatible to law enforcement doctrine."

"To deploy our soldiers in the ambit of law enforcement and expect them to apply SAPS doctrine and training, places them at risk legally and politically," Greeff added.

He said if soldiers were indeed to be deployed, it would constitute irrefutable proof that SA law enforcement agencies, and therefore by implication government, had lost control over the civilian population and were forced to seek a military solution to a socio-political problem.

"If indeed this is what the situation has digressed to, then it implies that the leadership of the current government has lost the confidence of its subjects and should therefore step down in order to immediately facilitate the taking of the reigns by a trusted and elected leadership."

- SAPA