Army getting 'more youthful'

2006-02-10 09:35

Cape Town - The SA National Defence Force is slowly making headway in achieving a younger average age among soldiers, Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota said on Thursday.

Briefing the media at parliament, he said the SANDF was no longer concerned that most soldiers were too old to be effective in their tasks.

The SANDF was now taking in "several thousand" new recruits a year for training in the defence force - about 3000 in 2004 and 4000 this year - with an average age of 22, Lekota said.

While this was still nowhere near the goal of about 10 000 a year, the SANDF had to move cautiously because of budget constraints.

"So it (soldiers' age) is no longer a matter of extreme concern for us."

What was of concern, however, was finding the resources to allow those who wanted to leave the defence force because of for example their age, to exit with an adequate package, Lekota said.

- SAPA