DEFENDING THE RAINBOW NATION

In 2002 year Brigadier-General Ernest Zwane, head of the South African National Defence Force's legal department, was arrested by the Scorpions after claims that his CV was decorated with an illicit BA degree from the University of Fort Hare and a B Proc and LLB from Vista University. He joined the SADF in 1996 with the false tertiary qualifications and was initially appointed lieutenant colonel. Bail was set at R5000.
He was found guilty of two cases of fraud and sentenced to five years imprisonment, suspended for five years, after both degree certificates proved to be false. For the illegal posession of a firearm and ammunition he was fined R4 000 and R1 000 respectively, or one year and six months jail sentence.
Zwane was elected 1st Vice-President of the International Association of Military Justice; the Statute of which states inter alia:
   "VII – promote the highest standards of Military Justice and Human Rights enforcement."
On the picture at left above he signs the Statutes of the Association at their second international meeting, after being elected 1st Vice-President.
He was promoted to Brigadier-general in 2006 and in August of the same year Min Mosiuoa Lekota, minister of defence, approved his appointment as Director of Prosecutions, explaining that "for his previous position he did not need any legal qualifications, but he has potential." He also failed the advanced military law course, which all military law officers must pass before being able to undertake any legal work in die defence force.

The South African Defence Force (SADF) boasts with the lowest ratio of the number of defence force staff to generals in the entire world.
Defence minister Mosiuoa Lekota repeatedly assured the public that he is "intensively" looking into the matter of reducing the number of generals. Despite this, it was announced in November 2003 that a further 19 new generals would be appointed - four for the navy and army (the latter the largest section of the SADF) each, and eleven for the air force. This is over and above four military attachés abroad, whose ranks were also raised to that of brigadier-general.
During the previous year the SADF already boasted 207 generals, which for a total staff complement of 70 000 gives a ratio of one general for every 338 soldiers.
Compared with this, the army and navy (marines) of the United states has one general for 4000 and 2000 soldiers respectively. A country such as Sweden has only 15 generals for a total force of 270 000 soldiers, which gives a ratio of 18 000 sodiers per general.
It is known that a number of SADF generals has already been on two years home leave, whilst continueing to receive full salaries. Some of them have even been promoted during this time of leave, although they never go to work. Most of them are elderly "officers"  from the previously so-called "liberation armies" who were integrated into the SADF after 1994 and are waiting for a more favourable pension dispensation.

The decline in the fortunes of the SA Army began after the handover of power to the ANC in 1994, when members of the armed wings of both the ANC, and a smaller more radical black movement, the PAC, were incorporated into renamed South African National Defense Force (SANDF). These two armed wings were known as MK and Apla respectively.

Signs of racial enmity within the ranks of the SANDF, driven by the presence of former MK and APLA cadres, boiled over into naked murderous racist anti-white sentiment in 1999, when on 16 September of that year, a former APLA guerilla who had been inducted into the SANDF, killed eight white soldiers at the Tempe military base in Bloemfontein.  (1)

A special police investigations team were "reluctantly forced to admit" that Lieutenant Sibusiso Madubela, 28, had brushed aside black colleagues to kill six white officers and a white civilian woman and wound five white soldiers. (2) He was given a hero's burial in his hometown of Umtata.

According to a South African parliamentary subcommittee briefing on defense, held in July 2002, the SANDF suffers from the following problems:

• More than half of South Africa's 76,000 soldiers are medically unfit and the SANDF is in a "serious crisis".  (3)
• Of its 76,000 troops, the SANDF could deploy only one operational brigade of 3,000 men. (4)
• It was "impossible" to deploy 19 regular army companies and 23 reserve platoons because of a lack of funds.  (5)
• Training had virtually come to a halt. (6)
• Equipment was in a deplorable state, with only four out of 168 Olifant tanks and eight of 242 Rooikat armored cars still operational.  (7)
• Lack of funds had caused a shortage of fuel. In the air force, funds were allocated for only 2,400 flying hours instead of the 7,200 requested, and pilots were resigning in droves. "The air force usually runs out of aviation fuel every September," said a member of the portfolio committee. (8)
• Reduction of the armed forces from 104,000 in 1994 to the present 76,000 had involved massive cash payouts. This had turned the defense force into "an armed welfare department", said Hendrik Schmidt, a DA portfolio committee member. (9)
• The defense force was seriously top-heavy, with a ratio of one general for every 293 men, compared with a general for every 2 000 men in the United States army. (10)
• More than 52 percent of the defense force budget was spent on personnel costs and only 0,5 percent on new equipment. (11)
• Aids is a major problem. The portfolio committee was told that seven out of every 10 deaths in the armed forces were Aids-related. (12)
• A medical specialist at one of the country's military hospitals said six out of every 10 soldiers tested HIV-positive after being admitted to hospital, and that an Aids infection rate of 60 percent was "feasible". (13)

This means that a total of 474 soldiers in 1 SA Infantry Battalion, or 77,5 percent, have bad teeth, which renders them unfit for service. Speculation is rife as to the cause of the bad teeth pandemic, with theories ranging from Aids causes through to indiscipline. The SANDF has refused to comment.  (15)

Colonel Mokhosi also told MPs the general state of health was so poor that the unit received 175 sick notices a week in winter, which was preventing the battalion from participation in certain training program. (16)

Many of the army's other 38 000 unfit soldiers also have dental problems. (17)

It seems as if the SANDF suffers not only from bad teeth, Aids, and no equipment, but also from general staff members who have faked their qualifications in order to land themselves plum jobs.

At least two SANDF generals, Ernest Zwane and Petronella Mari, both former members of the ANC's armed wing, MK, were arrested in November 2002 for forging their tertiary qualifications. (18) Zwane was found guilty of two cases of fraud and sentenced to five years imprisonment, suspended for five years, after two degree certificates proved to be false. For the illegal posession of a firearm and ammunition he was fined R4 000 and R1 000 respectively, or one year and six months jail sentence.

In addition, police arrested two other ex-MK soldiers, a SANDF colonel and an ex-colonel, on charges of fraud of about R20 million of the SANDF demobilization fund in 2001. (19)

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