Fresh from their disastrous deployment in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), some soldiers have turned their anger on their own top brass over a pay dispute, saying they are owed at least R600,000 each.
One of the aggrieved soldiers told the Sunday Times he and his comrades should have been paid R100,000 a month during their 15-month deployment as part of a Southern African Development Community (Sadc) force in the eastern DRC, but had received only R58,000.
The dispute is over allowances from Sadc that the soldiers say they did not receive in full. The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) has rejected their complaints, saying troops knew what they would be paid before their deployment.
Sadc paid the SANDF $49m (R876m) to contribute troops to the force. The South African contingent numbered 2,428 at peak deployment.
A military source told the Sunday Times high-ranking officers, doing a presentation last Thursday on battlefield allowances to some of the troops in Bloemfontein, were drowned out by disgruntled soldiers singing “The money was stolen”.
But the SANDF head of communications, Admiral Prince Tshabalala, who attended the event, said “there was no toyi-toying or protest”.
“The event remained peaceful and orderly,” he said. “Members sang traditional and morale-boosting songs. Such expressions are customary during military movements and should not be misconstrued as demonstrations or acts of defiance.”
But the soldier to whom the Sunday Times spoke gave a different version of events at the Tempe base. “There was a lot of top brass present. They took us to a nice room and tried to do a presentation about the money Sadc paid them. The soldiers were angry and interrupted them, then started singing ‘The money is stolen,’ in Zulu.”
The Sunday Times has seen a video of this.
“We are angry. Sadc paid the SANDF a lot of money so they could pay us allowances for risking our lives,” said the soldier.
“In normal times my salary is about R20,000 per month. During my 14-month deployment it was R58,000. This did not include the money paid by Sadc,” said the soldier
“According to our calculations, if you add the Sadc money to that R58,000, it should have been about R100,000 a month.”
There is also a well-documented history of our soldiers doing business with ladies of the night when they have too much money in their pockets
A shortfall of R42,000 a month would add up to R630,000 over 15 months.
He produced two payslips, one reflecting his normal peacetime pay of R20,000 a month and the other showing his DRC remuneration of nearly three times as much.
“The extra pay was standard SANDF additional deployment pay,” the soldier said.
“We get danger allowance when deployed in places where there may be danger, like border patrols or when there was unrest in KwaZulu-Natal. This works out to almost R20 a day. Then there is the special danger allowance of about R30 a day. We get this when we are deployed to a combat zone.
“There is also a R760 deprivation allowance you get for being away from your home and family and having to live rough. Also, an international obligation standard daily allowance of R277 per day.”
But even more was due to them, the soldier said.
“[Sadc] paid the SANDF money per soldier, for dry rations, wet rations, daily allowances, recreational leave allowances and daily incidentals, but that money did not make it to us.”
Tshabalala declined to disclose the breakdown of what soldiers earned, citing confidentiality, but said they knew what they were going to get before going to the DRC.
“During the demobilisation phase, all members were briefed and provided with relevant information regarding their return and entitlements.”
He produced a breakdown, on a Sadc letterhead, of the money the regional body paid the SANDF — a total of $49m.
Of this money, he said each soldier was allocated a daily troop allowance of $48.27, a daily incidentals allowance of $1.28, a daily dry rations allowance of $15, a daily wet rations allowance of $4,50 and a recreational leave allowance of $10 a day for up to 15 days of leave during each six-month period.
A senior SANDF source who asked not to be named said the soldiers had been given food in lieu of some of the cash — partly because of the way some troops behaved if they had too much money in their pockets.
“The soldiers are unhappy because the allowances for wet and dry rations were not paid to them. But the army provided the meals. They want the food and the money for the food,” the source said.
“Our men and women receive more than the soldiers of the other Sadc states. This has caused conflict between regional comrades in the past.
“There is also a well-documented history of our soldiers doing business with ladies of the night when they have too much money in their pockets while on deployment.”
But Pikkie Greeff, national secretary of the South African National Defence Union (Sandu), said the troops had given more than a year of “honourable service” but the allowances to which they were entitled had not been fully paid.
“The withholding of these allowances is unlawful under South African law,” Greeff said.
“Sandu is taking this matter seriously and is pursuing it at the highest level. We wrote a letter to the department of defence, demanding the following answers: What allowances were due? Who decided the amounts? Who decided not to pay them on time?
“Sandu has established that unlawful decisions were made to withhold the payment of certain allowances while deployed.”
He said the SANDF would meet the union soon to confirm payment arrangements.
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