The embattled South African National Defence Force (SANDF) must be turned into a developmental force, one that prioritises peacekeeping, promotes development and fosters democratic citizenship in South Africa.
The military’s reputation has been tarnished by its unprofessional and bungled withdrawal from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where it was supposed to keep the peace. Additionally, it has faced accusations of abuses in other African countries. It has also been criticised for poorly trained soldiers, patronage, corrupt BEE procurement practices, and mismanagement by incompetent ANC-appointed cadres.
Because many SANDF leaders have been appointed by the ANC, they often act more like politicians — pledging loyalty to the party leadership rather than the constitution or acting in the broader national interest. These leaders frequently deflect criticism of their incompetence, lack of professionalism and poor focus by blaming funding cuts. Yet the reality is that many defence forces around the world operate with a fraction of the SANDF's budget and still demonstrate greater competence and professionalism.
The government of national unity must review the role of the SANDF. There has to be an external review of its standards, competence and professionalism, compared to other equivalent global forces. But before such a review, all members of the force — from the privates to the generals — must urgently undergo training so they understand the constitution, democratic values, human rights and nonracialism.
The SANDF should not abandon its role as peacekeeper outside South Africa. However, its soldiers must undergo higher quality physical, combat and tactical knowledge training. It should also be dispatched on a long-term basis to areas within South Africa where law and order has broken down. The military could, for example, be permanently stationed on the Cape Flats and other gang-infested areas in the country, and be positioned near schools, communal and recreational areas, businesses and state property.
The SANDF must be deployed to areas where the rule of law has collapsed entirely — such as parts of KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape and North West — where criminal groups such as the so-called “construction mafia” have seized control of both public and private infrastructure projects.
Similarly, it should be tasked with confronting the zama zamas, the syndicates that have hijacked abandoned mines.
The SANDF must also be used to rein in the minibus taxi mafia — operators who act with impunity, flouting regulations, intimidating rivals and resorting to violence, including murder, to maintain dominance.
It should also play a greater role in responding to domestic disasters — whether triggered by climate events or human actions. Further, it should be used to help build and maintain critical infrastructure in remote and underserved areas .
As importantly, the SANDF can serve as a mass training centre for artisans, an important aspect of transforming the military into a developmental force. South Africa faces the highest youth unemployment rate among emerging markets. At the same time, the country suffers from a severe shortage of artisan and technical skills — those needed to drive economic growth, industrialisation and development in both fast-growing emerging economies and established ones.
The SANDF must be urgently repositioned as a developmental force — one that trains large numbers of artisans, instils constitutional and democratic values, promotes a culture of human rights, and fosters a national identity based on nonracialism and diversity
The SANDF possesses artisan training capabilities and is actively involved in training artisans. However, these programmes are far too limited in scale and remain disconnected from the broader national economy. During the apartheid era, the SANDF ran an extensive artisan training programme, which was significantly downscaled after 1994. The SANDF could be used to train at least 250,000 young people in artisan skills — including mechanics, electricians and plumbers — between now and 2029. The government should urgently introduce measures to create mass jobs for young people, including a special recruitment drive by the SANDF focusing on such artisan skills training.
However, it must also include compulsory democratic civic education training, including understanding South Africa’s constitution, democratic values, human rights, gender equality and nonracialism. Such an artisan recruitment drive must also promote South Africa’s core national identity of unity in diversity above narrow ethnic affiliations. Basic entrepreneurship and financial literacy should form part of the training as well.
There are several examples of defence forces that successfully combine technical training, democratic citizenship, inclusive nation-building and character development:
- Switzerland — a diverse, multilingual and multi-ethnic society — is one such case. Its mandatory military service embeds democratic civic values, a shared national identity, language inclusion, technical training and basic military skills.
- Singapore, another multilingual and multi-ethnic postcolonial society, where tensions once ran high, has similarly used its military to promote diversity, civic responsibility and technical competencies, though to a lesser extent than Switzerland.
The SANDF must be urgently repositioned as a developmental force — one that trains large numbers of artisans, instils constitutional and democratic values, promotes a culture of human rights, and fosters a national identity based on nonracialism and diversity.
• Gumede is an associate professor of the School of Governance at Wits University and author of Restless Nation: Making Sense of Troubled Times
For opinion and analysis consideration, e-mail Opinions@timeslive.co.za
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