PRETORIA, November 1 (ANA) The Chief of the National South African Defence Force General Solly Shoke has welcomed calls by the Minister of Police Fikile Mbalula to deploy soldiers in gang-ridden areas of Cape Town.
Shoke, who was speaking on Wednesday at a media briefing held in Pretoria at the Waterkloof airforce base, said: “If called, we will duly comply, we don’t deploy ourselves and we don’t make decisions as to where we go, but we are ready.
“We are soldiers, we take orders, we don’t determine what we do, we go anywhere, any direction where the country needs us to go. But when you deploy us you must be ready to accept the consequences thereof because we ‘donner’ (hit you hard), we don’t take nonsense….We are not trained to combat crime, we are trained to win battles.”
Last month, Mbalula announced in a statement that he was requesting the SANDF to help quell gang violence in Gauteng and the Western Cape.
Even though they are willing to be deployed, Shoke said the SANDF has issues of budget constraints.
“The budget of the defence force has been shrinking over a period of time and as it shrinks we pay the very same people…. The shrinkage is more on the operational side because we cut the budget, we rob Peter to pay Paul.
“More and more tasks are being given to the defence force. Right now, as we speak, people are calling for the defence force to deploy and help the police to fight crime and we cannot do that without personnel, you need boots on the ground.”
Shoke said he would be meeting with commanders of all units in SANDF in the afternoon to discuss issues of importance in the army; including the proposed deployment, issues of discipline, budget constraints, elements of criminality in the armed forces, operational issues and security around the borders of the country.
“More serious and disturbing is the issue of criminality, it’s something we have to deal with and ensure that we address issues of that nature,” he said.
“I think you are aware that this year we had the most embarrassing situation where soldiers were allegedly robbed of their weapons, but when the matter was followed up it points as criminals within the defence force.”
Shoke said the SANDF is in the process of going to parliament to review the military disciplinary act to be allowed to impose harsher treatments for misconduct.
“Discipline is paramount in any organisation to succeed, but in the defence it’s a must.”
Relating to the matter where a member of the SANDF based in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo tried to kill himself after he allegedly shot dead his girlfriend last week, Shoke said they are still looking into the matter and will allow the law to take its course.
“That member is currently in hospital and we are busy with the process of repatriating the remains of the deceased.”
Shoke emphasised that misconduct in the defence force will not be tolerated.
“We are entrusted with protecting members of the country and we can’t have members who are not disciplined, they don’t belong here.”
– African News Agency (ANA)
