The Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, has established a three-person team to probe cases of sexual offences reported in the South African National Defence Force.
The team will be chaired by Thoko Mpumlwana.
According to SANDF spokesperson, Siphiwe Dlamini, the team will "review all the cases surrounding allegations of sexual offences in the SANDF".
"The report that was compiled for the Minister with the list of all the sexual offences allegations will be used by the three-person team to review all sexual offences cases after which the Minister of Defence is going to engage publicly on the matter," Dlamini said.
However, he said, "it was very worrying that a confidential report that was prepared for the attention of the Minister could find its way into the public domain and in particular the media."
Details of the report were published in the Mail and Guardian which said it had established that there were at least 41 sexual-related cases that have been reported in just the past 18 months.
According to M&G, the offences ranged "from rape and assault to harassment and crimen injuria", adding that of those cases, 26 were finalised, with 13 guilty verdicts and 11 acquittals.
Dlamini told Algoa FM News that the terms of reference for the special team need to be drawn up and which will establish time-frames for the completion of the investigation.
