Whites won't be excluded'
13/06/2006 08:31 - (SA)


Cape Town - The defence force rejected claims on Monday that it was excluding whites from promotion.

But steps had to be taken "from time to time to try and correct an abnormality", defence ministry spokesperson Sam Mkhwanazi said on Monday.

"It is not an exclusion. It is an exercise at a particular time that aims to meet representivity imperatives," he told Sapa in response to criticism to white soldiers not having been chosen to attend a recent officers course.

"We might, for example, from time to time target females in terms of the policy of the government."

The Freedom Front Plus accused Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota of having misled whites when he recently urged them to join the defence force.

'Make merit the criterion'

"This is quite clear from the fact that the military has opened its officers forming course exclusively to black, brown and Indian soldiers," defence spokesperson Pieter Groenewald said in a statement.

"No straight thinking person would join an institution if he knows that he would not have opportunity for promotion."

If the minister wanted whites in the defence force he had to stop affirmative action and make merit the criterion for course attendance and promotion, Groenewald said.

Mkhwanazi cited the fact that whites constituted about 75% of colonels and lieutenant-colonels in the defence force. This had to be corrected by promoting more black soldiers from the warrant officer ranks, he said.

Equally, there was a deliberate strategy to correct the under-representation of whites at the lowest levels of military hierarchy.

No aims to exclude other racial groups

"It is very important that people understand nobody is going to be excluded," said Mkhwanazi.

In a statement, the Department of Defence said government policy required all departments to comply with its representivity imperatives.

The force currently had 569 white colonels and 269 "African" ones. There were 1 192 white lieutenant-colonels, against 454 Africans.

"The issues of officers formative course ... seeks to address the ... imbalances and by no means is aimed at excluding other racial groups from joining the SA National Defence Force."



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