Military leaders usually know when to attack. Only the best of them know when to retreat. The SANDF waited too long before backing off this week from its attempt to seek judicial review of the Cameron Commission’s decision to release certain sensitive documents to the public. This newspaper had already published an earlier version of the same documents — and by its delaying tactics, the SANDF had suffered heavy losses to its credibility as a new South African force.
The SANDF charges that, by publishing the essential information, we deprived the defence force of its legal and constitutional right to a review of the Cameron decision. In fact, what we deprived it of was the scope to continue a ludicrous quest to use taxpayers’ money to keep information away from the taxpayer. The SANDF was trying to block the commission set up by its own minister, Joe Modise. This was clearly an untenable situation that highlighted the failure of the ministry to exert political control over the military and did little credit to the men in uniform.
A crucial debate over the size of the military budget and the desirability of our arms industry is taking place. Thankfully, this is no longer a debate settled solely by men in uniform and their attempt to control the discussion by withholding information is falling apart. One hopes our publication of the list of which countries South Africa has been willing to sell to in the past will fuel the debate and drive home to the military that its days of making self-interested decisions behind closed doors are over.