Bafana Khumalo
Sergeant Sibusiso Gwala left his army base at Thabatshwane in Pretoria in August 1997 to rush to KwaZulu-Natal when he heard his father, African National Congress leader Harry Gwala, had died.
“This was a blood relative and it was important for me to be there,” he explained this week, expressing bitterness that attending his father’s funeral had been one of the reasons why he was dishonourably discharged from the army in January.
Gwala had been attending an officers training course in Oudtshoorn when he received a signal from his commanding officer, Captain Lavett Kriek, “informing me that I must be withdrawn from the course because I had been discharged from the army”.
He was court martialled last November on seven charges – ranging from being absent without leave, failing to provide a superior with the name of his legal representative and “using threatening or insubordinate language”.
Gwala joined the ANC’s armed wing, Umkhonto weSizwe, in 1981. He spent most of his years in exile in Angola and was trained as an artillery specialist by the Cubans and served the ANC as a political commissar. He was integrated into the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) in 1995.
The SANDF this week said Gwala had been found guilty at six summary trials and two courts martial on charges of absence without leave, absence from a place of duty, drunkenness, unfitness to perform duty, insubordination and the use of threatening language.
“To have kept Sergeant Gwala away from the course without knowing the outcome … would have been detrimental to his career if the sentence was not confirmed,” said army representative Major Merle Meyer.
Gwala’s problems with the army started the day after he returned to his base after attending his brother’s funeral in Greytown in June 1997.
“I couldn’t make it back on Monday and they said that I had gone absent without leave, even though I had taken leave,” said Gwala, who had provided his commander with a death certificate to prove that his brother had indeed died. He was served with papers telling him that he would be facing court martial proceedings.
“When I was told of these charges I was shocked and wrote a letter asking for clarification and I did not get any response to that.”
Two months later tragedy struck when his father died and Gwala believed he had no choice but to attend the funeral. When he returned he was told he would face an additional charge of being absent without leave.
This led to a series of meetings, including one where his commanding officer asked him to provide him with the name of his legal representative.
Gwala’s lawyer called Kriek and left a message on her answering machine explaining that he would be appearing at the court martial.
“This was interpreted as disobeying an order because, according to her, she did not order me to tell him to call her but told me to bring the name to her personally,” Gwala said.
Gwala was found guilty of all the charges after the court martial and had to await the findings of the military tribunal.
Meanwhile, his application to attend an officers’ training course in Oudtshoorn had been successful and he started the training on January 24. He did not complete the course.
When he returned to Pretoria he was met at the station by military police. “I was told at the station that I must go to the barracks and clear out immediately,” he said.
Gwala believes that his discharge from the SANDF is part of a concerted attempt to frustrate the careers of former Umkhonto weSizwe cadres in the armed forces.
“They are just sweeping out all the comrades,” he said.