THE South African military will try to recruit 10,000 youths a year on a voluntary basis, Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota told parliament on Tuesday after ruling out conscription.
“Ensuring constant access to high quality personnel is a challenge for any defence force. Consequently we are recommending to the country the introduction of a service system,” he told MPs in his budget vote address.
Lekota, who has previously mooted conscription but then backed off, said the military planned to take in youths under 22 years of age on a voluntary basis. Lekota said young recruits would undergo two years of military training and would then be free to decide whether they want to pursue a career in the military or return to civilian life.
If they opted for the latter they would be encouraged to serve in the army’s reserve force, he added.
“This will enable the SANDF (South African National Defence Force) to retain the necessary average age and best physical capacity among the bulk of the members of the national defence force,” he said.
“We aim for an annual intake of 10,000 young people.”
Lekota has in the past said greater recruitment of young soldiers would help to alleviate unemployment, which is estimated at above 30% in South Africa.
His representative Sam Mkhwanazi on Tuesday said there are currently some 71,000 professional soldiers in the SANDF. The figure stood at about 130,000 when the government began integrating apartheid-era soldiers and the guerrillas of the former liberation movements into a single defence force after the advent of democracy in 1994.
It has since been cut back by a restructuring programme that aimed to bring the defence force in line with the racial demographics of the country.
During the apartheid era, the white-minority government established a conscription service that targeted white youths only, those refusing to serve being sent to jail for up to six years. – AFP