Black navy officers are incensed by the arms deal-related posting to Germany of a white warrant officer recently convicted for unseemly behaviour.
Last month Warrant Officer Paul Psaradelis flew to Germany to join the hand-picked navy crew doing the groundwork for fetching three submarines and four corvettes procured in terms of the government’s R50-billion arms programme.
In December last year a former navy clerk told a military court that Psaradelis had forced her into masturbation sessions at work, ejaculating on her office carpet. The 22-year-old woman claimed he had also molested her at his home and elsewhere over a nine-month period, forcing her to quit her job at the Simon’s Town Naval Dockyard.
She consistently denied having a consensual affair with Psaradelis, as alleged by the long-serving warrant officer.
But military judge Commander Gordon Wardley found there was a ”reasonable possibility” she had consented to a sexual relationship. The judge nevertheless fined the warrant officer R3 000 for his unseemly behaviour in the workplace.
Asked earlier by the judge how many times he had ejaculated in the clerk’s office, Psaradelis said: ”For that exercise I would say about five times, sir. There was never ever a forcing, because I never went straight into a masturbation or a fondling.”
Testifying in mitigation of sentence, Manager Submarines Graham Collison said it had been an honour to have Psaradelis on his team. The conviction for his behaviour at the submarine shed had not changed his opinion. Psaradelis’s engineering discipline had been outstanding.
In passing sentence, the judge took into account the testimony on Psaradelis’s exemplary performance over 34 years’ service.
But the accused should have known better than to bring his private life into the workplace. He had gained the trust of a vulnerable person with an unfortunate history regarding men, the judge said.
Disappointed by the sentence, the former clerk wrote to the defence minister deploring the fact that Psaradelis was still in the navy. The ministry acknowledged receipt on February 25 and promised an answer. Six months later she is still waiting.
Black navy officers see Psaradelis’s overseas posting as a travesty of justice. ”A conviction for drunken driving would disqualify a black warrant officer from an overseas posting,” said one. ”But the defence ministry has allowed a sexually ill-disciplined warrant officer to go to Germany.”
Rear Admiral J Mudimu, Chief of Naval Staff and a former Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) member, denies that disciplinary records are used to exclude black members. Responding to questions, Mudimu also denied that any black candidates qualified for the German posting.
Psaradelis had been punished and was still the best person for the job. He was one of two marine engineering officers in the submarine service who could do acceptance inspections on the subs being built in Germany. One of these two officers had to keep a navy submarine operational in Simon’s Town for training purposes.
The navy would have preferred to send younger men and women to Germany, said Mudimu (Psaradelis is in his fifties). But the experience required for the acceptance inspections was scarce, which meant the navy had to rely on the few who were able to do the job.
Navy members insist, however, that other suitably qualified people, including black non-commissioned officers, could take on the assignment.
Reports of discontent among navy members contrast with a South African National Defence Force report last year to a parliamentary committee noting an ”injection of momentum” into the navy’s recruitment of black members.
Of the 4 675 uniformed navy members, 28% are African (170 officers and 991 NCOs), 11% Asian (20 officers and 423 NCOs), 30% coloured (41 officers and 1 174 NCOs) and 31% white (293 officers and 924 NCOs).
But Psaradelis’s posting is cited by black members as further evidence that their increased numbers in the navy amount to window dressing.
”To make up the numbers, black officers and non-commissioned officers, some of them integrated into the navy from MK and [the Azanian People’s Liberation Army], have been given ranks of lieutenant and lieutenant commander, chief petty officer and petty officer,” said one officer.
”On paper this looks very nice, but these people are not being given effective posts that carry respons-ibility, lead to advancement in the navy, or influence policy.
”Three to four are made to share an office and one or two computers … They’re frustrated. It’s a matter of time before things explode.”
Mudimu countered that he himself was second in command of the navy after Vice-Admiral Johan Retief. Another black officer commanded the South African Naval College.
But submariners, combat officers and technical personnel couldn’t be recruited, and had to be trained. This process was lengthy, he said, and could cause frustration.
The arms programme has opened advancement opportunities in the navy, the major beneficiary of the package. The first of four new corvettes is expected to sail from Germany in 2003 and the first of three submarines in 2005. Black navy personnel want the new opportunities to be equitably distributed.
Mudimu says young black members are being trained to serve aboard all vessels, including the new corvettes and submarines.
But another black officer is critical: ”Collective knowledge runs the military. Black personnel are prepared to work their arses off. But if they’re not in the circle which taps into the old boys’ network they don’t get the information they need.
”I know. I’m black and I battled to get where I am today.”