The South African National Defence Force rejected claims on Monday that it is excluding whites from promotion — but steps have to be taken ”from time to time to try to correct an abnormality”, defence ministry spokesperson Sam Mkhwanazi said.
”It is not an exclusion. It is an exercise at a particular time that aims to meet representivity imperatives,” he said in response to criticism of 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 Minister of Defence Mosiuoa Lekota of having misled whites when he recently urged them to join the defence force.
”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 wants whites in the defence force, he has to stop affirmative action and make merit the criterion for course attendance and promotion, Groenewald said.
Mkhwanazi cited the fact that whites constitute about 75% of colonels and lieutenant colonels in the defence force. This has to be corrected by promoting more black soldiers from the warrant-officer ranks, he said.
Equally, there is a deliberate strategy to correct the under-representation of whites at the lowest levels of military hierarchy.
”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 requires all departments to comply with its representivity imperatives.
The force currently has 569 white colonels and 269 ”African” ones. There are 1 192 white lieutenant colonels, against 454 Africans.
”The issues of officers’ formative course … seek to address the … imbalances and by no means are aimed at excluding other racial groups from joining the South African National Defence Force.” — Sapa