Two former South African Defence Force (SADF) soldiers were arrested for protesting in full military uniform outside the Lenz Military Base near Lenasia on Monday.
Another five protesters — some also in camouflage uniform — are thought to have also been arrested when they went on to the base to speak to the commanding officer.
The protesters claimed they were ”unfairly dismissed” when the SADF was integrated with the Pan-African Congress’s military wing, the Azanian People’s Liberation Army, and the African National Congress’s armed force Umkhonto weSizwe in the mid-1990s to form the South African National Defence Force (SANDF).
”The government started dismissing members [of the SADF] to create space for other members [cadres of the former armed wings],” said protester Jackson Motaung.
The government had told them that, even though they were young at the time, it did not want them because ”we were apartheid soldiers, we were killing them”, said another protester, Aaron Mohalane.
In the past 13 years they had held protest marches and conveyed their grievances to former defence minister Joe Modise, Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota, former president Nelson Mandela and President Thabo Mbeki.
”I haven’t been working since 1995,” said Charles Motloung, one of the men in uniform. ”Selling stuff by the street, that’s how we survive,” he said.
”Not even the metro police will take these people … We have to feed children and everything,” said Motaung.
”We have followed all the right channels,” he said. Now, ”we do or die for this thing”.
”They are not taking us seriously,” said Mohalane.
The protesters threatened to first wage a campaign similar to that conducted for Mandela’s release, failing which they would ”disrupt the country”.
Although there were only 13 protesters outside Lenz, they claimed 20 were under arrest inside — including the two uniformed protesters and the five-man delegation.
They alleged that their sit-in began on Sunday inside the base, but that they moved off the premises at the suggestion of a newspaper photographer who asked them to pose outside.
A number were arrested when they returned later to fetch their bags, they charged.
While their group might be small in number, the protesters said they had the backing of pockets of similarly disgruntled ex-soldiers in all nine provinces.
They also had the support of serving soldiers who claimed they were being discriminated against and that the SANDF did not represent a truly integrated force.
Ministerial spokesperson Sam Mkhwanazi contacted the South African Press Association, not to comment on the issue, but to inquire whether the protesters were really wearing full uniform.
He explained that the uniform of the SADF was no longer a military uniform.
The wearing of a full military uniform would ”cause problems” whether by serving members of the SANDF — not allowed to do what the protesters were doing — or someone not in the military, who might have obtained it illegally.
He was still trying to gather information about the protest and would probably issue a statement later in the day, he said.
Lenz Military Base’s commanding officer, a Colonel Mbatha, who refused to give his first name or to comment, explained to the protesters that their action, 10m from the base, was in ”a restricted area”.
They agreed to move down the road when he told them it was unlawful to protest within 500m of military bases and explained that access had to be ensured.
Military police escorted the protesters away. — Sapa