Sign up with GoogleBy HENRI du PLESSIS
Staff Writer
(Cape Argus January 4 2007)
Inner tensions within the SA Navy are on the boil, with former and current navy personnel revealing their unhappiness with staffing policies.
A huge response from former and currently serving navy senior staffers and observers show that a Cape Argus report earlier this week – detailing how the SA Navy was leaking qualified staff and struggling with discipline - is only the tip of the iceberg.
Also this week, the DA spokesman on defence, Roy Jankielsohn, warned in a media report that the Defence Force generally “is facing a number of serious dilemmas that will require decisive political intervention if further decay of its capabilities is to be prevented in 2007".
The Cape Argus has been told that one of the major areas of contention stems back to 1999 when the Defence Force started the controversial review boards, which were tasked with hearing the appeals of former liberation movement members dissatisfied with the ranks they were given during the integration into the former defence force.
A source, who was close to the process and sat on review boards in the navy, claimed that this was when the rot set in. He said large-scale "lying and fraudulent statements allowed incompetent and untrained individuals" to attain ranks that were far above their capabilities.
Another source, a former member of the navy, claimed that many members of former struggle forces had an "entitlement syndrome" that led them to believe they had a right to perks without having to work for them or attain qualifications.
"People who had no clue of the job they had to do were put into positions and then required that their subordinates do the work for them," a former member of the navy said.
"This situation made for a general lack of respect for leadership among the junior ratings and had a very negative effect on discipline," he said.
Well-known military analyst and correspondent of Jane's Defence Weekly, Helmoed Romer-Heitman, said: "We have a large number "of black officers who have passed courses and who clearly pass future courses and who can earn to do a job properly; there is no excuse for putting others through," he said.
"One must not forget what the job is about. Officers have to be trusted with human lives and therefore they should have competence and integrity.
"If they don't have it, they are soon found out by their subordinates and there are already young officers who are unhappy with what they see happening."
These comments revealed ongoing underlying tensions over transformation in the navy.
Senior officers who were made to pass courses for the sake of achieving predetermined ranks lacked the respect of the rank and file and officers who got promoted or retained their ranks despite cheating in exams signalled to younger members that it was not necessary to work hard to get ahead, said another prominent analyst who asked not to be named.
The result was that many young black officers who were willing to work and who achieved success though due diligence, were being painted with the same brush as the cheaters above them, while defence force members of other races continued to be marginalised to suit a politically enforced affirmative policy that put numbers before efficiency. The situation was further polarising groupings in the force, instead of promoting camaraderie and unity. Experienced personnel, who had left the navy after becoming disillusioned, expressed their sadness at the Navy's continued inability to live up to its potential because of the resulting internal friction.
Staff Writer
(Cape Argus January 4 2007)
Inner tensions within the SA Navy are on the boil, with former and current navy personnel revealing their unhappiness with staffing policies.
A huge response from former and currently serving navy senior staffers and observers show that a Cape Argus report earlier this week – detailing how the SA Navy was leaking qualified staff and struggling with discipline - is only the tip of the iceberg.
Also this week, the DA spokesman on defence, Roy Jankielsohn, warned in a media report that the Defence Force generally “is facing a number of serious dilemmas that will require decisive political intervention if further decay of its capabilities is to be prevented in 2007".
The Cape Argus has been told that one of the major areas of contention stems back to 1999 when the Defence Force started the controversial review boards, which were tasked with hearing the appeals of former liberation movement members dissatisfied with the ranks they were given during the integration into the former defence force.
A source, who was close to the process and sat on review boards in the navy, claimed that this was when the rot set in. He said large-scale "lying and fraudulent statements allowed incompetent and untrained individuals" to attain ranks that were far above their capabilities.
Another source, a former member of the navy, claimed that many members of former struggle forces had an "entitlement syndrome" that led them to believe they had a right to perks without having to work for them or attain qualifications.
"People who had no clue of the job they had to do were put into positions and then required that their subordinates do the work for them," a former member of the navy said.
"This situation made for a general lack of respect for leadership among the junior ratings and had a very negative effect on discipline," he said.
Well-known military analyst and correspondent of Jane's Defence Weekly, Helmoed Romer-Heitman, said: "We have a large number "of black officers who have passed courses and who clearly pass future courses and who can earn to do a job properly; there is no excuse for putting others through," he said.
"One must not forget what the job is about. Officers have to be trusted with human lives and therefore they should have competence and integrity.
"If they don't have it, they are soon found out by their subordinates and there are already young officers who are unhappy with what they see happening."
These comments revealed ongoing underlying tensions over transformation in the navy.
Senior officers who were made to pass courses for the sake of achieving predetermined ranks lacked the respect of the rank and file and officers who got promoted or retained their ranks despite cheating in exams signalled to younger members that it was not necessary to work hard to get ahead, said another prominent analyst who asked not to be named.
The result was that many young black officers who were willing to work and who achieved success though due diligence, were being painted with the same brush as the cheaters above them, while defence force members of other races continued to be marginalised to suit a politically enforced affirmative policy that put numbers before efficiency. The situation was further polarising groupings in the force, instead of promoting camaraderie and unity. Experienced personnel, who had left the navy after becoming disillusioned, expressed their sadness at the Navy's continued inability to live up to its potential because of the resulting internal friction.
