SANDU: HERE I STAND

I resigned my membership of the SA National Defence Union (SANDU) on 1 April 2013. A number of people have asked me for my reasons. Here is my letter of resignation:

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Sand River Base
Kruger National Park
1 April 2013
SA National Defence Union
Pretoria

Sir/Madam,

RESIGNATION SANDU MEMBERSHIP

I hereby wish to tender my resignation with immediate effect as a member of the SA National Defence Union. I do so with deep regret and after much thought and reflection on the matter.

I joined SANDU circa 2003 for a few reasons. The first reason was selfish. At the time I felt uncertain of my own future in the SANDF and thought it would be a good idea to have some kind of backup should I need it. The other reason I joined is that I supported the idea of having unions in the SANDF. Unions had played a major role in our transition to democracy and I felt (as I still do) that they have an important role to play in helping to shape our young democracy. I also joined out of a genuine concern for the terrible conditions under which soldiers are asked to do their work and where they are expected to live.

I was and still am concerned at how the underfunding of the Defence Force has eroded our capabilities and has had a profoundly negative impact on morale. I am at the front line when it comes to how badly people are off in the SANDF. I see how people struggle to make ends meet and I see how they struggle at work with woefully inadequate and outdated resources. I see how soldiers are expected to live in dilapidated and unhygienic barracks. I see how families are expected to live in houses that are in a terrible state of neglect and disrepair.

I see how commanding officers struggle to fulfil their duties and how they struggle to motivate their members with the few resources they have at their disposal. I have seen how dedicated colleagues and fellow professionals in the SANDF have become demotivated and have left for the private sector.

The political organisation to which I belong supported my constitutional right to belong to the union of my choice and I have never felt a conflict of interest between my membership of the union and my membership of the political party. I defended SANDU after the 2009 Union Buildings incident as I felt the plight of soldiers had at long last been brought into the public domain. I was prepared to risk my career for SANDU when in 2009 we chaplains were asked to resign our membership, I refused and defended my right to belong to a union.

I expect my union to be fighting on my behalf and on the behalf of our soldiers on a number of issues. I expect my union to be fighting for better working conditions, better equipment, better housing and better benefits. I expect my union to be keeping the plight of soldiers in the public domain in such a way that sympathy not antipathy is evoked.

I expect my union to be at the forefront lobbying for a bigger slice of the GDP. I expect my union to be vocal when the defence budget shrinks and conditions worsen for soldiers. I expect my union to be highlighting the effects of the underfunding of the SANDF. I expect my union to be engaging in vigorous debate with those who oppose defence spending. I expect my union to be lobbying members of the Portfolio Committee on Defence and other influential members of parliament across party political platforms.

I expect my union to be engaging with the Minister and the Secretary of Defence, lobbying on behalf of soldiers. I expect my union to be in discussion with the office of the Military Ombudsman to help define roles and perhaps even to forge some kind of partnership. I expect my union to be engaging at an academic level with institutions, think-tanks and universities where these matters are discussed and researched. I expect my union to be presenting papers at academic colloquia and submitting papers to academic journals. I expect my union to be writing articles in newspapers and online forums, specifically to debate defence spending, the state of equipment and the service conditions of soldiers.

I expect my union to present a detailed and comprehensive submission on the latest Defence Review. I expect my union to be involved when salaries and benefits are negotiated, fighting on behalf of soldiers. I expect my union to be fighting the insidious practice of linking rank to salary. I expect my union to be fighting on behalf of soldiers who have been abused or disadvantaged by their superiors. Most of all I expect my union to be consulting the rank and file members of SANDU on the issues which affect them.

Sadly on most of the above issues SANDU seems to be absent. I am only aware of SANDU when it comes to salary negotiations and occasionally when the union takes up the cudgels on behalf of a soldier who has suffered some kind of injustice. It is a role I have appreciated SANDU playing and I applaud its victories. I do however expect a lot more and find myself in the position where to me SANDU seems to be lacking. I am not aware of SANDU having taken a position on Defence spending, neither am I aware of its involvement in any debate on the matter. I am not aware of the union having taken the matter of the portion of GDP to be spent on Defence into the public domain for debate or even for information.

The union seems to have taken a combative and alienating approach to the Portfolio Committee. A similar approach seems to have been taken with the Minister and the Secretary for Defence. I am not aware of any academic submission by the union, nor am I aware of its participation in any discourse at that level. I am not aware of any submission to the Defence Review. I am not aware of the union having consulted its members on the issues which affect them. I have never met my shop steward nor have I ever been invited to attend a union meeting. Notwithstanding all the above, I was still prepared to retain my membership of the union until the recent tragic events in the CAR unfolded.

It is SANDU's reaction to and the way in which it has dealt with the tragic events in the CAR that now leave me with no other option but to resign my membership. We had soldiers in the CAR under SANDF command as negotiated with the CAR government at that time. Our soldiers were attacked and they fought well and they fought bravely. The first public reaction from the union was on Twitter with the secretary's comments, "Zuma this is on you."

The next reaction was a statement calling for the immediate withdrawal of our soldiers from the CAR. I was disturbed and my disquiet began. There was no acknowledgement of the loss of human life nor was any attempt made to sympathise with those who had lost loved ones. There was no attempt by SANDU, as far as I am aware, to assist the dependants of those who had died or to highlight their plight with regard to the benefits they will receive. This to me is deeply disrespectful of those who have died.

The outburst against the Commander in Chief was followed by another on Twitter against the CSANDF with a call for his resignation. It seems to me the union has forgotten that soldiers are under command and pledge their allegiance to their superiors. In my interaction with soldiers on the ground both the Commander in Chief and the CSANDF are held in very high esteem. One of my soldiers (who is a SANDU member) described the union as having become "rude" which indicates to me a dissonance between the union and its rank and file members. The calls for the withdrawal of soldiers from the CAR reflects a similar dissonance between the union and its members. The union certainly does not reflect my views on the CAR matter and it did not have a mandate from its members to make such statements.

My experience of soldiers on the ground is an overwhelming support for staying in the CAR. A number of soldiers immediately made themselves available for deployment to the CAR, including me. The call for a withdrawal of soldiers also to my mind seems to be an incitement to mutiny, perhaps not in the legal sense but it certainly feels that way. I cannot help but get the feeling that the union is using the publicity gained for promoting personal political views and no longer reflects the views of its members.

The last straw for me was the decision to sue the SANDF over the remarks expressed by its spokesman concerning SANDU and SANDU's reaction to his statement on 27 March. I cannot allow my union subscription to be used for spurious litigation. The SANDF statement may be regarded as clumsy and inarticulate, but the perception of SANDU as being anti transformation and supportive of an old order agenda in the SANDF must be taken very seriously by the union. That perception may have some validity when the fact is that those who are vociferous in their opposition today to the SANDF were silent in the past when it came to the SADF. Similarly their voices were silent when there was widespread resistance to transformation by old SADF members after the SANDF was formed in 1995.

I will illustrate this with some of my own experiences. I was designated for conscription into the SADF at the age of 16. While a student at Wits University I joined the End Conscription Campaign as I viewed the apartheid government of the day as illegitimate and could not see myself fighting for it. After the ECC was banned there was no other voice in the country that supported us.

To the white community we were an anathema and to the black community our issue was small and insignificant compared to the scale of the struggle against apartheid. When eventually at the age of 28 I was forced through various circumstances to report for National Service, there was no voice inside or outside the SADF except my church, to support me and others in a similar position.

When I refused to carry a weapon and was made to drill with a broomstick handle, the only support I had was from my church. When I joined the SANDF in 1996 I found myself having to do battle with those who resisted change and who were anti transformation. Once again I found myself isolated and alone. The point is that those who are vociferous in their opposition today were silent in the past, and however one looks at it, it casts aspersions on their present motives and to a large extent invalidates or even negates their present activism.

I think too that SANDU has missed some important opportunities when it comes to the CAR events. There was an opportunity by SANDU to partner with the SANDF to highlight the state of our equipment and the cumulative effects of Defence underfunding. There was an opportunity to highlight how badly off dependants are after the death of a member in service. There was an opportunity for the union to show love and compassion, but that too was missed.

I do not wish my resignation to be viewed as a personal attack on any member of SANDU staff. Neither do I wish to alienate myself from any SANDU staff member at a personal level. Should the circumstances change I would consider rejoining the union. For now however, my decision to resign remains steadfast. I shall be informing my Human Resources functionary accordingly so that the necessary administrative actions can be taken.

Yours faithfully,

CHAPLAIN A.J. TREU

This article first appeared on Andrew Treu's weblog (see here)

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