MEDIA STATEMENT BY SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL DEFENCE UNION ON THE MISUSE OF SA AIRFORCE HELICOPTER FOR PARTY POLITICAL AIMS

Pretoria

17 July 2013

SANDU is shocked about reports that the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans has used a military aircraft to conduct an essentially a party political task in Tlokwe/Potchefstroom.

None of the ministerial functions of the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans include in any way attending to internal party political squabbles. The Department of Defence's excuse that the trip was conducted at behest of the President in no way changes the fact that the Minister was on a party political mission using State resources unlawfully. If anything the Department's explanation implicates the President as an accomplice in the abuse of a military aircraft.

SANDU condemns this poor show of leadership and outright lawlessness. A soldier who abuses a military craft for purposes other than military is hauled before military courts and criminally prosecuted, yet now they witness their own Minister doing the same and then making lame, unconvincing and disingenuous excuses for unlawful conduct.

The Department of Defence has by this dishonest attitude forfeited permanently the right to raise the matter of military discipline with soldiers and will remain tainted and discredited with the ordinary rank and file of the SANDF.

SANDU demands that a Board of Inquiry be conducted to determine who caused the authorisation of the unlawful use of the aircraft by the Minister and stringent measures be taken against all implicated including the Minister herself.

If this matter is allowed to go unchecked, the clear message is sent that military resources are available for party political abuse and that as in this case the resources of the military is the property of the ANC to be used and abused at its own convenience. This is entirely unreconcilable with the Constitutional requirement of an a-political Defence Force

Statement issued by JG Greeff, SANDU national secretary, July 17 2013

Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter