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| Africa Subsaharan |
| S.Africa: Our Useless, Corrupt Army - from a Former Insider |
| 2006-10-18 |
| [This is a fascinating post from an insider. It tells a lot. Hi SV, I am most delighted to hear your comments on this matter. Well, if the Colonels stand in the way, maybe in the future the ANC will fire them?? But I can appreciate how whites try to maintain a bit of "civilisation" in this country. That meningitis story of yours is fascinating - deeply fascinating. Please keep us informed of your observations regarding the army. You mention they're not worth a fart in a war. That's good to know. We have had discussions about the army and what it really means and can do. In Zimbabwe its main use during the land invasions was to facilitate the "mass action" and I think the army's greatest danger lies in that. I agree with you that if they had to be involved in "helping" the cash vans - they'd probably be helping the criminals, or stealing some of it for themselves. When I spoke to Mwezi Twala, who was tortured by the ANC in Angola, he said to me that you can describe the ANC in one word, and that word is "Greed." He said that is what everyone is in this for. Everyone in the ANC is a CROOK. They're all thieves... all of them, lining their pockets. And guess what... I'll bet the Police are also part of the game... EVERYONE is in this for the same reason. Its the only way this rotten actually function. Jan] S.Africa: Army to protect cash vans? Interesting to see this on the news. Clearly the cash-in-transit unions haven't noticed what they are being shot at with - AK's sure, but also R-5 and R-4 rifles - which comes from...? I think that bringing the SANDF in (probably only beaten for general lack of anything remotely identifiable as military discipline by the ZDF and other African goon squads) will only result in more cash-in-transit heists - by the troops themselves! I remember a few years ago when I was involved in a JOC (Joint Operations Center) which was handling a possible meningitis crisis - I was there as a Fire & Rescue representative. Everything was very hush-hush and I was ordered to shut up about what I saw and heard, since it could cause panic. Some of the incredible schemes suggested by the ANC politician in control to Army Colonels present was to proclamate Martial Law. Close the roads, seal off the town, and keep everybody inside, announce a curfew, etc. etc. - all the trappings that seemed strangely familiar ("noodtoestand" in the the old SA) - only now it was an ANC type who was grabbing at this straw, to "save" the town. How this would help with "saving" people infected with cerebral meningitis was not explained. What I did note and note very well was how the (white) Colonels ducked and weaved to avoid answering. Erm.. no. We don't have enough troops. Besides, an excercise is scheduled. At the next meeting the Colonel very defintely replied in the negative - sorry, no troops, they are on an exercise. (Which he, in a panic, quickly organised, to "make" his troops be unavailable - read on) Much later I found out (from another Colonel who was once my CO when I served in the SANDF in 95/96) that the "Army" discipline was so bad (even then - this was 2002/2003) that the Defence Force officers couldn't -trust- their black subordinate officers to behave in a disciplined manner in a martial law situation. If you are unfamiliar with what "martial law" means, this means that the military takes control. Constitutional rights (it's just a piece of paper anyway - paper never bothered anybody in Africa) are waived, curfews are announced, and the military takes absolute and unlimited control. This vests virtually unlimited, plenipotenary powers in very low-ranking military officers - Lieutenants, Captains and Majors, who patrol the area and enforce the terms of the emergency declaration. Apparently, this scared the hell out of the Colonels at that JOC. Why? Because black Lieutenants and Captains (most of them of the "kits-soldaat"/instant officer types, ex MK and APLA -terrorists-) couldn't be trusted to be allowed to go off alone, with the law on their side, to control Platoons and Companies in the CBD or any other areas of the town, armed with automatic rifles. Why should this be? Because the white Colonels KNEW how dangerous that was. They had so little confidence in the black officers notionally under their command that they nearly had a heart attack when they saw a situation coming that required the mating up of black soldiers with some weapons and emergency powers. They KNOW what will happen - a wave of looting and rape as has never been seen (yet) in a SA town, BY THEIR SOLDIERS. They clearly knew the first thing most of their ex-MK and ex-APLA subordinates would do is to walk into houses, businesses and other facilities, use their "martial law" powers (like lawful entry without warrant, search and seizure, arrest and indefinite detention, lethal force with less than normal or no legal restraint) and start their own little kingdoms in town where they make the laws - and guarranteed, those would be the types of laws that come from the barrel of an R-4 assault rifle - looting, rapine and murder like any group of blacks with weapons have committed in Africa over and over. So give me a break - have the Army guard cash vans? The "Army" is actually a gang who just all wear the same "colors", with ZERO discipline and officers so scared of their troops they don't want to be anywhere near them if they're armed... Where the hell have these cash van union people BEEN the past ten years? This is one of THE grandest stupidities in a veritable river of grand stupidities that is the "new" SA. Calling in the Army WONT'T help one millimeter. Instead, it will make the situation much worse. I served in the SANDF, and I know - all it is good for is spending its funds (the proportion that is not stolen of course) on keeping its AIDS ridden 40 year old privates going in military hospitals, and living off the state in all other respects, contributing nothing, a truely useless and expensive appendage that in a real war won't be worth a fart in the wind anyway. SV, South Africa |
| Posted by:anonymous5089 |