Army to recruit more whites

DEFENCE Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula has ordered the SANDF to recruit more whites to the army.

Mapisa-Nqakula made the announcement during a media briefing before tabling her budget vote in Parliament yesterday.

“When I look at the entry levels of the army, the younger ones, you see that if you go into a hall … you can literally count how many young white people are coming into the force,” she said.

“That’s a matter of concern because we want to build the kind of defence force which in five years will still continue to reflect the demographics of our society.”

Mapisa-Nqakula has tasked the defence force to develop a recruitment strategy targeting under-represented groups.

“I think that it’s important that when we engage with people we should continue to talk to them about how we used to have the South African Defence Force and now we have the SANDF consisting of statutory and non-statutory forces – well integrated, and that we’ve gone through a very painful process in the country and that we should never find ourselves in a situation where we have a defence force which is unbalanced,” she said.

At the same time, Mapisa-Nqakula announced she would raise the retirement age for defence force staff from 60 to 65.

“I don’t know why on earth we developed a regulation which directs us to get our people to retire at the age of 60.”

Mapisa-Nqakula said there was no need to change the law; she would alter regulations.

“My view is that the younger generation does not have an appreciation of how we have reached this point where we are.” – ANA