Quote of the week
[T]he moral point of the matter is never reached by calling what happened by the name of ‘genocide’ or by counting the many millions of victims: extermination of whole peoples had happened before in antiquity, as well as in modern colonization. It is reached only when we realize this happened within the frame of a legal order and that the cornerstone of this ‘new law’ consisted of the command ‘Thou shall kill,’ not thy enemy but innocent people who were not even potentially dangerous, and not for any reason of necessity but, on the contrary, even against all military and other utilitarian calculations. … And these deeds were not committed by outlaws, monsters, or raving sadists, but by the most respected members of respectable society.
Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on The Banality of Evil
SANDU media statment about deployment of soldiers
MEDIA STATEMENT BY THE SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL DEFENCE FORCE UNION (SANDU) IN REACTION TO THE CONCERNS OF POSSIBLE UNLAWFULNESS OF RECENT DEPLOYMENT OF SANDF MEMBERS IN CIVILIAN AREA’S
Friday 20 January 2012, SANDU Head Office, Pretoria:
SANDU has noted recent concerns expressed by legal experts in the media on the deployment of soldiers in civilian areas and the possible unlawfulness thereof.
The explanation provided by the Department of Defence which sought to justify the legality of these deployments based on a decade old open ended proclamation, by a president not even currently in office, begs belief. This dubious explanation only serves to strengthen the concerns already raised.
The last thing that is needed is that the South African public get the notion that soldiers deployed in civilian areas, to do what is essentially police work, is an acceptable norm and way of governance or that soldiers are deployable without stringent regard for constitutional imperatives. SANDU has consulted its legal team on this issue and is convinced that the current deployments, if based on the reasons offered by the Department, are in all probability authorized in contravention of the Constitution and thus unlawful.
It is not SANDU’s place to direct , criticize or opine on operations conducted by the SANDF per se. The only concern it has as a Military Trade Union is that soldiers, if indeed unlawfully deployed, are at risk of attracting legal liability which they would normally escape were the deployments lawful. It is further of general concern that apparently disregard for the Constitution is considered acceptable in certain circumstances. This goes against the very substance of SANDU as an organization which has always fought for the constitutional rights of its members.
In view of the above facts SANDU has decided to urgently submit a complaint to the office of the Public Protector in order to have a pronouncement made on the legality of the deployments on the basis offered by the Department itself.
(JG GREEFF)
NATIONAL SECRETARY: SANDU
Enquiries: 082 573 0082
