Security tightened in Eastern Cape
Did anyone note the rather blunt military presence, with numerous Casspir APCs in the procession and otehrs parked up, as the funeral cortege reached the Eastern Cape, the third photo in the headline story 'Nelson Mandela's body arrives home':http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world/africa/
South Africa general 'used troops to break men out of prison'
Something is wrong here, even more so that this involved the main SANDF infantry training base:
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A South African military general has been accused of facilitating an illegal prison break from a local police station using two armoured personnel carriers and at least 120 soldiers. The general is alleged have flown into a drunken rage when he learnt that a group of his men had been arrested outside their base in the South African town of Oudtshoorn. The arrested soldiers - alleged to include at least one senior officer - had been found by police at an illegal drinking den, where they were celebrating a change of command at the training base.
Link:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...of-prison.html
The police negoitated a solution, yes releasing all their prisoners.
South Africa’s parliament and the politicisation of the police
An Open Democracy piece, which should be read alongside the SWJ Blog link to 'Underplayed Conflicts' and I cited the link excerpt:
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South Africa, a country that has been heralded for creating one of the world’s most democratic constitutions. Conditions for many blacks there have not improved much since apartheid ended, a generation ago. Unemployment is now
twenty-five per cent, and has not been below twenty per cent in almost two decades. Unofficially, the number could be much higher…
Link:http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/und...flicts-of-2014
For those who watch the region the continuities in state power after apartheid's end in South Africa and independence in Zimbabwe, these developments are not a surprise. The sub-title:
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The police were a symbol of the old, apartheid South Africa. Unfortunately they are becoming a symbol of the ‘new South Africa’ too.
Link:https://www.opendemocracy.net/open-s...tion-of-police
South Africa's military at a crossroads
No great surprise that the SANDF faces such a crossroads when you consider the budget allocated, manpower, external and internal demands:
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South Africa wants to re-establish itself militarily as an important player in Africa's peacekeeping initiatives. But it has to overcome a small budget, and its own needs to police its borders, to move it from a 'critical state of decline.'
Link:http://news.yahoo.com/once-major-con...63100590.html?
Going back awhile now:
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At its peak, the apartheid military had more than 100,000 active conscripts, and consumed 4.4 percent of national GDP, making it one of Africa’s largest and best trained fighting forces.
(Today) South African military spending today stands at just 1.2 percent of its GDP, an Army of more than 40,000 troops.
There is a link to an earlier report, some of the comments are interesting:http://www.defenceweb.co.za/index.ph...nce&Itemid=242
How Long Will South Africa Survive?: The Looming Crisis
A bestseller in South Africa, even without any reviews and no loud criticism. Perhaps the new edition has "hit home"?
A review by Rian Malan:http://www.spectator.co.uk/books/961...-south-africa/
A taster:
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...Mandla Gcaba, a nephew of Jacob Zuma and according to Johnson, one of the state president’s key backers. Gcaba is a boss in the taxi business, a man whose foot soldiers defend their turf with heavy weapons. He is also linked to a police constable named S’bu Mpisane who vanished just before testifying in a murder trial that threatened to put the president’s nephew in jail. When the heat died down, S’bu came back to life, married into Zuma’s ‘Tammany machine’ and began to move up in the world. Today, still a policeman, he owns a mansion worth 94 times his annual salary and, according to Johnson, bought his wife a Rolls Royce for Christmas.
How Long Will South Africa Survive?: The Looming Crisis
From a "lurker" familiar with Southern Africa, after reading Johnson's book wrote:
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Devastating. Johnson is a good analyst – remember his 1977 original. If he’s only half right there are problems looming for the Beloved Country.
Four South African farmers in court for murder of two ‘attackers’
Perhaps such crimes happen regularly, this one got external press coverage; maybe with white farmers as defendants, not the victims it caught the editor's eye:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...attackers.html
Selling our future for a BRIC: time to rethink South Africa's foreign policy
Scathing review of South Africa's foreign policy, not only the international aspect, but at home too. Here is an example:
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In exchange for its membership of the BRICS, South Africa appears to have also given China a licence to de-industrialise the country despite the fact that the EU, as a bloc, is South Africa’s major trading partner. No country has developed without a solid manufacturing sector. Instead of supporting South Africa’s manufacturing exports to Africa and protecting our market, the South African government misses no opportunity to ‘buy Chinese’, importing anything from scarfs and caps for the African National Congress to cheap consumer goods, which should be made in South Africa.
Link:https://www.issafrica.org/iss-today/...foreign-policy
A committed commie badass: people are afraid.
Ronnie Kasrils, a former ANC leader and minister, has a bleak outlook on the future as the ANC under President Zuma face new challenges:http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2016-04-14-trainspotter-ronnie-kasrils-the-killing-game-has-already-started/?
Police Militarisation and the War on Crime in South Africa
A Kings War Studies podcast (42 mins) which features a South African academic expert:
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Join Guy Lamb, Director of the Safety and Violence Initiative (University of Cape Town), discusses his latest research on the globally pressing issue of police militarisation and the ‘war on crime’, drawing on the experiences of South Africa.
Link:https://soundcloud.com/warstudies/ev...es/sets/events