[This is just an excuse to get rid of whites. Jan]

Cape Town – “Everything is hunky dory and ‘clean’ at this academy. That’s the message you can take to parliament.”

This was the message of Brigadier General Tawana Manyama, commander of the Military Academy at Saldanha, to the portfolio committee on defence during its “review visit” on Wednesday.

Manyama was answering a question from the committee on how he would describe the relationship between young recruits and military instructors at the academy.

The committee, led by its chairperson Kader Asmal, visited the academy after repeated complaints last year of alleged racism, mismanagement, assault and intimidation.

Manyama said although all was going well, it did not mean there were “no problems” experienced at the academy.

Asmal stressed that the reason for the visit was to gather information about the training, curriculum and composition of the academy.

“When the board of enquiry – appointed to investigate the allegations – completes its work, we will either invite the management of the academy to parliament, or return to discuss the findings,” Asmal said.

Lieutenant Colonel Peter Daniels, chairperson of the diversity committee at the academy, said although progress was being made with transformation, the academy still had 44% “excess” white males. These included lecturers and military instructors.

He said the aim was to have 64.6% black, 24.3% white, 10.2% coloured and 0.75% Asian members at the base.

When asked how the picture would change, he said the academy would “have to wait for posts to become available”.

Another problem brought to the committee’s attention was that administrative buildings and residential quarters at the academy needed urgent maintenance.

The committee heard about leaking roofs and windows, sewage, ceilings and cracked walls. More than R15m was needed for extensive maintenance and to finish semi-completed quarters.

Source: News24.Com
URL: http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/New…/p>