WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2010-06-11 Time: 11:00:17 Posted By: News Poster
By Wyndham Hartley
Johannesburg – The government has stopped short of an outright ban on soldiers joining trade unions but is clearly trying to outflank the existing military unions through the creation of a Defence Force Service Commission.
Both President Jacob Zuma and Defence Minister Lindiwe Sisulu expressed opposition to military unions late last year after a protest march on the Union Buildings by unionised soldiers turned violent and had to be broken up by police.
However, soldiers, along with other workers, enjoy the constitutional right to organise and this was confirmed more than 10 years ago by the Constitutional Court.
Yesterday, d efence s ecretary- designate Mpumi Mpofu and a delegation from the South African National Defence Force briefed Parliament on the contents of the recently tabled Defence Amendment Bill. The bill provides for the creation of the Defence Force Service Commission, which will deal with conditions of service in the military and make recommendations to the minister.
Siviwe Njikela, of the Department of Defence’s legal services section, said it was important to note that the bill did not ban trade unions in the military and neither did it prescribe how the commission would consult soldiers – this could still be through the unions or other service organisations. “It may be a step towards getting rid of military unions but it does not ban them,” Mr Njikela said.
Democratic Alliance MP David Maynier described the issue of unions for soldiers as an “egg dance” that had to stop. He asked Ms Mpofu if there was a plan to “de-unionise” the military because the current position appeared to undermine Mr Zuma’s position on the issue. There was no explanation of a plan to de- unionise, bar the hope that the commission would deal with the service conditions of soldiers.
African National Congress veteran Andrew Mlangeni summed up MPs’ opposition to military unions, saying it was unimaginable that in a state of war unionised soldiers could refuse to go to work.
Service conditions in the military hit the headlines last year when the interim commission headed by Judge Ronnie Bosielo described some of the soldiers’ circumstances as a “ticking time bomb”.
To date, the interim commission has filed two reports to Ms Sisulu but she has not made them available to the parliamentary committee.
Yesterday, committee chairman Nyamezeli Booi said he had requested the reports so that they could be distributed to MPs.
Mr Maynier told the committee he had applied to Ms Sisulu for the reports under the Promotion of Access to Information Act. He said MPs could not debate measures to deal with conditions of service without knowing what these were.
Original Source: 
Original date published: 11 June 2010
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201006110017.html?viewall=1