Transformation in the military police agency of the South African National Defence Force

Abstract

The goal of this research was to describe the nature, occurrence and extent to which integration preceded normative and institutional transformation in the SANDF and therefore in its Military Police, thereby demonstrating how in its aftermath, integration has become a recipe for disaster, casting a spell on further transformation within the military. The research also aimed at bringing the reader face-to-face with the daily struggles of Africans in the SANDF, by focusing on one of the smallest divisions of the military, the Military Police Agency (MPA).

The research project was limited to all reported interviews and questionnaire responses of eighty five participants of the Southern Military Police Region (S MPR), excluding the S MPR HQ as well as the MPA HQ. A total of eighty five respondents out of a total strength of 172 S MPR composition, took part in the sample. Seventy nine participated in the questionnaire, fifty one in the interview and a total of forty five participated in both. Interviews were used as follow-up sessions to respondents' questionnaire answers. While the questionnaire was structured, the interview was semi-structured, allowing members to comment, object, affirm or question the process of transformation both in the SANDF and in the MPA. In keeping with the qualitative research method, the semi-structured interview enabled the mapping of categories, trends and patterns in the responses.

It was found that MK and APLA cadres who integrated into the ex-Naval MPs surpassed their counterparts in the ex-Army MPs, by far. The two groups are incomparable, in rank level, experience, training, attitude and knowledge of the organisation.

It was further discovered that most practices that had taken place before 1999 at W CSC and still continued within the MPA, negate SANDF policy and are criminal. Prejudice, racism, obscene language and gender insensitivity were rife, forming part of institutional culture.

It is recommended that Weitzer's proposed solution for the transformation of coercive institutions be considered. It is a thoroughgoing transformation of the security apparatus through a legal framework because civil control is not enough to guarantee the pre-eminence of the democratic forces.