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Strange but tough75 years old this month, the South African

Defence Force (SADF) has changedim m easurably since it w as founded after Union. But it is still a mass o f

contradictions and an ethnic hotch-potch. But itfunctions w ell — perhaps because it does not

realise w h at a strange organisation it is

The SADF, 75 years ago this month, arose like a phoenix from the still- glowing ashes of one of the most frat­

ricidal, endlessly tragic and utterly needless wars SA has ever seen.

Yet one good thing that emerged from the

« ggle was a grudging but mutual respect, just 10 years later Boer and Brit clasped hands — not altogether willingly or happily,

perhaps — and the Union Defence Force, later the SADF, was born.

It was an act of faith or perhaps unfound­ed optimism, given the circumstances, but it worked, and 75 years later it is still working.

It has changed, of course. Its soldiers fight now with tank and 155 mm gun-howitzer, light machine-gun and Mach 2 fighter in­stead of rifle and bushveld pony. Its com­plexion has changed, figuratively and literal­ly. Men of all races and cultures now serve in its ranks. But willy-nilly the old khaki magic and decades of custom, usage, habit and tradition still bind it together.

The SADF is a strange organisation born of a strange country. It helps to prop up a white-ruled government, yet it attracts more volunteers of other races than it can train, and the ones that do get in serve loyally and enthusiastically.

re — but unseenIt can muster more fighting troops than

any other nation in Sub-Saharan Africa — but for most of the year they are invisible, and have to be summoned to a deafening chorus of moans and groans (although they are all right once they get down to it).

It hammers the kill-your-enemy doctrine into its troops on all occasions — but it is studded with priests, pastors and ministers of 33 different churches who constantly exhort the doctrine of the Prince of Peace.

It is the statutory tool of a ruling group that has existed for almost 40 years on a doctrine of racial separation — but white troops salute black officers without giving it a second thought.

It embodies all sorts of ethnic traditions and somehow manages to digest them all, so that some of its soldiers wear the red coats of the British Empire, others swagger around in

It has fought through several rebellions, two world wars and the smaller but no less deadly conflict in Korea. Its honoured dead— white, black, brown — lie buried in France, in Flanders, in the burning sands of the Western Desert, in ancient Palestine, in Italy, in India and places as unlikely as Belgrade.

Battles, but not warsIt has lost skirmishes and battles, but it

has never lost a war or a campaign. At this moment it is involved in yet another war, and believes it is winning that one too although it is not the sort of war that ends in formal peace negotiations. It faces internal rum­blings that have yet to be resolved, and the fairly distant but not-to-be-dismissed possi­bility of a conventional war.

One could make a strong theoretical case for saying it should not work as well as it does. But — like the honey-bee, which flies because it does not know the laws of aero­dynamics says it cannot — the SADF has always gotten by, and seems prepared to do so in the future as well. And its enemies under-estimate it at their peril.Canberra light b o m b e rs__old but still lethal

kilts, still others adhere to the more sober usages of the Boer commandos; most present arms in the normal way, but the Zulu sol­diers of 121 Battalion port their rifles and slap their magazines as their ancestors once rattled their short stabbing-spears against their ox-hide shields.

It is a veritable Tower of Babel — it speaks English and Afrikaans in a dozen different dialects and regional accents, and Xhosa, Venda and Sotho, P o rtu ­guese and Ovambo,Nama and Kavango— bu t its native

tongue is a weird and, to the outsider, often almost incomprehensible lingo made up of extracts from all its parts, intermingled with military jargon old and new, cryptic abbre­viations and the odd Swahili word left over from World War 2.

The taskThe SADF’s task is sim ply to defend SA from external invasions, border-busting insurgents

and internal insurrection — singly or all together, depending on how the hands are dealt. Some o f the threats are real, some are m erely read possibilities. One w a y and another, the list o f them m akes fo r disturbing reading

Being a statutory body under civilian control the SADF has absolutely no say — except in an advisory sense —

in its choice of enemies, a fact which critics of government policy find difficult to accept and consequently often ignore.

The SADF’s task, as stipulated in the

Defence Act (Act 44 of 1957, as amended a number of times), boils down to four points:□ It must defend SA and Namibia from any conventional threat.□ It must undertake, when called on, the prevention or suppression of terrorism in SA and Namibia.

AN ALARMING PICTUREManpower, number of tanks and artillery pieces

Country Total manpower Army manpower Battle tank* Artillery

RSA ................................ 378 000 (approx) 356 000 (approx):18 000 (PF)58 000 (NS)

140000 (CitForce) 140000 (ComForce)

250 (approx) 145 (approx!

SWATF ............................ 22 000 21000 None 16 (approx!

Angola ............................. 127 000 (approx) 50000 480 (minimum) 460

Ethiopia............................ 227 000 (incl. foreign) 220 000 (ind. militia) ■1 000 (approx! 700 (approx)

Nigeria ............................. 94 000 80000 112 450

Source: 1986/7 edition of the International Institute of Strategic Studies' annual publication, "The Military Balance.''

□ It must act in support of the civil poi®* where necessary. -□ It must assist in the maintenance of life or health and the maintenance of essential ser­vices.

The SADF’s structureThe SADF might look simple to outsiders,

but although it is run by means of an elabo­rate network of command and planning sys­tems, it still relies to an unprecedented de­gree on a relatively unsophisticated militia manpower system which only works by con­sent of the people who supply the men.

The South African Defence Force is a vast and complicated organism which, say its detractors, works in spite of itself and never in the last half-hour before knocking-off time.

Jokes aside, its entire intricate and some­what confusing upper command echelon is dedicated to the main task of the soldier,

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Country | % of GDP 1984

Top S p e n d * * (10 percent of the GDP and higher);

SaucB-Arabia........................................

0 man ............................................oyria ....................................... ......... .Russia... ........... .................. .

51.1 24,4 20,924.2

15,112-17

M nrfar«tfl tn Inmn tn on ito rt |C_Q nnrcnn n io u v ii iR in i n yd *p o n u o i* ***** k

MmamKinnaMOzamDique ................................ *..... .East Germany......................................United States ........... ........................... .Mignamsian ......... ..... ....... ..... .......... .

8.47,76.4

6,9

Fair-to-moderate spenders (3-6 percem

Britain

West Germany .....................................Poland ...............................................

5,54.1

4.1 3,9 3,3

3,7

Low-to-f»ir spenders (0-2 percent of the GDPI:

Denmark .............................................Canada ..............................................

Japan ................................................

2,3

Un1,0

•SI W , ,fn c * only:

Angola ...............................................Ethiopia ..............................................Somalia ..............................................Congo ....................... ........................Mozambique ........................................

Malawi ...............................................

South Africa ........................................Kenya ................................................

1 9 , t :

11,38,18,4

7,15.0 4,84.14.1

Source: 1986/7 edition of the International Institute of Strategic

Studies' annual publication, "The Military Balance.”

sailor and airman, namely to efficiently wage war against whoever the gov­ernment of the day has des­ignated as an enemy of the country.

The SA D F’s titu la r head is the State President, in his capacity as com- mander-in-chief of the armed forces. The execu­tive defence leader, howev­er, is the Minister of De­fence (currently General Magnus Malan), whose ministry controls both the SADF and the Armaments Corporation of SA (Arms- cor).

The SADF is headed by the Chief of the SADF (currently General Jan Geldenhuys) and is divided into four services — the South African Army, the South African Air Force (SAAF), the South Afri­can Navy and the South African Medical Service (Sams), in that order of seniority. Each service is headed by a lieutenant

general, except in the case of the Navy, which is headed by a vice-admiral.

Each service is in turn divided into a number of smaller formations (field and ter­ritorial), which in turn dispose of a plethora of units, both “teeth” and “tail.”

Assisting the combat services are two sup­porting services headed by the Quartermas­ter General and the Chaplain General, whose efforts are devoted to the SADF at large, rather than any particular service.

The chain of command that can set this awesome machine in motion starts in the office of the State President. From there it runs downwards to the Cabinet and the Min­ister of Defence. The Cabinet, in turn, is advised by the State Security Council (SSC) on matters which may affect the security of the country.

The SSC’s task is national strategic plan­ning and co-operation of 14 inter-depart­mental standing committees. It has a perma­nent secretariat chaired by the State President and is closed to everyone (includ­ing most Cabinet ministers) except a small group of the most influential office-bearers in the country. They are:□ The Minister of Defence;□ The Minister of Foreign Affairs;□ The Minister of the Interior;□ The Minister of Law and Order;□ The Minister of Justice;□ The longest-serving Cabinet minister, if he is not already on the SSC;□ The Chief of the SADF;□ The Commissioner of Police;□ The head of the National Intelligence Service;□ The Director General of Foreign Affairs;

□ The Director General of the Interior; and□ The Director General of Justice.

The SSC communicates directly to the Chief of the SADF himself on the contribu­tion the SADF can make to the security of the country, and he deals directly with M heads of the four combat services ( A r i ^ SAAF, Navy and Sams) and the two support services (Quartermaster General and Chap­lain General), each of which has its own planning and command structure.

The Chief of the SADF does this by way of the Defence Command Council (DCC). The DCC carries out strategic planning and operational implementation, and makes sure that SADF policy strategy conforms with that at national level and in accordance with guidelines laid down by the SSC.

It has the following members:□ The Chief of the SADF, who is also the chairman;□ The chiefs of the Army, SAAF and Navy;□ The Surgeon General (chief of Sams);□ The Inspector General of the SADF;□ The Chief of Defence Force Staff; and□ The chiefs of the other staff divisions at Defence Headquarters (DHQ).

The Defence Planning Committee (DPC), oversees the Defence budget, the develtffc ment planning and the procurement of n” weapons on behalf of the DCC; and controls joint SADF-Armscor projects. It is chaired by the Chief of the SADF and consists of:□ The Chiefs of the Army, SAAF and Navy;□ The Inspector General of the SADF;□ The Chief of Staff Operations;□ The Chief of Staff Intelligence;□ The Chief of Staff Logistics;□ The Chief of Staff Personnel;□ The Chief of Staff Finance;□ The chairman of Armscor; and□ A representative of industry.

The raison d’etre behind these high- powered committees and various others which exist at high level is to facilitate the functioning of the combat and support ser­vices.

The organisation served by this multi­layered structure is a somewhat peculiar one,

Meteoric MagnusGeneral Magnus Andre De M erindol M alan has come a long w a y in a com paratively short tim e.

It took him ju s t 30 years to com plete a meteoric clim b to the country's highest m ilita ry post, which w as fo llow ed b y early retirem ent and instant prom otion to Cabinet rank w ithout

the custom ary sojourn in the back benches

with a peculiar problem: while SA can theo­retically summon up a massive 400 000 or so service people, its defence force is more reli­ant on non-regular and/or reservist forces than almost any other reputable military machine in the world.

Only one person out of every eight in the SADF is a career professional; in the Army— the only one of the four services which can occupy and hold ground — only one out of every 18 or so is a regular.

Even stranger, the non-regulars account for almost all of the Army’s combat man­power.

According to the generally accepted fig­ures issued annually by the International Institute of Strategic Studies, the SADF’s total strength in terms of manpower is 42 400 career professionals of the Permanent Force, 64 000 national servicemen engaged in two years’ service (compulsory for whites, voluntary for men of other races), and nearly 300 000 reservists, mostly army but also in­cluding air force, naval and medical services personnel.

•In addition, there are another 21 000 serv- 5 in its offshoot, the SWA Territory Force.Observers estimate that if SA Were to

maintain any significant first-class all-pro­fessional force, it would have to have at least 200 000 men under arms, which would come near to doubling the Defence budget.

Thanks to this bargain-basement ap­proach, SA is able to simultaneously fight a border war, contribute to damping down internal unrest, and spend large sums on developing its sanctions-busting weapons, while keeping defence spending hovering comfortably around 4,5% of the GDP.

At the same time it leaves the SADF with an all-too-apparant Achilles heel. The South African military machine functions because the majority of whites accept the necessity for national and part-time service — as do large numbers of blacks, coloureds and Indi­ans, to judge by the stream of recruits the volunteer “non-white” units turn away every year for lack of accommodation.

•There might be another problem making ' appearance on the manpower scene. Al­most two years ago the International Insti­

tute for Strategic Studies warned that in SA “some white military manpower problems” were becoming evident.

“South African industry and the armed forces are clearly competing for the limited pool of white manpower that is available,” it says, “and it must be assumed that black, coloured or Indian manpower can no longer substitute for shortages of white military manpower within SA.”

This has not happened yet, but at the same time there appears no likelihood at present of the extension of compulsory national service of coloureds and Indians, tri-cameral parlia­ment or no tri-carmeral parliament: in terms of a rumoured but never confirmed deal, conscription will not be extended to these groups till times are more auspicious — and at the moment they are definitely not auspi­cious. ■

Malan is a Pretorian by birth, al­though his Cape Huguenot ances­try is clearly to be discerned in his

first names. Born on January 30, 1930, he always wanted to be a soldier. There is a well-established story of how, at the age of 14, he followed the example of many another adventurous South African boy and ran away from home to enlist in the Army.

Like most of them, he was tracked down and hauled back to school by his concerned family. Malan did not try to abscond again. He bided his time and in 1950 finally started his long-awaited military career by attesting in the South African Permanent Force after matriculating at the Afrikaanse Hoer Seunsskool.

Having completed the PF officers’ course at the SA Military College (at this stage the South African Military Academy did not exist) he went on to graduate as a Bachelor of Science (Mil) at Pretoria University in 1954.

Malan was commissioned into the newly- established but already self-consciously elite South African Corps of Marines (SACM), but his taste of regimental subaltern’s sol­

diering was brief. Within a year the SACM was disbanded and Malan transferred to the South African Army as an instructor at the Army Gymnasium at Voortrekkerhoogte base, near Pretoria.

By 1958 he was a captain and aide-de- camp to the Governor General of what was then still the Union of South Africa. A year later he was appointed second-in-command of the SA Military Academy, which had been established a few years earlier.

From here Malan became staff officer in charge of planning, operations and training at Army Headquarters. In 1961 he complet­ed an SADF staff course and rejoined the staff of the Director of Planning and Oper­ations. This was followed in 1962 by the honour of being nominated to attend the two- year US Army Staff Course at Fort Leaven­worth, followed by a short attachment to the 35th Armoured Division in Colorado.

Interesting stories are told about that time. It is said his instructors singled out Malan as future possible national leader, and that he was given the ultimate accolade of being invited to meet President John F Ken­nedy.

M agnus Malan . . . the haw k

On returning to SA in 1964 he was ap­pointed to the staff of the SA Military Col­lege (now the SA Army College) at Voor- trekkerhoogte in the rank of commandant at the age of only 34 — a sure portent of things to come in a small and rather neglected defence force where promotion tended to be slow.

Just two years later he was promoted to full colonel and became Officer Command­ing SWA Com­mand, based in Windhoek. He was there only a year before go­ing to the pres­tigious post of Officer Com­m anding SA Military Acad­emy in the rank of brigadier.

He stayed for five years at the A c a d e m y , shaping several generations of future offi­cers, before being appointed Officer Com­manding Western Province Command, based at Cape Town, in 1972.

The following year he was promoted to major general, just 23 years after joining up. A few months later, aged 43, Malan was leap-frogged over the heads of a number of other major generals senior to him in age, service or both, promoted to lieutenant gen­eral and appointed Chief of the Army, the youngest man to hold this post or its equiv­alent in the history of the SADF.

Malan stayed Chief of the Army till July 1976, just after SA had withdrawn the last of its forces from Angola at the conclusion of Operation Savannah. Then he was appointed acting Chief of the SADF to succeed Admi­ral Hugo Biermann, and on September 1 that year his appointment was confirmed and he was promoted to full general.

In late 1980 Malan retired from the SADF, became a nominated MP and was appointed to the Cabinet as Minister of De­fence. This caused some resentment among his new colleagues, since politicians — espe-, daily senior ones — tend to be as clannish as old soldiers. But he was and is “P W’s man,” and earned his spurs in the general election of 1981. In 1987 he increased his majority.

Malan has a certain image problem. To many South Africans he is the sort of lethal, superficially polished but hairy-heeled Lord- God-of-hosts ethnic Boer who peoples their nightmares.

Partly it is due to his appearance. Many file photos depict him as a large, balding man with remorseless eyes and a look of square-chinned, humourless rectitude, even when he is smiling. Partly it is his forthright, almost abrupt, always confident manner of speaking at public occasions. Partly it is what he says — unsurprisingly, he is a hawk on defence.

It is a false image, say both his record and people who have worked with him. Malan’s

stern appearance, for example, can be decep­tive. He has a well-developed sense of hu­mour, mixes easily with people, and before being faced with the necessity of cultivating the sort of gravitas South Africans demand from defence chiefs and Cabinet ministers, built up a well-deserved reputation as a prac­tical joker.

Although an Afrikaner by birth, upbring­ing and culture, he speaks English fluently and articulately and does not suffer from cultural isolation or racism. He has been a strong proponent of coloured and black ad­vancement in the SADF and in fact the first coloured officers in the history of the SADF were commissioned during his term as Chief of the Army.

Characteristically, Malan did not allow these to be token appointments — the coloured officer-cadets did the normal stern training course (which washed out half of the first class). Their reward was full equality with white fellow officers in every way.

During his periods of office as Chief of the Army and Chief of the SADF parity of pay was achieved in almost all ranks, and the SADF was usually ahead of civilian society in the matter of integration.

Perhaps by temperament, perhaps be­cause most of his career before reaching general’s rank took place in peace time, Ma­lan is primarily a staff and organisation man, in other words an Eisenhower rather than a blood-and-guts field soldier of the Patton type. He believes in enlightened man man­agement and managerial structuring on the commercial pattern, and has attended civil­ian management courses and seminars deal­ing with these and other matters.

He is intolerant of inefficiency and de­mands hard work from his subordinates, but commands great personal loyalty from those who have had contact with him (this is partly due to a magnetic personality, partly to good man-management and partly to a phenom- enal memory — he can reel off facts and figures without consulting notes, and never forgets a man’s name).

His experience in the US Army seems to have left an indelible impression on him, and it is noteworthy that during his period in high military office the SA Army’s staff structure changed perceptibly towards the US pattern (one US military observer has described the SA Army as being basically organised on the British pattern, but with an American-style staff organisation superimposed on it).

Malan’s political stance is not all that easy to define. There can be no doubt that while still in uniform he was always a “political” general in the sense that he was intensely aware of the fact that military, political and economic circumstances could not be dealt with in isolation from each other.

As early as 1977 he was propagating the theory that SA was involved in a “total war”— not in the Hitlerian sense of total destruc­tion of all opposition, but in terms of Mao Tse-tung’s belief that every activity of a state (as Malan put it) “must be seen and under­stood as a function of total war.”

The correct way of conducting such a “total war,” he added, was to adopt a “total strategy” which embraced not only firm military action where necessary but also non­military reforms to ensure the loyalty of the entire nation, regardless of race or political affiliation.

Since retirement from the active military freed his tongue to some extent, he has been an outspoken advocate of large-scale consti­tutional change, and did not deviate from this point of view even at times when the National Party has experienced serious problems with a right-wing backlash.

At the same time he has remained an unashamed hawk on defence matters. He has been unrepentant in his support for the Unita rebels in Angola, remains convinced that SA is the Soviet Union’s ultimate target in Africa and states on every conceivable op­portunity his belief that the African National Congress is run by communists.

At the same time he has gone to consider­able lengths to keep the military’s hands clean from the troops-in-townships mess. As long ago as 1984 he tabled an amendment to the Defence Act aimed at placing curbs A the use of military personnel in the in te r * security role. Not long afterwards he issued a warning that wrongdoers could not expect to hide behind the indemnity clauses of existing legislation, and in fact a number of erring personnel have been punished for misdeeds committed while on township duty.

Needless to say, Malan has been almost constantly in the hot seat, mostly at the hands of the Progressive Federal Party. The ill-fated Cabinda raid in May of 1985 brought accusations of the heinous crime of lying to the assembly (in a celebrated speech PFP MP Graham McIntosh accused him of being “the Gaddafi of southern Africa”).

In September of 1986 Malan gave a clear indication of his politics of reality in an interview published in Die Suid-Afrikaan magazine, in which he posed the “big ques­tion” about how many South African blacks were concerned only with satisfying their material needs, adding:

“There is currently a limited section t lA is really interested in political participation.I think for the masses in S A democracy is not a relevant factor. For them it revolves around the satisfaction of their own needs. These needs change with time and are now being exploited by the revolutionaries.”

What will happen to him? At this stage anything is possible. Malan is in a powerful position. Because the military plays an im­portant (some say dominant) role in the State Security Council he enjoys a great deal of power. On the other hand, while well- respected generally, he lacks the sort of poli­tical power base that takes a decade or two to build up.

So the main question is: When P W Botha goes, will Malan be serving in the ranks of the succession struggle or will he be leading one of the factions? Malan has been “leader group,” in the Army phrase, since his school­days and always prepared to serve. ■

Jan Geldenhuys . . . soldier/diplomat

Born at Kroonstad on February 5 1935, Jan Geldenhuys attested in the Per­manent Force (PF) as a candidate-

officer on January 4 1954. After completing the 13-month PF officers’ course and later a driving and maintenance course at the School of Artillery and Armour, he was posted to 1 Special Service Battalion as an instructor.

Geldenhuys’s climb through the ranks was swift and sure. In 1964, in the rank of major, he was appointed GS02 (Intelligence) at SA Army Headquarters, and in 1965 was given a foreign service appointment about which his curriculum vitae is singularly unenlight- ening.

In 1970 he was appointed senior oper­ations officer at what was then still SWA Command — a fateful move, because the border war was beginning to heat up. As it turned out, Namibia was the place where he made his reputation, then and later.

In May of 1974 Geldenhuys became OC SWA Command with the rank of brigadier, but seven months later he was moved back to his former workplace, Army Headquarters, to become Chief of Army Staff Intelligence.

Two years later, aged 41, Geldenhuys was made Chief of Army Staff Operations and promoted temporary major general, almost exactly 22 years since reporting for his can- didate-offices’ course.

In August of 1977 Geldenhuys returned to Windhoek as General Officer Commanding SWA Command, which was soon to become the SWA Territory Force. There he stayed for three years, building a reputation both as a soldier and as a diplomat.

At the end of 1980, having presided over Operation Sceptic, the largest mechanised infantry operation conducted by South Afri­can troops since World War 2, Geldenhuys moved from Windhoek to Pretoria to take over as Chief of the Army from Lieutenant General Constand Viljoen, who had moved into the top slot on the retirement of General

The literary general

The m an a t the top o f SA's m ilita ry p ile is a laid-back character who steps easily from the

m ilita ry to the civilian w orld and back again ; and w rites m ilita ry m anuals and parodies o f h istory w ith equal fa c ility

Magnus Malan. It surprised no-one.In the minds of his large and loyal follow­

ing there was never any doubt about who would take Viljoen’s place, and in November 1985 it duly happened.

Jannie Geldenhuys’s nicknames — and the people who use them — say a good deal about the man. By the nature of their rank, generals are high-profile people who tend to be blamed not only for sins they have com­mitted but also for those of which they are innocent — and usually this takes the form of a disparaging nickname.

Geldenhuys, however, is known as “Jannie G,” “Gellie,” “Baas Jannie” and probably others, and the people who use these handles are to be found not only in the Permanent Force, but also in the Citizen Force. This is partly due to genuine respect for his abilities, partly because he has a gift for getting along with people without in any way diminishing his undoubted authority.

It is a quality which he has always had, no matter what his rank, or how many medals on his tunic (10 in all, at last count, including the Portuguese Order of Prince Henry).

That his charm is as effective on civilians as it is on his fellow-soldiers, cannot be doubted. One journalist remembers how Geldenhuys refused to allow publication of certain photographs for security reasons: “He apologised so sincerely and so profusely that eventually I found myself saying: ‘Ah, well, sir, that’s all right; it’s no sweat really’.

“And then I remembered what the situa­tion was, and thought: ‘Hey, why am I com­forting himV ”

On a higher level, the Geldenhuys charm is transformed into a source of inspired diplo­macy. Accomplished professional soldier and crisis manager that he is, Geldenhuys relates easily to people from all walks of life and appears equally at ease in a business suit and in uniform.

He has a gift for finding the real problems and solving them. For instance, during the

intricate manoeuvring at Lusaka in Febru­ary 1984 which led to the Joint Monitorjj Commission (JMC), he played a leading n in forging the accord. In subsequent months he frequently visited the JMC headquarters in southern Angola, to resolve seemingly insoluble problems that threatened to torpe­do the entire delicate process.

Geldenhuys is renowned for his good sense of humour. One of the minor bugbears of his life is the fact that he closely resembles Springbok bowler Doug Watson, and is often mistaken for him. Not only is Geldenhuys not embarrassed by this continual process of mistaken identity, he collects the stories and re-tells them.

He is also said to be the man who first told the now-famous joke — which he told with relish at a high-powered cocktail party, no less — about the main difference between the Army and a circus being that the Army had more tents.

Like many other senior officers Gelden­huys likes to play a few hands of bridge (his ability to relax like this immediately aiflPt some enormously important and exhausti% gathering is famed throughout the SADF).

Other talentsBut he has other talents that one would

normally not expect to find in a professional soldier. He is a fan of the Hungarian hu­mourist George Mikes, and has written two historical parodies.

Some military observers pass their idle moments by wondering about what Jannie Geldenhuys is going to do with the rest of his life. He is now 52; and if he goes on to serve the normal term in office, he will be only 55 when he retires.

Geldenhuys himself has not given any in­dications of what he will do then. But it is safe to say he will not disappear into obscur­ity. His brain is too keen, his charisma too strong, his diplomatic skills too well-honed for that to happen.

Square peg?As regards his language and religion Ian

Rim bault Gleeson, Chief o f Defence Staff and therefore effective second-in-command

o f the SADF, is everyth ing which, according to the m ilita ry ’s critics, one should not be to reach

the top echelons

J ^ r e the top jobs in the SADF reserved for Afrikaans-speakers who are also members of the Nederduits Gere-

formeerde Kerk (NGK) and the Broeder- bond? Many civilians and members of the part-time forces believe, to a greater or lesser degree, that this is so.

The SADF, naturally, denies it and main­tains that a member’s language or religion have no bearing on promotion, which is gov­erned by innate ability, training, personality and the other normal factors.

True or false? To be sure, the Afrikaners- only theory appears to have a great deal going for it. Most office-bearers in the SADF are undeniably Afrikaans-speaking (although not necessarily white), a majority belong to one of the Dutch Reformed churches (DRC) and there is no doubt that the Broederbond has a substantial following.

It is true that SADF spoken and written English often tends to be somewhat rough- and-ready and there is some ethno-cultural abuse, often at the hands of junior NCO instructors.

;|-V

Ian Gleeson . . . proud to be English

It is also a fact that the first 10 or 15 years after the National Party took power in 1948 there were many political promotions. That era has faded away long since, as have the incumbents concerned, but the bad taste has proved tenacious.

Records of fairly recent times, however, give the lie to the Afrikaners-only belief. In the past 10 or 15 years various distinctly non- Afrikaans, non-NGK, non-Broederbond of­ficers have risen to high positions in the SADF.

Among them are Lieutenant General C A “Pop” Fraser, former General Officer Com­manding (GOC) Joint Combat Forces, Lieu­tenant General Bob Rogers, former Chief of the SAAF and Vice-Admiral R A Edwards, former Chief of the Navy.

It is also a fact that a few years ago the right-wing politico-cultural organisation A frikaner-kultuur Volk en Vaderland (AKVV) attempted to establish a foothold in the SADF but (as one senior officer suc­cinctly puts it) “it dropped dead.”

At present a heavily sprinkling of non- Afrikaner, non-DRC officers have reached senior SADF posts. Among them are Vice- Admiral Glen Syndercombe, Chief of the Navy; Lieutenant General Dennis Earp, Chief of the Air Force and Rear-Admiral A C Mandy, recently retired Chief Director, Logistics Planning, who are all English- speaking and members of the Church of the Province of South Africa.

Major General R M Pickersgill, the Quartermaster-General, and Rear-Admiral C H Bennett, Flag Officer Commanding Naval Command West, are English-speak­ing Methodists.

The most senior of them, however, is Ian Gleeson, who as Chief of Defence Force Staff is effectively second-in-command of the SADF.

Gleeson is a widely respected soldier with a long record of solid achievement. Holder of a B Mil degree and graduate of the back­breaking Army Staff Course, he joined the Army in 1954 and was commissioned into the infantry in 1955.

After that he held a variety of appoint­ments. Among other things he was an offi- cer-instructor with 4 Field Training Regi­ment, an instructor at the SA Military

College, a staff officer, Officer Commanding (OC) 2 SA Infantry at Walvis Bay and OC Walvis Bay Military Area.

In July 1976, soon after the withdrawal of SADF troops from Angola, he became GOC 101 Task Force, controlling the border war operations. From there he went on to become Chief of Army Staff, Operations, and in 1985 was named as the first incumbentJfej the recently re-created post of Chief of iW fence Force Staff.

An old boy of Christian Brothers College in Pretoria, Gleeson is almost as at home in Afrikaans as he is in English, and like many fully bilingual South Africans does not hesi­tate to switch languages in order to find the most apt or telling phrase.

However, he is an English-speaker and proud of it. In a recent interview he made his feelings plain.

On his language: “I come from a basically English-speaking background, both English and Irish. I’m a third- or fourth-generation South African — and very adamantly an English-speaking South African.

___I--------- ---------------------- -A C Mandy . . . Church of the

Province

Collection Number: AG1977

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