Pulling the South Africans out?
Updated on 30 March 2007
South Africans soldiers in the British Army are facing a tough choice: Stay in their jobs and be labelled as 'mercenaries' or quit and go home?
For generations, the British armed forces have drawn on citizens around the Commonwealth - like Fiji, Jamaica and South Africa, to make up the numbers. Yet the South Africans have had enough.
With nearly a thousand of their citizens in the British forces, President Mbeki's government, wants them out. New legislation, now awaiting his signature, would class them as mercenaries, illegal combatants and put them subject to imprisonment.
The Vaal River, in the heart of South Africa, once formed the boundary between the two Boer republics. After colonisation, this region has sent young men, both English or Afrikaans to serve in the British forces. It's no different now.
Jane Johnson's son Ralph signed up, an officer in the Lifeguards, was killed in Afghanistan last August.
The election of Nelson Mandela as president brought an end to South African apartheid regime. Yet this fundamental reordering of public life triggered an unexpected consequence.
Personnel in the white apartheid-era army went to work for private military companies or PMC's. They are now world leaders in this niche business, up to 10,000 South Africans may have worked in Iraq.
Some PMC's have been accused of mercenary activities. Those accused of trying to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea were largely South African citizens or individuals living there - Mark Thatcher being one. The government tried to convict Thatcher as a mercenary, but he avoided prison by accepting a lesser charge.
Infuriated by that experience the government introduced tough new legislation in 2005. No South African it states, can join an army other than the South African one
It puts SA solders, many now serving in front line units, in a very difficult position. If they stay in the British army, they risk being thrown in jail when they return home to South Africa.
The main worry is citizenship. If you do your normal job and lose your passport, well you can never go home. It's caused quite a stir amongst the guys. The guys want to go home, they want to go back to South Africa.
Commonwealth personnel must spend 5 years before being eligible for a British passport. Yet we have discovered that South African soldier's are being offered UK citizenship by the MoD, before the 5 years are served
This is problematic. The armed forces has nearly 7,000 men and women from the commonwealth. Will the MoD offer all of them passports now?
And what if other commonwealth countries decide to do as the South Africans have done - arguing for example, that they don't want their citizens involved in Iraq?
