S.Africa Considering Youth National Mil Service Option

[The Bread Guy]

From allafrica.com:

Defence Minister Lindiwe Sisulu has revealed a plan to set up a national service to provide training and instil discipline in youth.

Briefing the media ahead of her Budget Vote speech on Tuesday, Sisulu said she hoped to draw up a bill within a year, but cautioned that the national service would not be compulsory.

"It offers the country a solution that we have in our hands. Ten years down the line with such a youthful population and 50 percent of them between the ages of 18 and 24 unemployed and unskilled, not purposeful, we are going for a serious crisis and unless we change our mindset around how we can utilise what - we have a problem," said Sisulu.

The national service would differ from the defence force's Military Skills Development System which serves as a feeder system for the defence force, as those that enrolled in the proposed service wouldn't necessarily have to join the military.

Sisulu said the department would be seeking stakeholder consensus on the service, adding that department would also use a new series called In Your Defence which will appear on SABC2, as a way to gain national consensus ....

From iol.co.za:

South Africa faced a crisis if it did not rescue a generation of youths who lacked jobs and purpose, Defence and Military Veterans Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said on Tuesday as she asked for a national consensus on "an unavoidable national service".

Tabling her budget in Parliament, Sisulu said national service would afford the 50 percent of South Africans aged between 18 and 24, who had neither jobs nor hope, a chance to acquire skills, respect and discipline - something "not found in abundance in our youth today".

She said she was not proposing a return to conscription of the apartheid era, when men were compelled to do national service.

Sisulu acknowledged concerns "that if we militarise our youth, we are turning them over to society, highly trained to kill and a greater danger than before", but the move was understood to be aimed at turning out good citizens, rather than producing soldiers.

Briefing journalists earlier, the minister warned: "We are heading for a serious crisis unless we change our mindset on how to utilise what we have. We have a problem (of undisciplined youth). We are offering society this solution because we think it works." ....

Some like the idea....

The Young Communist League of SA has welcomed the possible re-introduction of military service for out of school youth.

"The Young Communist League of South Africa welcomes and applauds the highly anticipated decision by the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Lindiwe Sisulu, to formally propose to Parliament the military service for out of school youth," the League said in a statement on Wednesday.

The League's Gugu Ndima said Sisulu's decision was a victory for the youth who "remain hopeless and helpless".

It would also address some of the "social ills" in society.

"Military service will not be a panacea for all problems faced by young people in society but it can be utilised as an effective tool to address issues of unemployment, discipline, instilling patriotism and training young people within the Defence Force to be able to work in various sectors," Ndima said ....

...and some not so much:

Defence Minister Lindiwe Sisulu's idea of introducing a form of voluntary National Service is not possible, according to the Parliamentary leader of the Freedom Front Plus, Pieter Groenewald, who doubles as the party's defence spokesman.

There is simply not enough money to do it, he said on Tuesday, after the minister had spoken.

"At present there aren't even enough funds available to keep the defence force operationally on standard, so much less would there be enough funds available to institute a military service," he said.

"The military's existing budget is already showing a shortfall of R3 billion ($405M CDN) and in the next two years the shortfall will be R4 billion ($540M CDN) up to 2012."

"From this it is clear that the defence force and the country will not be able to afford a national military service." ....

 

[McG]

So, this is basically South Africa establishing its own Army Cadets?

 

[GAP]

"The military's existing budget is already showing a shortfall of R3 billion ($405M CDN) and in the next two years the shortfall will be R4 billion ($540M CDN) up to 2012."

"From this it is clear that the defence force and the country will not be able to afford a national military service." ....

They can`t afford not to....if they don`t do something to employ or use those youth, someone will, and they may not like the end result.

 

[The Bread Guy]

So, this is basically South Africa establishing its own Army Cadets?

18-24 year olds are a touch old for "cadets" - more like "Katimavik" without the civilian option.

They can`t afford not to....if they don`t do something to employ or use those youth, someone will, and they may not like the end result.

For sure!

 

[Retired AF Guy]

18-24 year olds are a touch old for "cadets" - more like "Katimavik" without the civilian option. For sure!

While the intentions sound good (training to young unemployed adults), who knows what could happen down the road. Could end-up as a private army for the ruling party.