The defence force is struggling to meet all of its transformation aims.
The Department of Defence and Military Veterans’ chief of transformation, Maj-Gen Olga Nodola, briefing Parliament’s joint standing committee on defence, said the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) had made some progress towards gender parity.
In 1994-95 only 20% of SANDF members were women and this had risen to 25% by 2015-16, she said.
Black South Africans went from making up 36% of the military in 1994-95 to more than 70% in 2015-16.
The number of white members fell from more than 40% to about 10% in the same period she said.
The military population had shrunk slightly during this period, she said, from 82,531 in 1994-95 to 77,792 in 2015-16.
Maj-Gen Nodola said the military’s transformation agenda included race, gender, disability and modernising the military environment.
She said 0.6% of people in the military had disclosed they were living with a disability. Of the 440 members living with disabilities, 341 were uniformed members.
Asked whether the department was turning away experienced people to meet quotas, the department’s chief of human resources, Lt-Gen Norman Yengeni said while parity was a priority, no one would be promoted solely on the basis of demographics.
"We try our best to ensure we appoint the best and to upgrade the skills of people that are brought into the defence force. We have to promote the best. We promote people because of their competency and not because of their gender or their colour," Yengeni said.
© BDlive 2016
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