The Bill of Rights is a cornerstone of democracy, enshrining the rights of all people in the country and affirming the democratic values of human dignity, equality and freedom. This is inclusive of the appointment of youth from any cultural background and association without discrimination. No member can be disqualified when he/she meets the necessary requirement to be offered equal opportunities like any other youth in the country. By placing young people and their development in the broader context of reconstruction and development, common developmental goals and a spirit of cooperation and co-ordination is encouraged.
4. This should be done in line with Government’s broad approach to fundamentally address poverty and underdevelopment through comprehensive, integrated, cross-sectoral and sustainable policies and programmes. Young people ought to enjoy all the rights, responsibilities and obligations that all normal citizens of South Africa enjoy as contained in the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, so are contractors who are related to members of the Department of Defence, unless it can be said they are not supposed to have rights that are accorded every citizen of this country which were attained through blood and sweat of their fathers, mothers brothers and sisters who had to face oppression by a brutal regime. The Department of Defence policy clearly states that a member of a selection board may recuse himself/herself if his/her familiarity with the candidate might affect his/her objective judgement. In the aforementioned case, no family member was directly involved with the acquisition of contract workers. DODI C PERS NO 8/99 stipulates that applicants should not be discriminated due to their status. The policy further states that all candidates should be measured against the same objective criteria.
5. The South African National Defence Force has systems in place to deal with issues regarding all ill-discipline aspects at all levels. Necessary internal processes are always followed regarding any irregularity or ill-discipline related behaviour. In order to ensure that checks and balances within the department are in place, staffing is handled as follows:
(a) Vacant funded posts are advertisement and this is done according to C Pers [DCM (PSAP)] by Human Resource Division.
(b) Shortlisting of applicants is done by Human Resource of the requesting authority.
(c) The Staffing Board identifies the suitable candidates according to the criteria.
(d) The decision of the Staffing Board is sent back to C Pers [DCM (PSAP)] for final endorsement.
Regarding the aforementioned criteria, posts were not advertised due to the fact that, contract appointments do not meet the advertisement requirement, as per DODI C PERS NO 8/99. However in an event where shortcomings or irregularities occur, the SANDF as the organisation will not hesitate to implement corrective measures as directed by the Defence Act.