The South African National Defence Union (Sandu) said on Friday (5 June) that the statement issued by the Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Defence regarding the living conditions at the Fort Ikapa Military Base in Acasia Park, Cape Town, is “factually inaccurate”.

According to media reports on Wednesday, the committee said that the living conditions at Fort Ikapa are adequate. Soldiers deployed as part of Operation Prosper to help the police combat gang violence on the Cape Flats were accommodated at the base.

The committee claims that the media reports of inhumane living conditions at the base are fabricated and undermine the South African National Defence Force, ENCA reports. 

Co-chair of the Joint Standing Committee, Phiroane Anthony Phala, said what they witnessed, met the standards reasonably expected under the circumstances.

NovaNews has reached out to Phala, but is still waiting for a response.

SANDU’s response

Meanwhile on Friday, JG Greeff, Sandu national secretary, said in a statement that Phala’s statement about Fort Ikapa is “increasingly irreconcilable with the facts”.

“He claims reports of unacceptable living conditions at Fort Ikapa were fabricated and part of a campaign to undermine the SANDF.

“Yet deployed soldiers themselves on 3 June raised these concerns directly with visiting parliamentarians and in the presence of Mr Phala himself, about the leaking roof and the absence of hot water, insect infestations and the impact these conditions were having on soldiers’ health.

“Senior military leadership present at that visit acknowledged the concerns and indicated that alternative accommodation was indeed available. Mr Phala knows this very well,” Greeff said.

Most significantly, he said, the soldiers were subsequently moved from the Fort Ikapa facility, and the vacated accommodation and ablution facilities were handed over for an assessment on repairs.

“This leaves a simple question: if the conditions were satisfactory, why were the soldiers moved and why are repairs now planned?”

Greeff said Phala seems more concerned with embarrassment to the SANDF than the soldiers’ legitimate concerns which they have a right to raise and which deserve to be addressed. 

Sandu has taken the SANDF and Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Angie Motshekga, to court regarding the conditions at Fort Ikapa. The case is currently before the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court in Gauteng.

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