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Military Reform – 1993

In the 1970s and 1980s, the apartheid regime had the backing of a 90,000-strong South African Defense Force (SADF), along with support from militias of the homelands, Transkei, Venda, Bophuthatswana, and Ciskei, which totaled 11,000 soldiers. There were about 28,000 guerrillas of the ANC (also know as Umkhonto We Sizwe or MK), and 6,000 guerrillas of the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC). In negotiations, the ANC and PAC sought military integration (MI) and military reform to bolster the ANC-led government’s control over the armed forces. The SADF favored the absorption of the militias into the already established force, led primarily by white officers.¹

The 1993 Accord (Interim Constitution) established the South African National Defense Force (SANDF). The multi-party Transitional Executive Council (TEC) was established and given the challenge of controlling seven armies, regular and irregular, and 11 police forces. The TEC bill provided for seven sub-councils, including the sub-councils on defense and policing.² As part of the reform, the MK and PAC combatants were to be integrated in a new national military.

The South African Defence Force (SADF) and the ANC reached an agreement on the principles of military integration at Simons town in April 1993.³

1. Stephen F. Burgess, “Fashioning Integrated Security Forces after Conflict,” African Security 1, no. 2 (2008): 77.
2. “New group to rally mixed army of South Africa’s fighting men,” The Herald (Glasgow), September 9, 1993.
3. Norma Kriger and Patrick Bond, “Negotiations and the Military in South Africa,” Africa Today 42, no. 1/2, The Military and Democratic Transitions (1st Qtr. -2nd Qtr., 1995), pp. 124-133; also see Hugo van der Merwe and Guy Lamb, “DDR and Transitional Justice in South Africa: Lessons Learned” (2009), accessed June 11, 2010, http://www.ictj.org/en/research/projects/ddr/country-cases/2384.html.