JOHANNESBURG - The South African National Defence Union (SANDU) has criticised allegations emerging from the SANDF training mission in Cuba.
This follows claims that SANDF members were pressured to make “voluntary” contributions from their allowances to assist needy Cubans.
The union says soldiers’ pay cannot be treated as a discretionary fund by senior officers.
“There should be a Board of Inquiry. The Defence Act does provide for that, and it must inquire who authorised the asking of these funds, who collected the funds, what happened to that money and why soldiers were requested to use their own allowances, which is actually their pay, to spend on what is obviously a non-military project,” said SANDU’s Pikkie Greeff.
“That’s completely unacceptable. Soldier salaries are not a slush fund.
“The Board of Inquiry should inquire into all those factors, and if it proves that it was actually legal and above board, then that’s fine. But if there is some kind of misconduct proven in that board, then the persons who are accountable should be held [accountable].”
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