The implementation of the affirmative action policy in the South African Military Health Service (SAMHS) 1995 - 2000

Abstract

It is both a Constitutional imperative and the South African government's policy that the historical imbalances of the past be redressed. As a result thereof, the SANDF as a state entity is expected to comply with these stipulations. The objectives of this study are therefore to examine the nature of the policy of affirmative action in the SAMHS, and the nature of the problems experienced with regards to the implementation of this policy within this organisation during the period 1995 - 2000. On examining the nature of affirmative action policy in the SAMHS, it becomes obvious that this organisation did not have blacks as commissioned officers prior 1994. The number of black officers currently found within the SAMHS appears to have resulted from the integration process. Further analysis reveals that the SAMHS did not utilise the opportunity provided by the Defence Review in 1998 to become representative. Strategic positions were therefore still held by former white SADF members during the period under review. The sunset clause which was accepted during the political negotiations (1990 - 1994) seems to have contributed to the non implementation of this policy because the old guards' positions were secured during the first five years of the new democratic dispensation.