Die Suid-Afrikaanse Nasionale Vredesmag in Militêre Perspektief

Abstract

The release of Nelson Mandela in 1990 was the turning point in the democratisation process of South Africa, because the first free and fair election was declared in April 1994. This led to the establishment of the national Peace Force which had to assure that the first democratic election in the country would indeed be free and fair. The Peace Force was disrupted by various problems from the beginning. The first of which was the appointment of Gabriel Ramushwana as commander, who was no success. These problems were enhanced during the training process of the recruits who would serve in the peace force. They not only had to be trained in the limited period of six weeks, which was impossible to achieve, but the fact that the recruiters were associated with different structures and organisations, resulted in huge disagreements that could not be bridged. During the first deployment of the National Peace force, it was clear that they were not fit for the task and before long they disappeared into oblivion.