Report : 16 in military court over recruits treatment

The instructors included three captains, three warrant officers, four corporals, and four lance-corporals.

 

None of the school's management or senior officers were charged.

 

Preliminary charges included ill-treatment of recruits and behaviour detrimental to military discipline.

 

Court proceedings began suddenly after an internal inquiry found that nobody was responsible for the alleged transgressions or deaths of recruits.

 

Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula had also asked military ombudsman Themba Matanzima to investigate and the latest developments emanated from this probe, not the military's own investigation.

 

This was after at least 10 recruits at the infantry school were admitted to hospital after being subjected to 34 hours of gruelling training.

Instructors halted the training only after three became unconscious.

 

In other incidents, one recruit died of exposure and another shot herself after being branded a "loose woman".

 

The case was postponed to April 20.

 

In a separate case, Brig-Gen Xolani Mankayi and Colonel Nkhabu Nthejane -- the previous and current commanders at the school -- would return to the Oudtshoorn Regional Court on April 10 for allegedly trying to free officers in police custody after their arrest at a shebeen.

 

 

   (File photo: Gallo Images)