No strike by soldiers, says South African Dept of Defence

Pretoria - Members of the South African National Defence (SANDF) will not be joining the current public service strike, saying it would be against the prescripts of the Constitution and the Defence Act.

"The SANDF is a responsible organisation and its members would not break the law or undermine the very Constitution they are supposed to defend," said the Siphiwe Dlamini, spokespers for the Department of Defence and Military Veterans on August 27. According to a report by the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS), the SANDF was continuing to provide support to government in line with the Constitution and the Defence Act. Members of the South African Military Veterans Association (SAMVA) have also "stepped forward to assist fellow South Africans in their moment of need," Dlamini said. The South African Military Health Service (SAMHS) officials have been deployed to ensure hospitals and clinics remain open and provide health care as the public service strike enters its tenth day. Medical teams including doctors, nurses and emergency health care practitioners have now been deployed to 46 hospitals across the country, while other personnel have been deployed to assist with the cleaning of the hospitals. These teams are active in the South African provinces of Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, the Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga, Free State and the North West.