Swords into Plowshares - The Swords of South Africa

By Prof. Shimon Silman, RYAL Institute and Touro College

When we talk of Swords into Plowshares, we usually think of the superpowers like the U.S., Russia and China, and the European nations—countries that were directly involved in the Cold War. We don’t usually think of the African nations. Yet South Africa was deeply involved in military activity during this time both internally, fighting against revolutionary factions, and externally, fighting against the armies of communist-supported African nations. In fact, during those years South Africa itself was dominated by its military.

So in analyzing the global phenomenon of Swords into Plowshares, South Africa provides us with the unique opportunity to see how this nation dealt with its own unique situation in the conversion from a military environment to a peaceful one.

COLD WAR AND APARTHEID

During the Cold War, there was a contest for influence in Africa, between the US and Western powers on the one hand and the Soviet Union and Eastern bloc countries on the other. Most of newly independent ex-colonies in Africa received military and economic support from one of the superpowers.

The South African government was strongly anti-communist, so while the British and American governments used political rhetoric and economic sanctions against the South African apartheid policy, they continued to supply the regime with military expertise and hardware.

During this time the greatest threats to South Africa were from forces of communism outside the country (as in the South African Border War), the South African Communist Party (SACP) within the country which had a revolutionary military wing, and its closely allied African National Congress (ANC) which had its own military wing. Anti-Communism affected almost every aspect of the South African government’s foreign policy and much of its domestic policy.

With the fall of the Soviet Union all this began to change. As explained by South African president F.W de Klerk, the last apartheid Head of State:

“The collapse of the Soviet Union helped to remove our long-standing concern regarding the influence of the South African Communist Party within the ANC Alliance. By 1990 classic socialism had been thoroughly discredited throughout the world and was no longer a serious option, even for revolutionary parties like the ANC.

“At about the same time, the ANC was reaching a similar conclusion that it could not achieve a revolutionary victory within the foreseeable future. The…collapse of the Soviet Union – which had traditionally been one the ANC’s main allies and suppliers – led the organization [the ANC] to adopt a more realistic view of the balance of forces. It concluded that its interests could be best secured by accepting negotiations rather than by committing itself to a long and ruinous civil war.”

In 1989, the president unbanned the African National Congress and the South African Communist Party, and in the peaceful turnover of power to the ANC that dismantled the apartheid system, the ANC military arm, previously perceived as the primary threat to national security, was absorbed into the new military establishment.

South Africa was now ready for Swords into Plowshares—the restructuring of its military establishment. The country now entered a period of demilitarization, in which civilian oversight of the armed forces was greatly strengthened through the Cabinet, Parliament and the newly created Defense Secretariat.

Furthermore, social welfare, housing and education were given priority over defense; correspondingly, the military budget was reduced, initiating a period of military disarmament which lasted through the 1990s.

The shift away from militarization was both ideological and financial. Between 1989 and 1993, the defense budget fell by 44%. In 1994, the ANC, now the ruling party, made a strong commitment to social welfare and education programs, resulting in a further shift away from militarization. Indeed, after 1994, the new Reconstruction and Development Program (RDP), designed to address the great inequalities created under apartheid, furthered the reorientation of financial commitment away from militarization and towards economic and social redistribution. Housing and infrastructure were major priorities and these departments witnessed a monetary increase in their budgets.

CIVILIAN CONTROL OF THE MILITARY

In May 1961, following a whites-only referendum, the government declared South Africa a republic. It banned the ANC and similar organizations, and left them with no legal means to pursue their interests. They found they had no option but to resort to armed struggle. The ANC had been transformed from a non-violent African nationalist organization into a revolutionary liberation movement. The country was to slide into an armed conflict lasting 30 years.

Following the uprising in 1976 in which several hundred students were killed, thousands of people left the country to join the liberation movements, and the armed struggle gained momentum.

During those years the military essentially ran the country. When P.W. Botha, a former defense minister, became Prime minister in 1978, he began to reorganize the state. He established the National Security Management System (NSMS), a structure dominated by the military whose role was to address economic and social problems in local ‘hotspots’ in an effort to win the support of the local population. It was headed by the State Security Council (SSC) which was directed by the Prime Minister himself. Through its Joint Management Committees (JMC) it coordinated military action and infrastructure provision in the twelve regions of South Africa. Through the SSC and JMC the security establishment assumed alternative non-legislative control over the country.

But in any peaceful country the military must be under civilian control specifically to prevent military control over civilian society. In 1994 a new order was established in which the military was subordinated to civilian control. In this new structure, the President became the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. He appoints a minister of defense and a military commander of the armed forces. The Defense Secretariat, under the Minister of Defense, sets policy for the military and the President himself is accountable to the Parliament in case he declares a state of national defense. Military spending as well as arms exports are now under civilian control.

MAKING THE TRANSITION

However, during the mid-1990s, the critical time for the Swords into Plowshares transformation to take effect, government policy on shifting defense technologies, manpower and resources into the civilian sector was not always clear. Financial policymaking dominated, with the national financial reprioritization program and a moratorium on military spending for the South African National Defense Forces (SANDF)

Social welfare programs, including housing, health and education, were the priority of the first antiapartheid government. To move massive resources into this developmental agenda, the government had to undertake military disarmament. To some extent this stimulated conversion of the defense industry to civilian production. Firms that were involved in high technology software production found survival easy as they could easily switch to civilian contracts.

All the large defense firms developed new products through the application of dual use technology, and looked for new markets both inside and outside the country.

But while the government raised the prospect of conversion it was left at a rhetorical level. In its 1997 Defense White Paper the government signaled its commitment to the maintenance of a domestic defense industry by promoting arms exports by the Departments of Foreign Affairs. They began to view the defense industry as an economic rather than a military asset. The situation was summarized by Jackie Cilliers of the Institute of Security Studies who said that, “Since coming to power, the ANC has changed dramatically from its pre-election stance. They have dropped their idealism and suddenly woken up to the fact that there is money to be made in the arms industry.”

In its Defense Review (1998) the government produced a policy that was a delicate balance between military, political and economic requirements.