Criminal violence remained high and tens of thousands of under-18s belonged to armed gangs. The number of people involved in gangs was not known, but current membership was believed to be high, not least because these gangs had expanded their operations into rural areas. Activities included involvement in the drugs trade, prostitution and control over local economic activities. Gang members deliberately targeted vulnerable young people for recruitment. Young gang members were reportedly used to carry out attacks because, if arrested and tried, they were less likely to face a long prison sentence. Initiation rituals included rape or killing rival gang members, and gang members adopted particular styles of clothing and were encouraged to have gang tattoos and learn the gang’s history. Attempts to leave a gang could be punished by death.
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Paramilitary camp 'one of many'
Sipho Khumalo,IOL
September 03 2008 at 06:43PM
KwaZulu-Natal violence monitor Mary de Haas said on Tuesday she had evidence that many of the 452 people arrested in Ulundi last week for allegedly undergoing illegal military training were new recruits, and that the group was not only comprised of former IFP self-protection unit members.
De Haas said the so-called "unintegrated forces" were not being truthful in saying the paramilitary group at Mlaba camp, outside Ulundi, was made of remnants of self-protection units trained in 1996.
"They are recruiting people all the time, including from known IFP strongholds... The young men who are the subject of my letter to Mahlabathini police were recruited, under false pretences, in June.
 “Children were reported to be most affected by the economic crisis in Zimbabwe. Chronic malnutrition affected a third of all children. The education system had almost stopped functioning, due to the general economic collapse, prohibitive fees for both government and private schools and lack of teachers, who were not only underpaid but were harassed and threatened by militias, including youth miltias.” |
"The police have had a month to respond to my letters and have not done so," she said.
De Haas said she had given police the names of young men "rescued" from Mlaba camp, where they were allegedly held against their will.
She had written to KZN police commissioner Hamilton Ngidi and the Ulundi station commissioner.Unintegrated forces president Kereng Motate said there was another group of more than 400 youths camping outside Eshowe.
"We are in all nine provinces. You only know of those who were at Mlaba camp, but there are others you would not be able to see," he said.
Motate said the organisation was arranging legal representation for the Mlaba group.
He would not respond to De Haas's allegations.
This article was originally published on page 4 of The Mercury on September 03, 2008
Source: IOL (PDF)
Child Soldiers 2008 Report: South Africa
There were no reports of under-18s in the armed forces. Large numbers of under-18s were members of criminal gangs.
Context
Political violence in the run-up to the March 2006 municipal elections in KwaZulu-Natal led to the deaths of a number of African National Congress (ANC) and Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) candidates.1 Criminal gangs linked to political parties or their members were reportedly associated with the violence.2 It was not known whether under-18s were involved.
In 2005 South Africa National Defence Force (SANDF) troops operating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as part of the UN peacekeeping mission were accused of sexual misconduct towards women and girls. Eight of the allegations were substantiated, and the soldiers responsible were returned to their country.3 There were two cases of South African soldiers under trial for sexual misconduct in peacekeeping missions in the DRC and in Burundi.4
Government
National recruitment legislation and practice
There was no general conscription, although the Defence Act No. 42 of 2002 provided for the possibility of mobilization during a state of national defence. Article 90 stated that “after declaration of a state of national defence, the President may, by proclamation in the Gazette, authorise the mobilisation of persons for services in the Defence Forces if it is necessary.”5
The 2002 Defence Act established 18 as the minimum age for voluntary recruitment to
the SANDF, military training and mobilization, including in times of emergency (Articles 52, 82 and 91).6
Developments
Criminal violence remained high and tens of thousands of under-18s belonged to armed
gangs.7 The number of people involved in gangs was not known, but current membership was believed to be high, not least because these gangs had expanded their operations into rural areas. Activities included involvement in the drugs trade, prostitution and control over local economic activities. Gang members deliberately targeted vulnerable young people for recruitment.
Young gang members were reportedly used to carry out attacks because, if arrested and
tried, they were less likely to face a long prison sentence. Initiation rituals included rape or killing rival gang members, and gang members adopted particular styles of clothing and were encouraged to have gang tattoos and learn the gang’s history.
 “We are Zanu-PF’s “B” team. The army is the “A” team and we do the things the government does not want the “A” team to do.” -- ZA & Zim Youth militia Interviews “It takes great wickedness for those in power to be prepared to sacrifice a whole generation, the youth of the nation, in order to maintain their own hold on power. The youth of Zimbabwe are being used, and abused, in a most cynical and calculating way by the very people entrusted with responsibility for their welfare.” An Overview of Youth Militia Training and Activities in Zimbabwe, October 2000 – August 2003 |
Attempts to leave a gang could be punished by death.8
South Africa had the second-highest HIV prevalence in the world9 and AIDS was the main cause of death among children under five (40 per cent of deaths). More than 1 million children had lost one or both parents to AIDS.10
During 2006 the number of people applying for asylum in South Africa noticeably increased, the majority seeking refuge from armed conflict in the DRC, although the number of Zimbabwean asylum seekers rose significantly.11 Hundreds of child migrants, some as young as ten, arrived in South Africa from Zimbabwe, risking being
robbed or raped by trafficking gangs if they were unable to pay them.12
At a February 2007 ministerial meeting in Paris, South Africa and 58 other states endorsed the Paris Commitments to protect children from unlawful recruitment or use by armed forces or armed groups and the Paris Principles and guidelines on children associated with armed forces or armed groups. The documents reaffirmed international standards and operational principles for protecting and assisting child soldiers and followed a wide-ranging global consultation jointly sponsored by the French government and UNICEF.
- Amnesty International Report 2007.
- “South Africa: Province hit by spate of political killings”, IRIN, 4 April 2006.
- US State Department, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, 2005, www.state.gov.
- Treaty body Monitor, UN Committee against Torture, 37th session, 6–24 November 2006, www.ishr.ch.
- Defence Act 42 of 2002, Article 90.
- Government Gazette, Vol. 452, No. 24576, 20 February 2003, www.gov.za/gazette.
- “South Africa: Gang culture in Cape Town”, IRIN, 27 February 2007.
- Andre Standing, “The threat of gangs and antigangs policy”, Occasional Paper 116, Institute of Security Studies, August 2006, www.iss.co.za.
- UNICEF, “At South Africa’s third national AIDS conference, all eyes on rising child mortality”, www.unicef.org.
- UNICEF, Saving Children, Enhancing Lives, Combating HIV and AIDS in South Africa: Second Edition 2006, www.unicef.org.
- Human Rights Watch World Report 2007.
- “Zimbabwe: Child migrants seek a better life in South Africa”, IRIN, 3 September 2007.
Source: Child Soldiers Global Report (PDF)
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