The SANDF and the South African National Defence Union (Sandu) met on Tuesday to discuss claims by soldiers returning from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) that they have been short-paid in their Southern African Development Community (Sadc) allowances.
The Sunday Times reported last week that disgruntled soldiers are claiming to be out of pocket R600,000.
One of the aggrieved soldiers said he and his comrades should have been paid R100,000 a month during their 15-month deployment as part of a Sadc force in the eastern DRC, but had received only R58,000.
“We are angry. Sadc paid the SANDF a lot of money so they could pay us allowances for risking our lives,” the soldier told the Sunday Times last week.
“In normal times my salary is about R20,000 per month. During my 14-month deployment it was R58,000. This did not include the money paid by Sadc.”
He produced two payslips, one reflecting his normal peacetime pay of R20,000 a month and the other showing his DRC remuneration of nearly three times as much.
“The extra pay was standard SANDF additional deployment pay,” the soldier said.
“We get danger allowance when deployed in places where there may be danger, like border patrols or when there was unrest in KZN. This works out to almost R20 a day. Then there is the special danger allowance of about R30 a day. We get this when we are deployed to a combat zone.
“There is also a R760 deprivation allowance you get for being away from your home and family and having to live rough. Also, an international obligation standard daily allowance of R277 per day.”
But even more was due to them, the soldier said.
“[Sadc] paid the SANDF money per soldier, for dry rations, wet rations, daily allowances, recreational leave allowances and daily incidentals, but that money did not make it to us.”
SANDF head of communications Admiral Prince Tshabalala declined to disclose the breakdown of what the soldiers earned, citing confidentiality, but said they knew what they were going to get before going to the DRC.
“During the demobilisation phase, all members were briefed and provided with relevant information regarding their return and entitlements.”
But, the soldier maintains, he and his comrades are out of pocket.
“According to our calculations, if you add the Sadc money to that R58,000, it should have been about R100,000 a month.”
Last week, the SANDF, while not denying the claim, said the soldiers must follow the correct grievance process.
On Wednesday Tshabalala confirmed that the meeting had taken place.
“Actually, nothing changed except that all what was discussed before was reaffirmed again between all parties — that Sandu must wait for the process of demobilisation to end and then all matters pertaining to outstanding allowances will be dealt without any prejudice to the members,” Tshabalala said.
“Those members that still had grievances will then lodge their individual grievances accordingly in terms of the SANDF grievance procedures. Should this be a collective issue, it will be dealt with within the appropriate structures of Bargaining Council.”
Pikkie Greeff, national secretary of Sandu, initially did not want to comment.
On Saturday, Greeff said: “The withholding of these allowances is unlawful under South African law.
“Sandu is taking this matter seriously and is pursuing it at the highest level. We wrote a letter to the department of defence, demanding the following answers: what allowances were due? Who decided the amounts? Who decided not to pay them on time?
“Sandu has established that unlawful decisions were made to withhold the payment of certain allowances while [the soldiers in the DRC were] deployed.”
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