Preface

Armed forces in many parts of Africa have been undergoing profound changes over the past decade. Prominent among these transformational challenges have been the various attempts to restructure forces in such a manner that their culture, ethos and activities are consistent with the democracy within which they operate.

Transformation, particularly in the African context, is a wide-ranging concept that encompasses a variety of interrelated fields. Transformation processes, if thoroughly pursued, impact upon virtually all aspects of an organisation’s existence and, as such, require astute management if the success of such processes are to be ensured. For transformation processes to be successful, it is essential that three crucial mission success factors are acknowledged during the management of the process itself:

providing decisive and strategic leadership over the process itself;



ensuring that high levels of legitimacy (‘buy-in’) accrue to the process; and



determining the scope of the transformation process itself — organisational culture, traditions, leadership style, racial and gender composition, and other factors.

In essence, four major transformation ‘clusters’ can be determined within the management of any defence transformation process:

Cultural transformation: This entails the transformation of the culture of the institution in question, the leadership, management and administrative ethos of the institution and the traditions upon which the institution is predicated. It also entails the transformation of the value system upon which the institution is based.



Human transformation: This entails the transformation of the composition of the institution with regard to its racial, ethnic, regional and gender composition and its human resource practices.



Political transformation: This process strives to ensure that the conduct and character of the institution in question conform to the political features of the democracy within which it is located — an acknowledgement of the principle of civil supremacy, the institution of appropriate mechanisms of oversight and control, adherence to the principles and practices of accountability and transparency, and so on.



Organisational transformation: This constitutes a more technocratic process within which the organisation in question is right-sized, its management practices and its diverse organisational processes made more cost-effective, and its ability to provide services rendered more efficient.

Wide-ranging transformation processes of the type referred to above are immensely difficult to accomplish in their entirety as the transformation of the security sectors in Lesotho, Sierra Leone and, partially, in South Africa has demonstrated. Shifting priorities, resource limitations, skills deficits, weak leadership and the sheer novelty of the transformational terrain may bedevil such initiatives. The restructuring of the security sector of many African countries, particularly those that have emerged from either an authoritarian or a violent past, however, demands a visionary and integrated transformational strategy capable of ensuring that the country’s security institutions do not regress into previous behavioural patterns.

African armed forces have attempted, in varying degrees, to deal with these transformational challenges. These challenges differ from country to country and are, self-evidently, conditioned by the specific political, institutional and cultural requirements of the country in question. A number of examples serve to highlight these developments. Uganda has undergone a wide-ranging and largely successful demobilisation programme which saw the successful reintegration of thousands of combatants into civilian life. Namibia and Zimbabwe both successfully managed to integrate former belligerents into capable and cohesive national armies. Countries such as Ghana, Senegal, Botswana and Kenya have managed to accumulate considerable experience and respect in the terrain of peacekeeping, while Nigeria has played, and continues to play a prominent and constructive role in regional security initiatives.

Perhaps one of the most comprehensive and successful transformation processes has occurred in South Africa itself and it is from this country that the impetus for the writing of this monograph initially emanated. South Africa has managed to date, and largely successfully to implement and co-ordinate no fewer than five major transformational initiatives co-terminously.

The first has been the integration process during which eight different armies, each with their own traditions, culture and military histories, were integrated into a national defence force admitting to a common culture and identity and united in a common allegiance to the country’s new Constitution. The second has been the stabilisation of the country’s civil-military relations as evidenced in the robust role which the country’s legislature has begun to play in the oversight over and management of the country’s defence affairs.

The third has been the manner in which defence policy has now become a process that is managed in an open and consultative manner incorporating parliament, the civil sectors of government, military officers and civil society in this process. This was most vividly demonstrated by the completion of the Defence Review process in 1998 which, for the first time in the country’s history, managed to produce a national consensus on defence. The fourth challenge has been the transformation of the entire South African National Defence Force to ensure the creation of an institution that was both right-sized and cost-effective.

The final challenge was to create both a Ministry of Defence and an integrated Defence Head Office consisting of both civilians and military personnel who could effectively manage the Department of Defence’s diverse strategic, planning and budgetary processes in an accountable, affordable, adequate and appropriate manner. This latter process was initiated in 1993 and it was during this period that Dr David Chuter made his first visit to South Africa.

It was evident to many South Africans in the early 1990s that defence would have to be managed in a substantially different manner from those patterns that applied in the past. The system of secrecy, the lack of public scrutiny over the budget and the immense influence of the military could not continue as before. The negotiators of South African political transition believed that a critical first step was to create an appropriate Ministry of Defence to manage the disengagement of the armed forces from the political arena and to oversee their activities on behalf of both the legislature and the executive.

South Africans were unfamiliar with these new defence concepts and it was as the result of the sterling efforts of a small group of individuals located mainly in the African National Congress, the Mass Democratic movement and think-tanks such as the Military Research Group, the Defence Management Programme at the University of the Witwatersrand and the Institute for Security Studies that much of this debate was pioneered.

These individuals were greatly assisted in their endeavours by the contribution which David Chuter made both as a lecturer on the Defence Management Programme and an advisor to the Military Research Group. His contribution helped to debunk many of the myths surrounding civil control over the armed forces and provided people with a pragmatic understanding of what was required to manage the armed forces effectively in a democracy.

His insistence on acknowledging the primacy of civil control as opposed to civilian control over the armed forces helped to allay the fears of many military officers who had felt that it was indeed civilians who had repeatedly misused them in the past. They were quite prepared, however, to respect the authority of these civil authorities, because they had been duly mandated by the legislature to govern on behalf of the citizenry.

Chuter also highlighted that defence policy should be managed in an interactive manner utilising the skills of both civilian and military personnel. Such a process would ensure a product that was rich in comparison and that drew on the wide range of competencies available in both sectors. This monograph attempts to highlight some of the practical challenges that armed forces throughout the developing world may have to consider when restructuring their respective defence organisations.

Although this monograph initially emerged from a Southern African context, it has been written in a generic style to reach as wide an audience as possible. The insights provided here have been applied successfully in a number of Southern African countries and it is felt that their validity will resonate outwards into other parts of Africa.

It is an honour to acknowledge the sterling efforts of David Chuter in this regard and it is hoped that this publication will assist African armed forces in their ongoing efforts both to professionalise themselves and to remain committed to the established and emerging democracies within which they are located.
 

Dr Rocklyn Williams Programme Head Security Sector Transformation Programme Institute for Security Studies Pretoria

Prof Michael Clarke Executive Director Centre for Defence Studies King’s College London