SAAF hit by 'racial transfer' row

Graeme Hosken

A row has blown up over the transfer of three white trainee fighter pilots at the South African Air Force's flight training school.

But during the announcement at South African Air Force's Langebaanweg Flight Training School in the Western Cape, senior air force officials, including South African Air Force (SAAF) Chief Lieutenant-General Carlo Gagiano, hit back at critics, saying no one was being shelved or sidelined.

The three, who are to be replaced by black pilots, were to learn to be fighter pilots while receiving training on South Africa's new fighter trainer the Hawk.

The Hawk, which replaced the SAAF's Impalas, is to be used to train the country's fighter pilots who will fly the newly acquired Grippen fighter jets.

'We think it is blatantly unfair'

The SAAF has been instructed that 75 percent of its pilots must be black and 25 percent white.

The three pilots have been told that they could now either become helicopter or transport aircraft pilots.

South African National Defence Union (SANDU) acting national secretary Pikkie Greef said that chasing away aspiring young fighter pilots because of their skin colour was absolutely ridiculous.

He said: 'We think it is blatantly unfair and believe the SANDF has no legal justification for what they are doing.

'SANDU believes this is going to cause widespread dissatisfaction both within the SANDF and among the public whose taxes have gone towards buying billions of rands worth of military hardware needed to protect the country and its interests,' he said.

Agreeing with this view, Freedom Front Plus spokesperson Pieter Groenewald said the move meant that the correct people needed to fly the Hawks and Grippens would not be sitting in the cockpits.

Democratic Alliance deputy defence spokesperson Hendrik Schmidt said the party understood the reasons for affirmative action, 'but it is ridiculous to say that students, who are top of their class, have been training hard and have proven themselves in their studies, are to be replaced halfway through their course by someone who is not as good.

'This boils down to the fact that you are appointing people who are unable to do the job to the standards required,' said Schmidt.

Gagiano said it had never been the SAAF's policy to send only the best pilots to fly fighters.

'We send good pilots along with average pilots to our helicopter, transport and fighter lines so that we can have a good mix throughout the service. We do this because if we only sent good pilots to fly fighters our other flying lines would suffer,' he said, adding that the SAAF had a national imperative to achieve the correct representation within the SAAF.

Gagiano said the current race representation at the SAAFs fighter squadron and combat flying school was 81 percent white and 19 percent black.

'This is a problem which has led to our intervention so we can get the right balance for us to reach government's representation requirements of 75 percent black and 25 percent white pilots,' he said. Trainee pilots were not being sidelined or shelved because of race.

Pretoria News