Pretoria - The South African Military Ombuds, retired Lieutenant General Temba Matanzima, will join over 40 member states for the 7th International Conference of Armed Forces (ICOAF).
The conference, which is seen as an opportunity to share best practices and lessons relating to the mandates, powers and functioning of military ombuds, will take place in the Czech Republic from the 25-27 October 2015.
It will deal with themes such as the role of Ombud’s institutions in democratic societies, the centrality of human rights in democratic societies, civil and political rights of armed forces personnel as well as the relationship between the Ombud’s institutions and civil society in democratic oversight of armed forces, among some.
In an interview with SAnews ahead of the conference, Lieutenant General Matanzima said one of the conference’s strengths has been its ability to bring together well established institutions with the newly formed ones with the objective of assisting the latter in establishing their systems and processes.
“The South African Military Ombud, as a newly formed institution, is keen to learn and draw from the experiences of other similar institutions that have been in existence for longer than us. As such we look forward to this opportunity and hope to grow and develop this institution to better serve our clients and the nation at large.”
South Africa started participating in the forum immediately after the Military Ombud Office was established in May 2012.
Lieutenant General Matanzima said South Africa’s participation at the ICOAF has contributed to largely establishing and operationalising the complaints-handling systems and processes to effectively deal with complaints from current and former members of the SANDF in a fair, economical and expeditious manner.
South Africa will host the 10th edition of the conference in October 2018 and representatives of Ombud’s institutions of over 40 member states will converge here to deliberate on the role of the institutions in the 21st century.
The idea of a Military Ombud was initially contemplated in the first White Paper on Defence post 1994 as an independent external mechanism to deal with soldiers’ complaints and grievances, as well as a place for the public to lodge complaints about actions of the soldiers.
The Military Ombud is a soldiers’ appeal office to internal military grievance management processes and is seen as an essential ingredient in the pursuit of a systematic approach to a democratic rights-based military culture.
Role of Military Ombud
Retired soldiers are also covered by the Office of the Military Ombud and members of the public can complain to the Military Ombud about an SANDF member’s professional conduct.
“The role of an ombudsman is to gather facts in order to understand the merits of a complaint and thereafter to consult the relevant parties to the complaint to either settle the complaint or to make a recommendation to resolve the complaint,” said Lieutenant General Matanzima, who is confident the office is performing well above incubation standards.
In the 2012/13 financial year the office received a total of 306 complaints and finalised 104, while the 2013/14 financial received a total of 492 and finalised 240 complaints.
In the 2014/15 financial year, it received a total of 321 and finalised 314, while from 31 March 2015 the office has 217 active complaints.
The turn-around times for finalisation of complaints, according Lieutenant General Matanzima varies depending on the nature and complexity of the complaint.
“For complaints that are capable of early resolution the period may vary from 30-90 working days and could result in a resolution by means of a conciliation or mediation. For complaints that require an in-depth investigation the process may vary from 90 working days up to a year depending upon the complexity of the complaint,” he said.
To lodge a complaint members may only approach the Office of the Military Ombud after having exhausted all avenues open to them within the Department of Defence individual grievance process.
The complaint must be submitted on the prescribed form which will detail the nature of the grievance and when, how and who was involved.
The Military Ombud and staff will treat the information provided as confidential unless there is an urgent need to alert someone in authority.
Challenges at Military Ombud
But, not unlike other new institutions, it not without “teething” problems.
“While we acknowledge the difficult role that still lies ahead, the office has received full co-operation and support from the Ministry of Defence and all strategic stakeholders in order to fulfil its mandate.
“We have continued to receive and process complaints as per our mandate and all our recommendations have to date been accepted by the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans.”
The Office, according to Lieutenant General Matanzima, is striving to enhance its independence as it is important to the credibility of the Office and reflects impartiality in investigating complaints without any conflict of interest or any undue influence.
"In order to enhance our independence, we have commenced with a process to register the Office as a Public Finance Management Entity, Schedule 3 Entity. We hope that this will further distinguish us as an independent institution from the SA National Defence Force or the Department of Defence,” Lieutenant General Matanzima added. – SAnews.gov.za
