Browsing by Author "Neethling, Theo"

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    Collecting evidence on the use of parliamentary oversight tools : a South African case study
    (AOSIS, 2020) Van Rensburg, Wilhelm Janse; Vrey, Francois; Neethling, Theo
    Background: Parliament, through its oversight function, plays a central role in holding the executive to account. In South Africa’s 2014 Defence Review policy document, it was stated that the ‘Defence Force is in a critical state of decline’. This brings about the question whether the South African Parliament effectively held the executive to account regarding developments around defence. Objectives: The article aims to gather evidence on the use of oversight tools by the South African Parliament over a 20-year period, within the post-1994 democratic dispensation, in order to determine the broader trajectory of parliamentary defence oversight. Method: To determine the trajectory of oversight, this article gathered evidence on the use of internationally recognised parliamentary oversight tools by South Africa’s two parliamentary defence committees from 1994 to 2014. The period allows for a 20-year review of oversight of defence, inclusive of four full parliamentary terms. Evidence was collected on parliamentary debates, questions, special inquiries, oversight visits and the use of external audits as oversight tools. Results: The article found that tools were used with varying degrees of success. Results for research on each oversight tool is discussed. Conclusion: Based on evidence on the use of oversight tools, this article concludes that over a 20-year period there was a declining trajectory in parliamentary oversight of the defence portfolio. The proven applicability of the criteria utilised in this article can serve to inform evaluations of the effectiveness of parliamentary oversight, specifically at committee level.
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    From Boleas to Bangui : parliamentary oversight of South African defence deployments
    (Stellenbosch University, Faculty of Military Science (Military Academy), 2020) Van Rensburg, Wilhelm Janse; Vrey, Francois; Neethling, Theo
    Parliamentary oversight of the executive plays a key role in ensuring accountability and is therefore central to the system of checks and balances that characterises liberal democracies. After 1994, South Africa aligned itself with liberal democratic ideals and sought to foster accountability in governance. In the South African Parliament, committees are considered the engine rooms of the institution and are central to the oversight process. Members of Parliament serving on these committees also have specific tools at its disposal to conduct oversight. These include deliberations (debates), posing written and oral questions, oversight visits, special inquiries and external audit opinions. By reviewing the use of these tools in relation to defence deployments, this article aims to determine the long-term post-1994 trajectory of parliamentary oversight of deployments. The article uses the timeline between Operation Boleas (Lesotho, 1998) and the ‘Battle of Bangui’ (Central African Republic, 2013), two key post-1994 military deployments, as a demarcation for determining the trajectory of oversight. The article finds a negative trajectory in terms of the oversight of deployments. Committee meetings dedicated to deployments remained limited. Questions around deployments did not fill the vacuum left by a lack of committee activity. Oversight visits to deployment areas were limited while there was a complete dearth of in-depth inquiry into deployments through special inquiries and external audits. The article subsequently notes that the negative trajectory in terms of deployment oversight can not only be explained by the growing civil-military gap in South Africa, but arguably contributed to the widening gap.
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    Maintaining international peace and security : reflections on peace-support operations in Africa
    (Stellenbosch University, Faculty of Military Science (Military Academy), 1998) Neethling, Theo
    The shift from a bipolar to a multipolar and multi-faceted world has reduced the risk of conventional inter-state wars, but has been the cause of several intra-state armed conflicts with an even higher risk of regional instability. Such conflicts and the resurgence of a global activism have produced a dramatic growth in peacekeeping requirements since the end of the previous decade. The international response, mainly through the United Nations (UN), has been to promote preventive diplomacy and, in a number of cases, to conduct peace-support operations. In brief, this paper points out that each UN peace-support operation places an extremely high premium on UN administration, organisation, coordination and resources. To this end, a multiplicity of contributions from various role-players is needed. It also points out that peace-support operations require significant commitments on the part of participating states, specifically the willingness to accept financial costs and fatalities in the interest of promoting international and regional stability. This is especially true in the case of African peacekeeping. This paper, furthermore, underscores the fact that the undertaking of peace-support operations in Africa is by no means a simple and easy task. The nature of peacekeeping missions in certain African countries have, in fact, resulted in an increasing reluctance on the part of the major powers and some of the other traditional troop-contributing nations to deploy on African soil. It concludes that the real impact of the post-Cold War era is that the burden of resolving African conflicts rests more and more on Africans. African countries and organisations are accordingly compelled to take measures and develop strategies to address the peacekeeping requirements on the continent.
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    Pursuing human security in Africa through developmental peace missions : ambitious construct or feasible ideal?
    (Stellenbosch University, Faculty of Military Science (Military Academy), 2009) Olivier, Laetitia; Neethling, Theo; Mokoena, Benjamin
    Pursuing human security through Developmental Peace Missions: Ambitious construct or feasible ideal? appears at a time when the continent of Africa is wrought by conflict, internal unrest and not-so-civil war, compelling African leaders to grapple with the theory and reality of peacekeeping and conflict resolution in extremely difficult and challenging environments. Notions of Developmental Peace Missions (DPMs) emanated from both the political debate and the study of African peace missions by university-based and NGO-employed researchers. This volume examines DPMs and assesses the utility of the concept itself as a means to pursue sustainable levels of human security through a combination of peacekeeping interventions. DPMs, which envisage a model of concurrent developmental efforts and security actions to turn back destructive internal African conflicts, is a noteworthy South African contribution to this debate. The editorial staff of Scientia Militaria: South African Journal of Military Studies are pleased to publish this third Supplementa, which is probably the most comprehensive work on DPMs to date and of immediate interest to the defence community. Pursuing human security developed under the supervision of Prof Theo Neethling and Maj Benjamin Mokoena and was submitted by Lt Col Laetitia Olivier as a thesis, presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Military Science (MMil) in Security and Africa Studies at the Faculty of Military Science, Stellenbosch University. It has been editorially altered and revised for this publication. The valuable inputs made by Prof DJ Kotze of Unisa as external examiner, as well as those proffered by the lecturing staff of the School for Security and Africa Studies during the initial research colloquium are acknowledged.
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    The South African military and peacekeeping: Reflections on conditions, capacity-building and prospects
    (Stellenbosch University, Military Science, 2003) Neethling, Theo
    Since the advent of a new dispensation in South Africa, expectations in Africa and elsewhere have steadily grown regarding South Africa's potential role as a peacekeeper in African conflicts. In fact, South Africa has been identified by many observers as the one state able to ensure effective peacekeeping on the African continent. On paper, South Africa's military capabilities appear impressive in terms of African standards. However, in reality there are current impediments to a major role for the South African military in Africa, of which the delicacy of the ongoing transformation process of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) and financial constraints are significant. Moreover, it would seem that South Africa has thus far preferred the role of diplomatic peacemaker to that of forceful peacekeeper.
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    Theoretical approaches in international relations : the South African military as a foreign policy instrument
    (Stellenbosch University, Faculty of Military Science (Military Academy), 2015) Olivier, Laetitia; Neethling, Theo; Vrey, Francois; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Military Science. Dept. of Political Science.
    The utility of theoretical approaches in international relations can be found in the fact that such approaches provide ‘lenses’ that can be applied to enhance our understanding of the social dynamics of the world we live in. Theoretical approaches are also instrumental in shaping perceptions of what matters in international politics as a social activity. At least indirectly, such approaches inform the choices made by decision-makers on foreign policy and related defence planning. The aim of this article is to revisit those theoretical approaches in international relations that underlie security studies, and to evaluate the relevance of the approaches with regard to a scholarly understanding of militaries and specifically their roles and functions in a foreign policy context. The latter pertains to militaries in general but also to the South African military in particular regarding its role and function as a foreign policy instrument of the South African government.