The willing and the not so willing: Conscription and resistance to compulsory military service in South Africa, 1968-1989

Abstract

South  Africa  participated  in  two  world  wars  without  implementing  compulsory  military  service. Following  the  Second  World  War,  the  Union  Defence  Force  relied  on  the  Active  Citizen  Force  to supplement its manpower needs. Leaders of the ruling National Party, influenced by the Cold War psychosis, myopically believed that global conflict was defined by two ideologies in a deadly struggle for dominance, nationalism and communism. Apartheid advocates made a distinction between the white “us”  and  the  black  “them”;  Christianity  against  barbarism;  Marxism-Leninism  against  Christian-Nationalism. Maintaining Nationalist rule increasingly demanded manpower. Conscription for white men was a reality for twenty years, supplying conscripts for border duty and later for suppressing internal unrest. More than 500 000 served in the military, many of them in northern Namibia, Angola and South African townships. War resisters were monitored, ostracised, ridiculed, forced to emigrate or jailed. This contribution shares some thoughts on the issue, including moral objections to apartheid violence and the militarisation of South African society.