South African Department of Defence (DoD) Head of Communication (HoC) Siphiwe Dlamini maintains those behind the latest military training scam are “unpatriotic, faceless criminals”.
He was reacting to a social media advertisement headlined “SANDF SA Army training intake 2024/25 now open” calling it “yet another purported SANDF recruitment scam”.
The advertisement, he has it in a SA National Defence Force (SANDF) statement, is “intent on fleecing unsuspecting and vulnerable citizens” and is not a legitimate SANDF recruitment one.
Dlamini points out the national defence force is currently not running recruitment campaigns of any type and calls the advertisement “deceitful, abhorrently unethical and illegal”.
He has it the “unscrupulous criminals” behind the recruitment scam are known in the communities where they recruit and urging people who know them to report them – anonymously – to the SA Police Service.
The only regular recruiting done nationally by the SANDF is for the biannual intake of military skills development (MSD) volunteers with the SA Navy (SAN) running a specialist campaign for divers from time to time.
Fake recruiting is no new phenomenon for the SANDF and usually raises its head when MSD applications are announced. Some fake recruiters seek money from applicants to “guarantee” acceptance to the ranks of South African airmen and women, military medics, naval ratings and soldiers. This is not SANDF practice and remains condemned by the DoD Human Resources Division.
