ABSTRACT
Democratization involves diversity, specifically the accommodation within the political mainstream of various forces, institutions, movements, and political relations previously excluded. The South African National Defence Force (SADF) that emerged at midnight on April 26, 1994, was no more than a nominal entity. This chapter is about this enormously difficult process of integration (which remains, in many respects, inconclusive even as South Africa runs up to its third democratic elections), its achievements despite the odds of bringing together historic enemies, and what remains to be done in this critical facet of democracy-building and consolidation. As retrenchment and the natural progress of time takes its toll on the current batch of senior former SADF leaders, one can anticipate far less rigidity and more dynamism in implementing the actual project of transformation. Despite the odds, former Nonstatutory force (NSF) soldiers—the eventual inheritors of the armed forces—are far more positive about the future.
