ABSTRACT
Five years ago, when I wrote on managing diversity in the South African armed forces, it was with the firm belief that I was part of a rainbow nation that had survived a peaceful democratic transition and that, at last, South Africans would be a united nation.1 However, as the ‘Madiba magic’ of President Mandela started to wear off and President Thabo Mbeki came to implement the newly forged affirmative action and black empowerment policies of government, so new tensions and insecurities emerged.2 Although most Whites expected and accepted change, few anticipated that it would be so rapid and radical – or that one’s future would be influenced, once more, by the colour of one’s skin. Nowhere was this more apparent than in the armed forces, where the transformation of the new South African National Defence Force (SANDF) marked the transfer of power from white to black officers in the years to come.
