The report on the South African Military Academy concludes that the approach taken at this pivotal institution is failing to meet the needs of the country's officer training corps, and calls for a major reform process to be initiated. The Committee makes these recommendations as part of our Constitutional responsibility to exercise oversight and monitoring of the Department of Defence, the South African National Defence Force and their associated institutions.

Our starting point is that South Africa's ability to train an officer corps that is intellectually and militarily up to the challenges of the present epoch is an issue not only of national importance, but also of continental and global significance.

In the First instance, the Military Academy is responsible for educating and training future leaders of the SANDF, which is mandated to defend and protect the Republic, its territorial integrity and its people in accordance with the Constitution and the principles of international law regulating the use of force.

On an international level, the SANDF and its officer corps are called upon to support South Africa's efforts to help bring peace to parts of Africa. This includes participation in peace- support operations undertaken by the African Union in partnership with the United Nations.

Our obligations along these lines are likely to increase in the years ahead - and correctly so. The SANDF officer corps needs the flexibility to be able to live up to these historic tasks in an epoch that has come to be defined by the consequences of globalisation, and by new challenges in world affairs.

Given our own history, it is absolutely crucial for the functioning and outlook of the SANDF officer corps to be rooted in our democratic Constitution. The nation must have military officers who understand and who are able to relate to the diverse cultures that characterise our country, our continent and our planet.

Romeo Dallaire, the Canadian commander of the United Nations mission in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide, made similar points during a recent visit here. He emphasised that modern officer corps must be sensitive to a range of cultural, social and psychological factors in relation to their subordinates and in the field of operations.

What do we ask of the Military Academy? It needs to promote academic excellence. It must provide value-for-money training in accordance with the needs of the four services of the SANDF. It should strive to become the military academy of choice for talented young people from throughout Africa. And it must deepen the transformation process.

The Academy is failing to live up to these goals. Let me summarise some of the key Findings detailed in our comprehensive report.

We should recall that the Military Academy was once a cog in the machinery of the apartheid state. While genuine progress has been registered with regard to transforming the Academy, our judgement is that such efforts are falling short of the nation's requirements.

It is clear that the majority of the Military Academy's management, faculty, staff and students support transformation. The key, then, is leadership, applied with vision, sensitivity and care.

Such leadership must take cognisance of the fact that the Academy is unlike any other higher education institution in South Africa because it serves a dual purpose: one academic, as part of the University of Stellenbosch; the other military, as a unit of the SANDF.

We must also point out that transformation is not limited solely to numbers and representivity. Transformation is also about embracing an ethos and values reflecting an entirely different set of assumptions to those held under apartheid, including openness, transparency, equality and justice.

There is confusion between the military and academic functions of the Academy. The institution appears to be run on a strict authoritarian basis, not like a higher education institution with a special mission.

Lengthy delays in Filling academic posts are one manifestation that something is wrong with the institutional culture. There are 21 such posts vacant today. Such delays cannot be justified in the name of achieving representivity. Freezing posts in this way has a demoralising effect on students and harms the Academy. The time has come to draw up a systematic programme to achieve representivity, rather than ad hoc responses as far as the staff are concerned, with an emphasis on intensive mentoring, aggressive recruiting and a proper career path.

The Academy appears to be underfunded. The physical infrastructure is in poor condition. Some buildings, we were told, would not pass inspection. The library is in an appalling state. There is no way we can train the officer corps we need without adequate books and periodicals.

In the interest of academic excellence, the system of paying lecturers according to SANDF salary scales should be terminated. The Academy competes against other universities and the private sector, and needs to be resourced appropriately.

The present curriculum reflects neither the changing nature of the world nor of Africa. In general, the balance is inadequate for the broad needs of the officer corps. While an impressive list of technical subjects is covered, there is insufficient grounding in the humanities. To develop the kind of officer corps we have described above, study and discussion of the Constitution must occupy pride of place. Similarly, there are far too few international speakers, especially those who can speak to issues of the military in a democracy.

This report concludes that the Military Academy stands at a turning point. A rehabilitative process needs to be initiated as a matter of urgency. This process needs to involve Academy management, the Department of Defence and the University of Stellenbosch.

I recommend we adopt this report. Thank you.