ANA reports that the military ombudsman is on an extensive outreach campaign, urging communities to speak out if they have grievances against the official conduct of current and former members of the SA National Defence Force.  

“You should remember that this office is new and that is why we are on an outreach programme to visit all military units,” the ombud, retired Lt-General Themba Matanzima, said on Thursday.  He indicated that his office, which is four years old, provided an independent mechanism to deal with complaints and grievances.  Matanzima went on to explain that the military ombud did not represent the complainant, the department of defence or any government authority, but was rather an “independent, impartial third party”.  However, an ombudsman’s investigation was not a criminal investigation, nor was it meant to be an adversarial process.  It was rather an administrative inquiry to ensure due process has been observed.

• Read this report in full at The Citizen
• See too, Military ombudsman has tackled over 1,000 complaints since 2012, at eNCA

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