Child Soldiers in Southern Africa

Units were aligned with the African National Congress.
35 Although no formal policy has been established yet in relation to juvenile justice, a great deal of
discussion has been generated nationwide, creating a momentum for a major reform - a reform
which will remove children from the traditional criminal justice system when they commit
offences.
36 Seekings, for example, describe this period as follows:
It was during the bitter conflict of the mid-1980s that the youth came to be seen as the driving force
of township militancy. Their role in transforming the dream of liberation into an apparently
imminent event led to their being celebrated as the ‘young lions’; the association with the rising use
of violent direct action led to their being denigrated as mal-socialised savages. In reality, the
so-called youth in the mid-1980s included politically astute strategists as well as violent
individualists, and many other young people besides. The category of youth was an amalgam of
many different types of young people, with a wide range of goals and motivations. (Seekings,
1993:56).
37 If one takes the Truth and Reconciliation Commission final report (1998) as a guiding document
containing strong evidence into what happened in the past, it could be argued that the modus
operandi of the recruitment of children/young people was through students organisations mobilised
to disrupt social and government order in the communities. However, it cannot be suggested with
strong evidence that the recruitment of children/young people was geared towards mobilising this
category of people into the national liberation armies, but that instead it is more a phenomenon
inferred by the circumstances of the period.
38 The Truth and Reconciliation Commission final report analysed his phenomenon of recruitment of
children/young people into vigilante organisations. In particular it stated:
Some young people were recruited into vigilante activities by, for example, being offered money to
attack the homes of activists. Two youth from Thokoza admitted to having been recruited by the
police for this purpose. Young people were also manipulated by state projects such as the Eagles,
which was founded in the early 1980s, and came into conflict with organisations like the South
African Youth Congress (SAYCO). Groups like the Eagles were involved in activities such as
assisting the policy to identify activists, launching arson attacks and disrupting political meetings.
In 1991, the Eagles were exposed as an official state project. (TRC Final Report, 1998: Vol 4, 256).
39 The Truth and Reconciliation Commission final reports, states that:
Large numbers of youth, whether politically active or not, were affected by the violence, especially
those who lived near hostels. In many cases, the responsibility for protecting their homes and
streets fell on children. Some young people turned their attention to the defence of their
communities, redirecting their energies into the formation of self-defence units that were, in their
view, justified by vigilante attacks. (TRC Final Report: 1998, Vol 4, 255).
78
40 Marks summarises this process as:
The consequences of these realities is that youth who do see themselves as “defenders of the
community” are forced to play the role of an alternative police service. This in itself is problematic
since these youth are not formally trained as police personnel; in some instances, they themselves
are the perpetrators of crime and part of gang formations. Their legitimacy, therefore, as defenders