[imagesource: Twitter / @koko_matshela]

I am eternally grateful that my hardest drinking days were in a time before everybody had a camera phone.

My sympathies to hard-partying varsity students who wake up with that feeling that they’ve done something daft, and it’s now been recorded for posterity.

However, I have limited sympathy for the SANDF soldier in the viral video clip that has done the rounds over the past few days.

The soldier was confirmed to be drunk in an official SANDF press release, which also condemned his “disgraceful behaviour”.

More from defenceWeb:

The SANDF statement said the date and exact location has not been established yet but they are working in close cooperation with Tshwane Metro Police Department (TMPD) to investigate the matter.

The drunk SANDF member is seen being forcibly escorted away from the street by TMPD officers, however, he is not in custody.

“We can further confirm that when the member on the video has been found, he will face the Court of Military Justice for being on AWOL, and drunkenness,” the statement read.

As you can see, he’s more than a few toots in:

We have serious social illnesses and they manifest in different forms

Watch this pic.twitter.com/jTgtmxW96w

— Engineer Matšhela Koko (@koko_matshela) August 19, 2021

Regarding the AWOL charges, the same statement confirmed that the soldier in the video has been absent without leave from his unit since July 27.

I’m used to three-day hangovers, but nearing a month is a stretch too far.

“The SANDF would like to state categorically that such behaviour cannot be tolerated from any of our members,” the statement said, adding that “the Chief of the SANDF, General Rudzani Maphwanya and the entire Military Command Council rebuke members of the SANDF who put the organisation’s name into disrepute, portraying dishonourable behaviour in public.”

Strong words, but it’s not just individual behaviour like that above which brings the organisation’s name into disrepute.

Reporting from earlier this year has sown that there is a “culture of sexual abuse rife in SANDF”, and it’s a “place where women ‘go to die’”.

Let’s hold drunk soldiers accountable, as well as those who perpetuate this culture.

[source:defenceweb]