Whites 'shun' S Africa military http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3770143.stmThe South African government says there is a shortage of white people joining the defence forces.
Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota said the military was finding it difficult to attract sufficient white candidates to reach racial quotas.
Mr Lekota said many young white people were finding better opportunities for themselves in the business world.
Correspondents say the army has had a delicate job of racial integration since the end of apartheid in 1994.
"When will we cease to be Africans, coloureds, Indians and whites and merely South Africans? This is the question we must ask ourselves," the minister said while briefing the parliament's committee on defence.
"We are going to have to look at this and say there are no Indians here, Indians are in India... They are South African," he added.
South Africa's parliament has established race quotas for the country's defence force in order to ensure a good ethnic mix however, Mr Lekota said that it was not always easy to adhere to that "mathematical requirement".
He said young white people were often lured away by better jobs in the commercial sector.
"Africans do not have these opportunities so they come to the defence force. I still have to meet the percentage quota of whites but what can I do? I cannot pass a law, I cannot compel them to join the defence force."
He said that the problem was not peculiar to the defence force, but something affecting the whole nation, and he called on all South Africans to tackle the issue head-on for the good of the country.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3770143.stm
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