Hundreds of soldiers and support staff are spending their days in tents at the De Brug mobilisation centre outside Bloemfontein, confined to a 21-day quarantine after returning from a United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Their union now plans to challenge that confinement in court.
The personnel arrived back from Operation Mistral, where they had served with MONUSCO, the UN mission in a country where Ebola has killed more than 500 people. Before they can return to their units, they must complete medical clearances and the mandatory isolation period at the centre.
Life inside De Brug has been difficult. Soldiers face inadequate ablution facilities with insufficient hot water, unreliable electricity, damaged equipment, and food rations that fall short in timeliness, quality, and nutritional value. These conditions have persisted despite the SA National Defence Union (Sandu) formally raising concerns with the SANDF, according to National Secretary Pikkie Greeff. The union received no response to its requests for improvement.
On Wednesday 8 July, Sandu announced it had instructed legal representatives to file urgent High Court proceedings against the SANDF over the quarantine. The decision reflects mounting frustration among the soldiers and union leadership over both the conditions at the centre and what Sandu argues is a lack of legal foundation for the isolation requirement.
Greeff questioned whether the confinement is lawful at all. He pointed out that neither the World Health Organization nor South African domestic regulations mandate quarantine for individuals moving between the DRC, Uganda (which served as a transit route for returning troops), and South Africa. That absence of specific international rules supporting the measure forms a central part of the legal challenge.
In its court filing, Sandu seeks judicial oversight of whether the quarantine is lawful and aims to ensure that conditions at De Brug comply with South African law and respect the constitutional rights and dignity of the affected personnel.
This is not the first time Sandu has pursued legal action over accommodation and welfare conditions. At the end of May, the union took similar steps regarding SA Military Health Service personnel temporarily moved to Fort Ikapa to support soldiers on Operation Prosper, the police-led effort to address gang violence in the Western Cape. Those personnel had been housed in a draughty, leaking hangar. That legal action did not proceed to court because the SANDF found alternate accommodation for the affected staff.
By contrast, the situation at De Brug appears more entrenched. A reliable source told DefenceWeb that almost 350 SANDF personnel are presently at the mobilisation centre, with another hundred or so expected to arrive by Friday 10 July. With numbers still growing and the quarantine period stretching to three weeks, whether the SANDF responds differently this time, or whether the matter reaches a judge, remains the open question for the soldiers waiting in those tents.