By Mbatjiua Ngavirue WINDHOEK Chief of the Defence Force, Lieutenant General Martin Shalli, has denied allegations of favouritism, nepotism and tribalism in the Namibian Defence Force (NDF) promotions. The allegations arose after the most recent round of promotions announced a few weeks ago. Several long-serving members of the NDF have expressed unhappiness over the promotions, feeling their commanders have once again unfairly overlooked them. They complain their immediate superiors often tell them that someone in the force first has to die before they can receive a promotion. Their biggest complaint is however about alleged favouritism, nepotism and tribalism in the NDF, which they say has become an “incurable disease” within the force. In an interview Friday, Lieutenant General Shalli categorically stated he was not aware of any nepotism, tribalism or other forms of discrimination in the NDF. “Those are criminal offences and are dealt with accordingly. People with such information can bring the information to the relevant authorities, including my office for investigation,” Shalli stated. Soldiers nevertheless complain their commanding officers are blind to the contributions they have made, and that performance is not the deciding factor in promotions. Another very serious allegation is that women sometimes receive promotions because they are involved in love affairs with senior officers. This seems to be a common complaint in many of the uniformed services in Namibia but is by nature very difficult to prove. Some soldiers go as far as suggesting there is a disproportionate number of women in the higher ranks of the NDF, suggesting that some of them did not reach those ranks on merit alone. Women of course become very angry whenever people make this argument, finding the suggestion they could not have made it on merit sexist and very insulting. The argument may also tend to overlook that the women in question may have a higher level of education than the men – however long the men may have been in the force. Even assuming it has any relevance, there also are no publicly available statistics to corroborate the claim that there is an unusually high number of women in the higher ranks of the NDF. Male soldiers also question the capacity of the large contingent of high-ranking female officers to lead troops into battle if there is an outbreak of war. To complicate matters, plain old jealousy may be behind some of the complaints that young women in the NDF are “selling” themselves to their superior officers in order to get promotion. Soldiers in the lower ranks complain bitterly they can never succeed with a female soldier – even if she is a private – because she will always be sleeping with someone in the higher ranks. In this regard, Shalli again denied any knowledge of the allegations. “Let them give examples. If someone has received promotion because they are married to another officer in the NDF, they must bring the evidence,” Shalli said. He also made the important observation that both men and women could be equally guilty of this form of abuse. The defence force chief pointed out that theoretically a man could receive promotion as a result of a love affair with a woman in the higher ranks, and that the finger should therefore not only be pointed at women. “I have no information to substantiate such allegations. People must follow the proper channels through the chain of command, or they can report directly to my office,” Shalli added. He said all the mentioned abuses are forms of corruption, and that if people did not trust the NDF to deal with these complaints they could also report the matter to the Anti-Corruption Commission. Whatever the truth about the alleged love affairs in the NDF, what is surprising is that the force allows them at all. In many military forces, and other uniformed services around the world, relationships between male and female service members – or “fraternisation” as they sometimes call it – is strictly prohibited. The main reason for this seems to be to avoid the sort of allegations soldiers are currently making in the NDF.