them (Griffiths 397).When it made the transition to a true democracy, South Africa was better prepared than the other democratizing African countries in relation to military readiness, economic standing, and the level of education amongst the general population. Despite being better prepared than most, South Africa was in no way fully prepared, and as recent history has already proved South Africa has encountered problems with its transition to a multi-racial democracy. According to Robert J. Griffiths, “one crucial element of successful democratic transition and consolidation is an alteration in the pattern of civil-military relations” (395). During the rule of apartheid in South Africa the South African Defense Forces (SADF) played an extremely important role in maintaining the governments control over its citizens (Griffiths 395). In order for the change from South Africa’s racially exclusive democracy to a multi-racial democracy to work, the SADF would have to decrease its influence over the government’s decision making. Additionally, they needed to integrate the army so that it was proportionately equal to South Africa’s race distribution, and change its political stance on apartheid to one that supports the emerging government (Griffiths 399). “Through their pervasive presence and repeated interventions in postcolonial African politics, military forces could be expected to play major roles,” and that is exactly what the SADF ended up doing (Bratton 85). This was also true for Uganda and Nigeria where their civil military relations played a pivotal role in their transitions of government. During the eighties President P.W. Botha turned South Africa into a “militarized state” by heavily involving the military in government decision making in order to assure protection from what he perceived as threats to apartheid (Griffiths 400). Prior to the first multi-racial democratic ele...
