iKlwa / Denel Vehicles
iKlwa is the name of the short stabbing spear invented by Shaka Zulu — onomatopoeic supposedly because of the sound made as it is withdrawn from the victim's body.
I've spent the past few hours with an iKlwa of a different kind — a 7,1 metre long 2,5 metre wide 2,4 metre tall off-road vehicle.
None of your pansy 4x2 or 4x4 drive-train for this beast — this is a full-blown 6x6 powered by a Cummins ISL turbocharged intercooled diesel generating 336 kW of power @ 2 200 rpm and 1 630 Nm of torque @ 1 600 rpm driving through a RENK HSV106 6-speed automatic transmission. And it is proudly South African.
And my first question was "where do I get one?"
The answer is that I can't — you see, this iKlwa is not readily available on a showroom floor. It's a military fighting vehicle developed from the carcass of the apartheid-era SADF's Ratel Infantry Combat Vehicle — but with kick-ass technological refinements for the 21st Century.
It's easy to develop a fascination for arms and armaments. At the end of 2005, I quit my comfortable job at ETV and set up a consultancy to provide spin doctor services to Africa Aerospace and Defence 2006 — the continent's biggest combined weaponry and air show.
It was therapeutic at some level. As was the case for most people of my hue and generation, the sight of a Casspir or Buffel or Ratel meant the arrival of PW Botha's stormtroopers — they were objects of fear and loathing, to misquote Hunter S Thompson.
And what better way for me to overcome my dread than to take ownership of the beast?
(My writing this was interrupted by a flash from New24 on my phone, saying: "Malema: Cops threatened to kill me". And my immediate thought was, "No, no, you heard wrong. They threatened to KISS you." But I digress…)
There are many of us who wish for a world free of weapons. I used to think it a nice idea until I studied India's history. The Emperor Asoka, filled with remorse on the field of battle, converted to Buddhism and commanded the masses to beat the swords into ploughshares.
And when the Mughal invaders rode into India decades later, they found a defenceless populace and proceeded to subjugate and assimilate them for the next several centuries until the British took their place.
(Many of you who are reading this in the pages of Post right now follow Islam because your ancestors were conquered in that Mughal invasion, and I am writing this in English for similar reasons. But I digress again…)
How then, does one strike a compromise between the threat of military juntas and the very real need for any society to be able to defend itself from invasion? How does one provide one's populace with access to firearms without creating a situation where people go postal? (This from a series of incidents from 1983 onward in which United States Postal Service workers shot and killed managers, fellow workers, and members of the police or general public in acts of mass murder.)
The Swiss are among the most heavily-armed populace on the planet. They are also among the most peaceful. With a long history of neutrality, the army does not take part in armed conflicts in other countries (although they do take part in peacekeeping missions around the world).
I couldn't figure out that contradiction. How is that possible?
It turns out that 95 percent of the Swiss military are male citizen conscripts aged 19 to 34. Males usually receive initial orders at the age of 18 for military conscription eligibility screening. About two-thirds of young Swiss men are found suitable for service, while alternative service exists for those found unsuitable.
Annually, approximately 20 000 persons undergo basic training for 18 to 21 weeks. Women serve voluntarily.
The structure of the Swiss militia system stipulates that the soldiers keep their own personal equipment, including all personally assigned weapons, at home.
Is it really possible? You train people in the responsible use of weapons, give them those weapons to take home, and society becomes peaceful?
Africa Aerospace and Defence 2012 opens its doors to the trade today, 19 September 2012, at Air Force Base Waterkloof in Pretoria. The public exhibition days, including the airshows, are this Saturday and Sunday.
If you're in Gauteng, put aside your pacifist inclinations and take the family along. You'll see magnificent men and women in their flying machines. And trust me when I say that nearly all of them are there because they love our country.
And no, they have not paid me to say this.