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There is strong public support for the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) playing an external role - including peacekeeping. This could possibly reflect a belief among South Africans that the country?s security cannot be pursued in isolation from that of our neighbours. According to a joint national survey of public opinion on security issues conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) and the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) in October 1996, the majority of respondents (62%) are in favour of South Africa having a peacekeeping force to help other countries maintain the peace, while 26% are of the opposite view and 12% are undecided. The majority of the respondents who support the FF and the DP were not in favour of South Africa providing a troop contingent as part of a UN peacekeeping force, with 50% and 46% respectively against the idea. However 70% of ANC supporters were in favour, followed by the PAC (69%), the IFP (57%) and the NP (56%). In the HSRC/ISS study, personal interviews were conducted nationwide with 2 200 South African residents of 18 years and older. All nine provinces were included in the survey, and much care was taken to include both rural and urban areas, as well as people from all socio-economic backgrounds. To the question whether Southern Africa should establish its own peacekeeping force - provided that the costs are shared by all partaking governments - almost two-thirds of respondents (65%) answered ?yes?, while 18% said ?no? and another 17% were undecided. Results analysed according to political party support indicated that supporters of the PAC (75%) were most in favour of establishing a peacekeeping force for the Southern African region, followed by the IFP (70%), the ANC and the NP (both 68%), and the DP (56%). Respondents in this survey seemed to have quite firm opinions about the need for and the desirability of peacekeeping. However, there was a marked lowering of enthusiasm towards volunteering for such missions on a part-time basis. Respondents were nearly equally divided between being willing to voluntarily join a peacekeeping force to undertake a mission outside South Africa (35%) and not being willing (34%). Black respondents showed the greatest willingness with 37% indicating that they would volunteer, while whites at 19% appeared the least willing. The predominant response of white respondents, namely an unwillingness to volunteer for peacekeeping duty and participation in the external deployment of the SANDF, could perhaps be ascribed to their experiences with the deployment of conscripts in military operations in Namibia and Angola in the 1970s, which was in a non-peacekeeping role.
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