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Big belly soldiers irk senator Mlotshwa

by Stephen Jakes
22 Mar 2016 at 05:27hrs | Views
Matabeleland South MDC-T senator Sithembile Mlotshwa has expressed his dissatisfaction of the capability to discharge duties by some soldiers who have big bellies.

Asking the Defence Minister Sydney Sekeramayi in parliament, Mlotshwa said, "My question is directed to the Minister of Defence. Minister, in our Constitution, Section 212, Functions of the Defence Forces; what is the cut off weight for a solder and what is the level of fitness that the soldier has to maintain? Seeing the pot bellies that we see in the soldiers, we are worried that this function they may not be able to perform this function."

In his response Sekeramayi said the cut-off age for recruitment is 18-22 years of age.

"The boys and girls run to just check their physical fitness and on the basis of that, if they have got the right qualifications, they are then inducted into the defence forces. I am not sure how much weight they are supposed to gain per day or per week. To be very honest I am not very sure what the maximum size of the belly should be at any given time," he said.

"You will understand that some of them are there and they do rigorous work, some are now in offices and it is possible that those who are in offices may have slightly bigger tummies than when they were recruitment. I am not very sure what the standards are in the Senate, but you can also see that in the Senate they are some who are fairly small and some who maybe a little bigger than the others."

He said what he just want to emphasize and to assure the nation is that they want members of the defence forces to be as physically fit as required by their duties.

"That detail I will check, but I do not think it is major issue," he said.

Source - Byo24News
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