Manpower fit for military service:
males age 18-49: 4,927,757
females age 18-49: 4,609,071 (2005 est.)
Manpower reaching military service age annually:
males age 18-49: 512,407
females age 18-49: 506,078 (2005 est.)
Military expenditures - dollar figure:
$3.55 billion (2005 est.)
Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
1.5% (2005 est.)
Military - note:
with the end of apartheid and the establishment of majority rule,
former military, black homelands forces, and ex-opposition forces
were integrated into the South African National Defense Force
(SANDF); as of 2003 the integration process was considered complete
Transnational Issues South Africa
Disputes - international:
South Africa has placed military along the border to stem the
thousands of Zimbabweans fleeing to find work and escape political
persecution; managed dispute with Namibia over the location of the
boundary in the Orange River
Refugees and internally displaced persons:
refugees (country of origin): 5,774 (Angola) 9,516 (Democratic
Republic of Congo) 7,118 (Somalia) (2005)
Trafficking in persons:
current situation: South Africa is a source, transit, and
destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for
forced labor and sexual exploitation; women and girls are trafficked
internally - and occasionally to European and Asian countries - for
sexual exploitation; women from other African countries are
trafficked to South Africa and, less frequently, onward to Europe
for sexual exploitation; men and boys are trafficked from
neighboring countries for forced agricultural labor; Asian and
Eastern European women are trafficked to South Africa for
debt-bonded sexual exploitation
tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - South Africa is placed on the Tier
2 Watch List for its failure to show increasing efforts to address
trafficking in 2005
Illicit drugs:
transshipment center for heroin, hashish, marijuana, and cocaine;
cocaine consumption on the rise; world's largest market for illicit
methaqualone, usually imported illegally from India through various
east African countries; illicit cultivation of marijuana; attractive
venue for money launderers given the increasing level of organized
criminal and narcotics activity in the region