Military:  SOUTH AFRICA

Military branches:

South African National Defense Force (SANDF): South African Army, South African Navy (SAN), South African Air Force (SAAF), South African Military Health Services (2013)

Military service age and obligation:

18 years of age for voluntary military service; women are eligible to serve in noncombat roles; 2-year service obligation (2012)

Manpower available for military service:

males age 16-49: 13,439,781

females age 16-49: 12,473,641 (2010 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:

males age 16-49: 7,617,063

females age 16-49: 6,476,264 (2010 est.)

Manpower reaching militarily significant age annually:

male: 482,122

female: 485,017 (2010 est.)

Military expenditures:

country comparison to the world: 85

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 units to assist police operations along the border of Lesotho, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique to control smuggling, poaching, and illegal migration; the governments of South Africa and Namibia have not signed or ratified the text of the 1994 Surveyor's General agreement placing the boundary in the middle of the Orange River

Refugees and internally displaced persons:

refugees (country of origin): 17,864 (Somalia); 13,386 (Democratic Republic of Congo); 5,805 (Angola); 5,538 (Ethiopia) (2012)

Illicit drugs:

transshipment center for heroin, hashish, and cocaine, as well as a major cultivator of marijuana in its own right; cocaine and heroin consumption on the rise; world's largest market for illicit methaqualone, usually imported illegally from India through various east African countries, but increasingly producing its own synthetic drugs for domestic consumption; attractive venue for money launderers given the increasing level of organized criminal and narcotics activity in the region and the size of the South African economy

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