Thick clouds of diesel smoke fill the air outside a rundown guest farm, three hours’ drive east of Johannesburg. As the stench dissipates, a group of boys, aged between 13 and 19, spill from the bed of a rusty truck, lugging huge bags full of military clothing. 'There are old bloodstains on my uniform,’ one of them says, as he trades his trainers for army boots. Shouted orders ring out. Groaning, the boys raise 15ft tent poles among the cowpats dotting the grassland. The large army tent that they put up will be their home for the next nine days....
