Mon séjour en Afrique du Sud (Cape Town)

South Africa’s military is to become the strongest and most advanced on the continent. This was the message from newly appointed Deputy Defence Minister Fezile Bhengu at the South African National Defence Force’s annual army training exercise, Exercise Seboka.

The month-long exercise, conducted at the SANDF’s combat training centre in Lohatla, Northern Cape and involved more than 4 000 soldiers was aimed at testing, among other things, the ability of the army’s various formations to operate together as well as ensure it is combat readiness.

The exercise took place exactly a year after nine soldiers were killed and 15 injured, four of them seriously, when the firing of anti-aircraft gun used in last year’s Exercise Seboka went awry.

The gun, a Swiss/German Oerlikon 35mm anti-aircraft gun, suffered mechanical failure caused by a pin which sheared.

Observing the R44 million exercise’s open day, which included tank, artillery and armoured vehicle attacks, aircraft bombing sorties and foot and mechanised infantry assaults during a simulation aimed at restoring a government overthrown during a coup, Bhengu said the SANDF would soon be a force to be reckoned with, both in Africa and the world. The exercise, which was the last for the Olifant MKI tank, which is being replaced by the Olifant MKII, saw for the first time the Hawk lead-in fighter trainer jet aircraft used in an operational role.

Bhengu said: “We have the will, the way and very soon the capabilities to be the top defence force in Africa and serious contenders to the US and the rest of the world.

“While I might be ambitious, it is an ambition I believe that the SANDF can achieve. We have a wide range of capabilities, skills and knowledge, especially about Africa which other countries do not have,” he said.

Adding that he was not yet happy with the state of the SANDF “especially that it has had qualified audit reports for the past six years and the current sour relationship with the defence force unions”, Bhengu said he was confident of the turn around that had been planned for the defence force.

“We have been meeting with the defence force since our appointments and will be meeting them over the next couple of weeks to find out why there have been so many qualified reports and what is being done to turn around the defence force.

“We will also be meeting with the unions who we see as playing a vital role in helping the defence force to achieve its goals and objectives.

“It is imperative that the defence force was turned around if its vision of being a competent and capable combat ready force was to be achieved.”

He added that they would be revisiting the defence review because government wanted a complete functioning army and not an idling one.

“The world is in a very demanding arena and there is a definite need to have a strong and highly experienced military on the continent so that it can compete against international role players which we believe South Africa can do.”

Echoing Bhengu’s words, Army Chief General Solly Shoke said the exercise, which included 1 180 new recruits enlisted into the defence force through the Military Skills Development System, showed that South Africa was becoming a serious military contender in Africa.

He said while the exercise had not all been smooth sailing he was pleased with the way the army was progressing and the lessons it had learnt.

“This shows that we know we need to improve in order to achieve our objectives be they through conventional or unconventional warfare,” he said.

Commenting on what the military was doing to help those soldiers injured in last year’s accident, Shoke said that while some of the troops were still undergoing rehabilitation others had been reintegrated back into the defence force where they were continuing their careers.