Categories: South Africa

PICS: SANDF passes Armed Forces Day with flying colours

When we set out to hold Armed Forces Day this year, we had two major objectives: to showcase the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) to the people it is sworn to serve – and to test its abilities to defend the sovereignty of this nation.

People who have never been in the military often don’t understand the last point, but moving 8 500 soldiers, sailors, medics and air force personnel from across the country to a single point – and keeping them there for a protracted period of time – is a major logistical exercise.

We also moved a lot of military assets – from fighter aircraft to helicopters, frigates, patrol vessels, a submarine, a battalion of armoured infantry vehicle vehicles, a squadron of tanks, a battery of G6 self-propelled guns and a battery of multiple rocket-launchers.

The SANDF displays some of their firepower to a crowd of thousands at Sunrise Beach on February 19, 2019 in Cape Town, South Africa. Picture: Gallo Images / Jeffrey Abrahams

Then they all took part in a two-day/ night shooting exercise in False Bay, before culminating in a dramatic beach landing exercise in Table Bay that married up all four services that constitute the SANDF; the navy, the air force, the army and the military health service.

All that tested the planning abilities of our senior officers and the hard battle skills of our troops in real-time, real-life scenarios – and they passed with flying colours in every regard.

Armed Forces Day is not just about putting our national defence force through its paces in a simulated combat environment, it’s also about reaching out to the people we serve and who fill our ranks.

This, too, was a phenomenal success, judging from the attendance numbers at the Khayelitsha fan park throughout the week and those who turned out to watch the exercises and the parade.

The SANDF displays some of their firepower to a crowd of thousands at Sunrise Beach on February 19, 2019 in Cape Town. Picture: Gallo Images / Jeffrey Abrahams

The mandate of the SANDF is to safeguard the territorial integrity of the republic first and foremost, but that’s not its only job.

We have a responsibility as part of the African Union and the United Nations to assist in keeping the peace in Africa and safeguarding democracy. We do this to high acclaim as part of the UN’s Force Intervention Brigade, which is led by one of our generals, in the DRC.

We also intervene in times of disaster at home, as we did most recently at the behest of civil authorities to avert the potential crisis from the polluted waters of the Vaal for the residents of Gauteng and the Free State.

Working with local authorities requires a different skills set to soldiering, involving negotiating, planning and conferring at every level.

A view of the Rooikat 76mm armoured vehicle as it moves along Muizenberg Beach on February 19, 2019 in Cape Town. Picture: Gallo Images/Jeffrey Abrahams

To achieve what we did this week; from putting troops, armour and artillery on beaches to negotiating traffic with convoys of hundreds of vehicles and flying sorties in civil airspace, required hours of planning and meetings to reach agreements with environmentalists, local law and order agencies and councillors.

When we were finished, the disruption was both minimal and temporary. We achieved that, too.

An institution as proud and as committed as ours is, is nothing without the constitution which rules us or the past which inspires us.

The SANDF displays some of their firepower to a crowd of thousands at Sunrise Beach on February 19, 2019 in Cape Town. Picture: Gallo Images / Jeffrey Abrahams

Armed Forces Day is held every year on the anniversary of the sinking of the SS Mendi. We remember the sacrifice of 616 SA men who answered the call, but perished in the icy waters of the English Channel on February 21, 1917. They met their deaths like warriors.

They were certainly as brave as the men who stormed Square Hill in Palestine in 1918 or held Delville Wood in 1916.

Unlike those men, they have no graves and we can remember them in spirit only.

The spirit of those men and their sacrifice courses through the veins of the men and women in the SANDF today.

Coming to Cape Town for the seventh edition of Armed Forces Day helped us renew old bonds and let us display what we do and what we can do often under very trying circumstances and with an ever-shrinking budget.

That message was communicated loud and clear this week.