Defence force ‘must be trained and ready for war’

CAPE TOWN — The leadership and soldiers of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) should be trained and educated as if SA was at war, defence expert and academic Renfrew Christie says.

Prof Christie, of the University of the Western Cape, said a defence force not educated and trained for war was useless. He was speaking at a defence review committee seminar held on Saturday.

“There is no such thing as peacetime. A defence force must be trained and educated for war or it is useless. Be ever ready for war,” Prof Christie said.

Other speakers also warned that war was always around the corner and could not be predicted.

Prof Christie took issue with the current state of training in the SANDF, particularly a slogan being used on defence stationery: “Defence in Peacetime — a force for good.”

He said “part of war fighting is working longer, smarter and harder, it is not part time”, adding that at prominent military and defence academies across the world it was precisely to work harder and longer

SANDF education needs to be put on a war footing in quality and quantity

“as if they are at war” that focused military education and training.

“The SANDF education needs to be put on a war footing in quality, quantity and time and, above all, in the attitude to hard work. We cannot afford to sleepwalk as we are at present. We need to work as long and as hard as an Olympic gold medal winner and with the same attitude. If there is one thing that has to change it is our military education and its attitude to long, hard self-driven work,” he said.

A University of Cape Town academic Annette Seegers disagreed, saying that SA did not have any natural enemies on its borders and that “our wars will be wars of choice”.

She said that education was vital in the defence force and pointed out that in other parts of the world, such as the US, certain senior ranks in the military could not be attained without certain educational qualifications. The level of military education in India and Pakistan placed SA in an embarrassing situation.

Ms Seegers said she favoured the use of a military academy but warned that the tension which would inevitably exist between the military and academic establishments would have to be carefully managed.

The defence review committee is engaging in public consultation after releasing a 400-page draft report in April. It is scheduled to complete its work by next month.

The draft review says that the defence posture of responding to a threat should change to a more goaloriented posture.