Efforts to improve defence training, education and development (ETD) in the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) and continentally saw the SA Army Chief leading the way in Nigeria while senior uniformed Training Command officers met defence attachés from six countries to explore joint training initiatives with establishment of a national defence university an agenda item.
As part of a working visit to Nigeria last week, Lieutenant General Lawrence Mbatha met Lieutenant General Waidi Shaibu, Nigerian Chief of Army Staff, in Abuja with strategic military co-operation and improving regional security up for discussion. Another agenda item was, according to Lieutenant Daniel Maluleke, SA Army Corporate Communication, enhancing professional military capacity across Africa.
Mbatha’s visit to Nigeria he reports was an opportunity to study the country’s operational experience in tackling terrorism and “other asymmetric threats”. The South African three-star, acknowledging the “extensive battlefield” his hosts operate in, showed a keen interest in training and operational strategies particularly to counter the use of IEDs (improvised explosive devices). These include detection and counter IED operations as well as battlefield survival, which Shaibu is reported as saying is an area where collaboration with South Africa will be “a key changer”.
Nigerian officers are, Maluleke reports, soaking up knowledge at SANDF (SA National Defence Force) colleges with South African instructors and directing staff embedded in Nigerian military institutions “weaving a rich tapestry of shared learning strategic growth”.
Discussions ended with a shared commitment to sustain joint training, operational exchanges and technical co-operation between the defence forces of both countries. Both sides agreed strengthening military collaboration between the two nations will enhance forces’ operational effectiveness and “contribute significantly to promoting stability, security and collective defence across Africa”.
Some 4 500 km due south from the Nigerian capital is Thaba Tshwane, on the south-western outskirts of the Tshwane metro and home to any number of SANDF bases, commands and units. One is the Training Command where General Officer Commanding (GOC), Major General Mninimzi Sizani, hosted a series of meetings with defence attachés from six countries in line with the Command vision of being a world class defence education, training and development (ETD) provider. This is executed by way of a mission statement which reads, in part: “to direct, manage and provide professional defence ETD services to the Department of Defence (DoD) including its strategic partners through designated learning opportunities to enhance force preparation”.
Attachés from, in alphabetical order, India, Japan, Pakistan, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Sweden and the United Kingdom (UK), “strengthened professional ties and fostered mutual understanding” the Command’s Major NM Motsietsegi reported.
Insights to their home countries’ national approach to military education by the attachés provided valuable background. From the South African side, Training Command saw to it its visitors were properly informed of, among others, the Military Academy, SANDC (SA National Defence College), SANWC (SA National War College), SANDF COLET (College of Educational Technology), the Personnel Service School and Warrant Officers’ Academy as well as specialised capabilities including the PMTC (Peace Mission Training Centre), CCDT (Capability for Conventional Defence Training) and CONSIM (Constructive Simulation).
The series of meetings, said to have laid “a strong foundation for co-operation and continuity”, also discussed a national defence university. This envisaged tertiary defence education facility, according to Motsietsegi, will be a shared institution of academic rigour and multinational collaboration where joint training programmes “promise to enhance inter-operability and trust among participating forces”.
