Seven Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries were part of this year’s SA National War College (SANWC) annual combined joint African exercise with an eighth – Mozambique – an observer.
The exercise, with the Irene, Centurion, higher military education facility as the hub, saw students interact in real time with their counterparts elsewhere on the continent thanks to technology. Further impetus – and value – for the exercise came from the physical presence of 27 foreign delegates at the former hotel and conference centre. Reporting on the exercise Captain (SAN) Jaco Theunissen noted all participating defence and military colleges were connected by a television link enabling real time exchanges.
The involvement of the African Union (AU) in this SANWC/SADC training initiative ensured a higher profile than for similar exercises presented at individual military command and staff colleges in the southern African region and the continent as a whole.
Participating countries were Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe with observer status granted to Mozambique for the exercise presented simultaneously as part of operations other than war (OOTW) modules at all participating military higher education colleges.
The exercise is built around a fictitious peace support operation mission scenario. Its aim is to equip senior SADC military officers with the ability and knowledge to plan and command peace support operations in a multi-national environment. The exchange of concepts and ideas among participants is seen as integral to stimulating solutions.
Participants are not confined to defence forces with other security agencies and forces involved. For South Africa this saw representatives from the Border Management Authority (BMA), the departments of Correctional Services (DCS) and Home Affairs customs officials as well as the SA Police Service part of the exercise.
Theunissen, currently attached to the Joint Operations Division of the SA National Defence Force (SANDF), has it the exercise is valuable in that it furthers inter-operability and understanding between SADC countries. This is done by way of learning, monitoring, evaluating exercise execution to ensure integrated and successful peace support operations in the regional bloc.
