Ahead of deployment to the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), SA Army soldiers and support personnel are undergoing undergone an intensive psycho-social mental and physical team building programme at the Combat Training Centre (CTC) in the Northern Cape province.
The aim of the Mobilisation Olympics, the title given to the programme by its originators – SA Military Health Service (SAMHS) Mobile Military Health Formation psycho-social staff officers, is to prevent psycho-social risk and promote wellbeing.
Reporting for the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) on the Mobilisation Olympics, Mobile Military Health Formation Staff Officer, Lieutenant Colonel N Visagie said last week the programme is the largest exercise of its type yet undertaken in the national defence force by SAMHS Directorate Psychology and Social Work.
The Mobilisation Olympics is rallying a force of 2 900 members from four SA Army battalions to “activities” designed to make their deployment to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) mission in the DRC a success. Among the activities listed by Visagie are boosting communication, critical thinking leadership, problem solving, fitness, creativity and teamwork. Better knowledge and execution of these “traits”, alongside a further two weeks of psycho-social mobilisation, will see the soldiers better prepared mentally and physically for the rigours of deployment in a combat theatre of operations.
Psycho-social staff officers at the Mobile Military Health Formation are taking charge of presenting topics ranging from emotional stages of deployment, hostage negotiations, and clinical features of deployment, sexual harassment, psychological first aid, financial management, and substance abuse.
Once in the DRC, soldier will face up to ongoing fighting between rebel groups, including the ADF (Allied Democratic Forces) and M23 on one side with DRC President Felix Tshisekedi’s FARDC (Forces Armees de la Republic Democratique du Congo) and “their force” – the tri-nation SAMIDRC (SADC Mission in the DRC) as those fighting for peace and security.
Authorisation for the South African contingent came from President Cyril Ramaphosa in his capacity as SANDF Commander-in-Chief. SANDF Joint Operations Division has codenamed the deployment Operation Thiba, meaning to block or prevent. First SAMIDRC deployments took place in December with a senior United Nations (UN) representative last month intimating the regional bloc mission would be operational by mid this year.
Elaborating on the Mobilisation Olympics, Visagie reports, it will transform the four battalions into “one cohesive formidable force”.
National Treasury has provided R2.1 billion to the SANDF for the deployment of 2 900 SANDF soldiers to SAMIDRC under Operation Thiba. This, however, leaves a shortfall of R300 million, as total estimated cost is R2.4 billion.
