What is today the Works Formation in the Department of Defence (DoD) was envisaged as the handyman of the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) in the first decade of the 21st century with its Mpumalanga Regional Works Unit presently showing this capability at two locations in the province.
The Works Formation is the brainchild of now retired SANDF chief Solly Shoke when he headed the landward force. It now is a fully fledged formation in the DoD Logistics Division. Headed by Major General Lesiba Kekana it has units in all nine provinces directed by its works operations, works skills development and works staff support directorates. The Pretoria headquartered formation has its own training school, adjacent to the Armscor Gerotek facility on the western side of city, where building trade artisan skills are the order of the day.
Its original raison d’etre was to take over facilities maintenance from the then Department of Public Works (DPW), now the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DWI), and – literally – get on with the job instead of having to wait for tenders to be issued and contractors approved. Shoke’s reputation as an officer who “did things” did not fit in with the generally time consuming public works approach leading to the return of an Army works regiment, based in Thaba Tshwane.
Progress saw the regiment morph into a formation with numerous successful contracts/projects now on its “brag board”. These include a hospice at Lenasia, south of Johannesburg; a solar power plant and biomass convertor at Air Force Base (AFB) Makhado in Limpopo; and an electricity supply system at a Himeville, KwaZulu-Natal base as well as an extensive upgrade and refurbishing of a Thaba Tshwane mess.
On the facility maintenance side of its tasking the Formation General Officer Commanding (GOC) was in Ermelo and Middelburg recently to inspect the quality of work his uniformed artisans are capable of. In Ermelo they were tasked with refurbishing military houses at the Air Defence Artillery School with 4 SA Infantry (SAI) Battalion bungalows properly partitioned to make for better accommodation.
