21 February – earmarked as Armed Forces Day in South Africa – is just over five weeks away and a decision on venue is apparently still in the air.
What is known, thanks to the Directorate Corporate Communication (DCC) of the SA National Defence Force (SANDF), is the SA Army will be the “executing service” once the Military Command Council (MCC) decides on a venue. “It will be communicated in due course,” defenceWeb was informed.
Armed Forces Day grew into a week-long event from humble beginnings in the form of a parade at the Thaba Tshwane sports grounds – moved indoors to the nearby Thaba Tshwane Town Hall due to bad weather – in December 2010 to a 2013 combined parade and service at the SS Mendi Memorial in Pretoria’s Atteridgeville.
It has seen all four SANDF services as well as Department of Defence (DoD) divisions, including human resources and logistics, be part of capability demonstrations, community outreach projects, ship tours, parades and flypasts. While never stated by military communicators, the cost of Armed Forces Day is believed to have come from force preparation and training budgets for the SA Air Force (SAAF), SA Army, SA Military Health Service (SAMHS) and SA Navy (SAN).
Apart from two in Pretoria, Armed Forces Day has been staged in Bloemfontein, Potchefstroom, Port Elizabeth, Durban, Kimberley, Cape Town, Polokwane, Mbombela and Richards Bay. There was no Armed Forces Day last year with financial constraints cited, although individual units and bases commemorated the day with wreath layings and parades. This publication was informed the event was “being re-looked at in view of budget reductions that have affected all government departments”.
Armed Forces Day South Africa is a tribute to the deaths of more than 600 SA Native Labour Corps members when the troopship SS Mendi was hit by SS Darro 10 nautical miles south of St Catherine’s Point on the Isle of Wight in the English Channel on 21 February 1917.
