CV of Major General Siphiwe Lucky Sangweni

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Siphiwe Lucky Sangweni was born on 27 February 1967 in KwaMashu township, Durban, in the KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa. After he completed his secondary schooling at Igugulabasha High School in Ntuzuma, north of Durban, he went to join the underground revolutionary structures of Umkhonto Wesizwe (MK), and subsequently went to exile and underwent military training in Tanzania where he became an all-rounded trained and qualified officer through formal military training by the Tanzania Peoples Defence Force (TPDF).

On his return to South Africa in 1994, Sangweni integrated to the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) where he was appointed a Platoon Commander in the Republic of South Africa National Peace Keeping Force (NPKF), a position he held for a period of six months until the disbandment of the NPKF.

After completing the integration process, Sangweni was appointed as an instructor at Infantry School in Oudtshoorn, Western Cape, in August 1994. As a career officer, he grew within the ranks and his appointments spans across vast field of soldierly experience as he took up numerous responsibilities along his career path including appointments such as the Sub-Unit (Company) Second-in-Command at 121 SA Infantry Battalion (Umtubatuba), the Sub-Unit (Company) Commander at 5 SA Infantry Battalion (Ladysmith), Unit Second-in-Command at Joint Tactical Headquarters North West, and he was also appointed the Director Peace Support Operations as well as the Director Operations Monitoring & Control both at Joint Operations Headquarters.

Sangweni was appointed the Directing Staff at SA National War College and promoted to the rank of a Colonel, he was later assigned with the duties of the Officer Commanding Joint Tactical Headquarters Free State, and was later placed as the Officer Commanding Joint Tactical Headquarters KwaZulu-Natal. In 2017, Sangweni was appointed as Military Secretary to Ministry of Defence & Military Veterans, and promoted to the rank of a Brigadier General. In June 2020, he was appointed as the General Officer Commanding Joint Operations Headquarters.

Following the appointments of the new Military Command members as announced by the President of the Republic of South Africa, President Ramaphosa occasioned by the retirement of some General Officers in the SANDF, Sangweni was appointed as the Chief Joint Operations with effect from 1 June 2021.

Sangweni completed a series of senior military courses to qualify him to the positions he had assumed, including but not limited to; the Junior Command and Staff Duties Course in 2005, the Joint Senior Command and Staff Programme in 2012, and the National Diploma on Defence and Security Programme in 2012.

His major career highlights include his appointment as the SANDF’s landward component leader during a multinational military exercise termed Exercise NDLOVU in 2017, operational experience characterized by twenty-two (22) internal deployments, deployment in the inaugural African Union sanctioned mission in Burundi, deployments as the SANDF representative in three United Nations missions in Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, appointment to represent South Africa in the Combined Joint African Exercise in Zambia, and an appointment as the Military Secretary (lower level advisor) to Minister of Defence and Military Veterans.

In the education front, Sangweni obtained a National Diploma in Human Resources Management with the University of South Africa in 2007, and a Senior Management Programme with the University of Pretoria in 2011.

Sangweni is married to Sibongile Sangweni and together are blessed with four children.