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Military Academy holds passing out parade while class of 2024 takes up positions

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The end of the 2023 academic year at the Military Academy in Saldanha was, as is the case with tertiary military education internationally, marked...

SANDF to be out in force at Rand Show

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The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) has pledged to take Rand Show revellers by storm this year, with comprehensive static displays, but there...

Outgoing DoD HR boss makes final call on the Military Academy

Vice Admiral Asiel Kubu, Department of Defence (DoD) Director Human Resources, bid the Stellenbosch University Military Academy farewell ahead of taking off uniform for...

New border patrol APCs to be ordered in April

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After some delay, Armscor will next month place an order for new armoured personnel carriers (APCs) for the South African Army for use in...

Call for soldiers to be part of emergency water supply in two provinces

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With electioneering hotting up ahead of the 29 May national and provincial election, the Democratic Alliance (DA) potentially stole a march on the majority...

Schools in three provinces benefit from Army input on military skills development

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Ahead of the 15 March closing date for Military Skills Development (MSD) applications for the 2025 intake, SA Army recruitment officers visited schools in...

2023/24 PMTC training wraps up

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With the current financial year-end (31 March) looming ever larger on the horizon, the South African military’s peace mission training centre (PMTC) wrapped up...

The South African National Defence Force at 30: Balancing political aspirations with budgetary realities

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As the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) approaches its 30th anniversary in April 2024, it is pertinent to reflect on its journey as...

DMV DG now suspended for a year

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A year after the suspension of Director General Irene Mpolweni, the Department of Military Veterans (DMV) still has an interim, in the form of...

SA Army Olifant main battle tank flips over during Lohathla demo

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An Olifant Mk 1A main battle tank (MBT) has flipped onto its back during an accident at the SA Army’s Lohatlha Combat Training Centre...

Innovative funding key to saving SANDF – AMD

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The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) is so overstretched that it cannot meet its commitments, meaning that a new funding model for the...

Procurement issues hamper Military Ombud

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South Africa’s Military Ombud is seemingly hampered in finding “workable solutions” to spending its goods and services budget as these have to be procured...

Lobese to address poor morale in the SA Navy

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Speaking during a South African Navy 20 year long service medal parade in Simons Town on the last day of February, SA Navy Chief,...

More questions on SA’s DR Congo deployment amid further deaths

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Freedom Front Plus (FF+) leader Pieter Groenewald maintains the deaths of four South African soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in a...

Ex-Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula accused of bribery

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Former Defence and Military Veterans Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula has been accused of soliciting more than R2 million in cash bribes from Nombasa Ndhlovu, who...

More SA Army fatalities in DRC

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Two South African soldiers died in what appears to be a murder/suicide incident on Thursday (29 February) in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). They were...

SA Dept of Defence responds to DR Congo deployment criticism

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South African Department of Defence Head of Communication (HoC) Siphiwe Dlamini notes in an opinion piece that the deployment of a SA National Defence...

SANDF to spend R23 million on Umzimvubu Regiment callup remuneration

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More than 800 volunteers who responded to a callup during the July 2021 unrest will finally be paid, three years and two Boards of...

Modise confident National Treasury will fund SAMIDRC deployment

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Defence and Military Veterans Minister Thandi Modise has confirmed that the current budget does not provide funding for the South African National Defence Force...

SAAF shuts down HQ building due to ventilation problems

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Due to unsafe and unhealthy working conditions caused by malfunctioning ventilation systems, the South African Air Force (SAAF) is temporarily closing its headquarters building...

Home Affairs investigating SA Military Health Service general who ‘lied’ about his age

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The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) is investigating a general who appears to have become four years “younger” while he was in the defence...

Ammunition accidents and defects under the training microscope

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The profession of arms has long been known as a proud and dangerous one where close proximity to own and opposing forces' ammunition can...

SANDF acquires MAX 3 armoured vehicles, surveillance equipment for border patrols

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The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) has acquired half a dozen SVI MAX 3 armoured vehicles as well as surveillance equipment to help...

Delivery of first operational A-Darters scheduled for December

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Slow progress is being recorded with the long-delayed A-Darter air-to-air missile being manufactured by Denel Dynamics for the SA Air Force (SAAF), with delivery...

Austerity impacts SANDF time in the air and at sea

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Two areas where austerity measures brought on by a reduced defence budget show in the performance of the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) are...

Experts unpack the SANDF’s options in the DRC

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President Cyril Ramaphosa has committed up to 2 900 South African National Defence Force (SANDF) soldiers to the SADC Mission in the Democratic Republic...

Real term decline in ‘disastrous’ SA defence budget

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South Africa’s 2024 budget allocation has been revealed to Parliament this afternoon, and it does not bode well for the Department of Defence and...

Non-availability of aircraft delays SA SAMIDRC deployment

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South Africa’s commitment to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) did not have an auspicious...

Bodies of SANDF soldiers who died in the DRC return home

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The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) will on Wednesday repatriate and officially hand over the mortal remains of Captain Simon Mkhulu Bobe and...

Armed Forces Day 2024 unlikely to happen

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It does not appear that South Africans will see their national defence force up close and personal this week as Armed Forces Day (AFD)...

SA DR Congo dead named amid calls for better resourcing of SANDF

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The South African soldiers killed when a mortar hit their position at a SAMIDRC (Southern African Development Community Mission in the Democratic Republic of...

SANDF gets approval to evict Marievale residents

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The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) has been given permission by the North Gauteng High Court to evict residents illegally occupying its Marievale...

Slow pace of veterans’ pension pay-outs worrying

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The snail’s pace of military veteran pension pay-outs is “a concern” to the Parliamentary oversight committee – the Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military...

‘Deeply irresponsible’ to send overstretched SANDF into SADC mission in the DRC

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The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) is so underfunded and overstretched that it is deeply irresponsible to be sending soldiers into the Democratic...

Two SANDF soldiers killed while deployed with SAMIDRC mission

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The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) has suffered its first casualties as part of the Southern African Development Community Mission in the Democratic...

SAAF Composite Helicopter Unit in DRC pays tribute to fallen colleague

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SA Air Force (SAAF) and other former colleagues in uniform came together in a sombre gathering at the South African Composite Helicopter Unit (CHU)...

SA DR Congo deployment slammed

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South African soldiers and support personnel selected for deployment to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as part of the Southern African Development Community...

SA “integration programme” for Cuban-trained military doctors questioned

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Thirteen SA Military Health Service (SAMHS) personnel are back in South Africa following six years of “military medicine” training in Cuba and find themselves...

SANDF opens 2025 MSDS applications

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The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) has opened its Military Skills Development System (MSDS) applications for 2025, allowing young and deserving South Africans...

More Gauteng crime prevention wardens report at SA Army bases for training

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3 SA Infantry (SAI) Battalion in Kimberley, one of the SA Army’s two top training facilities, is the second SA National Defence Force (SANDF)...

Mbambo promises action on SAAF HQ air conditioning problem

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Chief of the South African Air Force (SAAF), Lieutenant General Wiseman Mbambo, has said efforts are being made to address the issue of air...

Next batch of Gauteng crime prevention wardens training at Dunnottar

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The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) has begun training another 500 Crime Prevention Wardens at its Dunnottar military base in line with Gauteng...

Veterans’ skills development programme underway in Gauteng

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The Gauteng province is the centre point of a 10-day skills development programme for military veterans under the auspices of the Department of Military...

South Africa’s military is expected to do more than ever with tighter budgets: how...

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The South African National Defence Force marks 30 years this year, having been established on 27 April 1994. It’s as old as the country’s...

DoD intern programme extended to 24 months

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The contribution by the Department of Defence (DoD) to government’s National Development Plan (NDP) continues and expands with its intern programme extended to two...

Naval Museum does its share to tell South Africans about “their” defence force

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Proof of the contribution military museums make to public and wider civil/military relations comes from the SA Naval Museum which reported a high visitor...

Another Sapper assisted rural bridge taken into service in KZN

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South African President Cyril Ramaphosa was in deep rural KwaZulu-Natal yesterday (Wednesday, 31 January) overseeing another rural bridge completed with input from the SA...

SA Army Engineer Formation key part of Welisizwe bridge initiative

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The role of the SA Army Engineer Formation is pivotal in ensuring the success of the Welisizwe bridges project, which will see Cyril Ramaphosa...

MSD recruits – “future defenders of the nation”

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The SA Army military skills development (MSD) class of 2024 were commended for choosing a career in the military ahead of basic military training...

Thirty-nine weapons stolen from SANDF in four years

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Almost all weapons lost or stolen from SA National Defence Force (SANDF) units since the 2019/20 financial year to December last year are either...