Deon Visser

THE SOUTH AFRICAN MILITARY ACADEMY'S EDUCATIONAL OFFERINGS AND THE NATIONAL THREAT PERCEPTION

The national threat perception of a nation is an important guideline for the education of its officers, since it defines or anticipates the general military and socio-political milieu in which those officers must be prepared to operate. This paper traces the evolution of the threat perception of the South African Department of Defence since 1950 and the response of the South African Military Academy in terms of its educational programmes. It highlights the attitude of Defence Headquarters towards the Military Academy as a military-academic institution and the historical position of the Academy in the course of officer development. The paper also investigates the number and demographic profile of students routed through the Military Academy, which is central to these issues. Today, in the wake of the termination of the so-called Bush War on her borders and the liberation struggle within her frontiers, there is no clear, direct military threat against South Africa. In the absence of such a threat, the secondary functions of the SANDF, particularly regional peacekeeping and peace support operations, seem to occupy the centre stage. The paper therefore concludes with a perspective on the relevance of the Military Academy’s current academic offerings to the preparation of SANDF officers for their perceived role scenario in the twenty-first century.

Officer Education at the South African Military Academy: Social Science but No Sociology?

This article reviews the status of military sociology in South Africa by examining where it is being taught and researched within sociology as a discipline and at the South African Military Academy (hereafter, Academy). The conclusion is reached that it has not been a prominent area of academic focus possibly because of the fact that at present only one civilian universitys sociology department presents a related course. Looking at the historic development of the academic offerings at the Academy, at no time has military sociology been presented as a course, although it is masked within some of the other social science disciplines. Only recently has the relevance of military sociology as a discipline in its own right been acknowledged, and it appears as if it may well find a place in the education of young officers at the Academy in the near future.

British Influence on Military Training and Education in South Africa: The Case of the South African Military Academy and its Predecessors

The Peace of Vereeniging, which brought an end to three years of bitter military conflict between Boer and Briton, marked the rekindling of another, older conflict in South Africa: the struggle for political and cultural domination between the two white races. In the collective memory of the Afrikaner, their struggle against British domination dated from the British conquest of the Cape in 1806 and congealed around the events of the Great Trek of the 1830s, the annexation of the Transvaal in 1877 and the two Anglo-Boer Wars at the turn of the nineteenth century. In the great divide between the Afrikaners and their English-speaking counterparts lay vast cultural differences and, above all, the two broken Boer republics. Unlike the Afrikaner, who felt strongly tied to the South African soil through birth and sacrifice, many English-speaking South Africans still viewed the ‘old country’ as home. They did not share the patriotism and republican ideals of the Afrikaner and in many ways looked down upon them. Lord Harlech, then the British High Commissioner in South Africa, observed in 1942:

Image and identity in military education: a perspective on the South African Military Academy.

Abstract Scrutinising primarily unpublished, archival sources, this study examines, from an historical perspective, the image and identity of the South African Military Academy to determine to what extent that image and identity was and still is conducive to military education in South Africa in particular and the African continent in general. It argues that the Military Academy has historically struggled to establish a credible image and identity in the eyes of the military and that it was often at odds with the expectations of the Defence Force. The study also indicates how, given South Africas former race and gender policies, the Military Academy functioned for four decades as a de facto white, male, Afrikaans-speaking military-academic institution. It highlights the Military Academys concerted effort from the early nineties, in anticipation of the new political dispensation, to change its identity in terms of language, race and gender. It concludes that this, coupled with the introduction of a series of new needs-driven military-academic programmes, greatly enhanced the image and credibility of the Academy and placed it in a favourable position to play an indispensable role in the education of SANDF officers. Furthermore, as the only institution of its kind in war-torn Sub-Saharan Africa, it is argued that the Academy is well positioned to make a meaningful contribution to military professionalism on the continent and to further the goals of the African Renaissance.

ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF THE ANC: DEBATING LIBERATION HISTORIES TODAY

One hundred years of the ANC comprises a selection of papers by South African and international scholars read at a conference titled “One Hundred Years of the ANC: Debating Liberation Histories and Democracy Today” held at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg from 20 to 23 September 2011. The book commences with the two keynote addresses that framed the academic debate at the above-mentioned conference. The first, by Philip Bonner, addresses the topic “Fragmentation and cohesion in the ANC: The first 70 years”. The second one , contributed by Joel Netshitenzhe, is entitled “A continuing search for identity: Carrying the burden of history”. These keynote addresses are followed by an introductory chapter by the first three editors of the book and fourteen chronologically arranged chapters on various aspects of the ANC’s hundred-year history.

Between history, amnesia and selective memory: The South African armed forces, a century’s perspective

2012 has a double significance for this year sees the centenary of the founding of the African National Congress (8 January) and of the creation of the Union Defence Forces (1 July), two organisations that have for much of the twentieth century shared a contested history. Yet, in a remarkable bouleversement, South Africa has come through this difficult past and, over the past two decades, a new South African society has been recreated following an interesting period of adjustment following the end of the Cold War and the growth of democracy in the developing world. These changes have necessarily affected her armed forces and the roles defined for them. Some commentators, particularly in the years immediately following 1994, asserted that military power had lost all of its vaunted, Cold-War importance in a new postmodern environment. Others still, recognising future challenges, argued that South Africa, beset with far-reaching socio-economic crises, could no longer afford the burden of military forces. Most scholars agree now that these perspectives were short-sighted and that, while the risk of major conflict has receded, the events of 9/11, and its consequences, demonstrate that the continental and international landscapes are less certain, less stable and less predictable, than that for which many had hoped. Clearly, South African interests are intertwined inextricably in regional and global affairs and if she is to protect these interests and ensure her security, she must maintain credible military force capable of meeting an array of contingencies. It was with this in mind that the strategic arms deal, since the subject of much debate, was passed by parliament: [i] the promise of a full technological transformation, to accompany the human transformation, offered. [i] J Sylvester & A Seegers. “South Africa’s Strategic Arms Package: A Critical Analysis”. Scientia Militaria 36/1. 2008. 52-77.

THE ANGLO-BOER WAR 1899–1902: WHITE MAN’S WAR, BLACK MAN’S WAR, TRAUMATIC WAR

The Anglo-Boer War 1899–1902: White man’s war, black man’s war, traumatic war is the latest work from the pen of established Anglo-Boer War historian Andre Wessels, following hot on the heels of his previous book A century of postgraduate Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902) studies (Bloemfontein, Sun Press, 2010).

THE HOT “COLD WAR”: THE USSR IN SOUTHERN AFRICA

Vladimir Shubin London: Pluto Press, 2008 & Scottsville: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2008 320 + xvi pages Index, list of abbreviations, list of Soviet Personalities, 10 photographs and a map. ISBN 978 0 7453 2473 9 (Hardback) ISBN 978 0 7453 2472 2 (Pluto Press paperback) ISBN 978 1 86914 155 4 (University of KwaZulu-Natal Press paperback) R190,00 (University of KwaZulu-Natal Press paperback)

ONGULUMBASHE: WHERE THE BUSHWAR BEGAN/PAUL J. ELS

Retired Warrant Officer First Class, Paul J. Els, South African Corps of Signals, is a veteran of the so-called ‘Bush War’. He did his first ‘stint on the Border’ (p. v) in 1968, participated in Operation Savannah during South Africa’s intervention in the Angolan civil war in 1975/76 and subsequently served in the South African Special Forces as long-distance radio operator for 5 Reconnaissance Commando. His first book, We Fear Naught But God: The Story of the South African Special Forces (Covosday: Johannesburg) appeared in 2000, followed by Ongulumbashe: Die Begin van die Bosoorlog in 2004, which he has now translated into English under the title above. The English edition adds nothing of significance to the original Afrikaans text, but makes his work available to a wider audience. The epilogue by Gen. J.J. Geldenhuys, which was added to the English edition, is an almost verbatim translation of parts of Geldenhuys’s foreword to the new edition of his own book Die Wat Gewen Het: Feite en Fabels van die Bosoorlog. (Litera Publikasies: Pretoria 2007).

Anglo-South African relations and the Erebus Scheme, 1936-1939

As a member of the Commonwealth, South Africa aligned its defence policy closely with that of Great Britain in the years between the two World Wars. Apart from taking responsibility for its own defence, the Union of South Africa was also expected, at its discretion, to support Britain in the case of a European war. By the mid-1930s South Africa faced a possible external threat as the aggressive, imperialist policies of Germany, Italy and Japan began to take shape. South African Defence Minister, Oswald Pirow, endeavoured to obtain 15-inch guns from Britain to bolster Cape Town’s defences against sea-raiders. Despite her strategic interest in safeguarding the Cape sea route, Britain’s own efforts at rearmament, however, made her unwilling to part with guns of that calibre. Instead, in June 1936, the British government agreed to lend the monitor HMS Erebus, carrying two 15-inch guns, to the Union of South Africa. Redesignated Erebus Heavy Battery, South African Garrison Artillery, it was to serve as a floating artillery battery in Cape Town harbour. Two detachments of South Africans were trained in Britain to man the Erebus, but war broke out before the Erebus could sail for the Cape. Some of the South African crew on the Erebus allegedly ‘refused duty’ and were put ashore. The Erebus scheme was subsequently cancelled and the South Africans sent home. The aim of this article is to determine the origins of the Erebus scheme and the reasons for its demise against the background of Anglo-South African relations immediately before and after the commencement of the Second World War. This entails an investigation of Anglo-South African relations both at interstate and popular level. The article outlines the birth of the scheme amidst the diverging views of the British Admiralty and the South African Minister for Defence, Oswald Pirow, on Cape Town’s defence needs. It highlights the political division in South African society over participation in a ‘British’ war on the eve of the Second World War and investigates the relationship between the South Africans and Britons on the Erebus. It concludes with a brief assessment of the role of the removal of some of the South African crew from the Erebus and the change of government in South Africa in the cancellation of the Erebus scheme.