THE CHIEF OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN ARMY’S WELCOMING NOTE

Chief of the South African Army.

Lieutenant General Solly Shoke

I welcome you to the first SA Army seminar of this kind, SA Army Seminar 21. The aim of this seminar is to confirm and to add value to SA Army Vision 2020 through a number of presentations by knowledgeable academic and military speakers from South Africa, the African Union, other African countries, Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom.  The topics on the programme are based on case studies of and security challenges not only for South Africa, but for countries all over the world.  

The theme of the seminar is “Security Challenges Shaping the Future SA Army: A Reality Check for the SA Army Vision 2020”. The outcome of the seminar may imply some adjustments to SA Army Vision 2020 (our strategy). This implies that your active participation in discussions is of the utmost importance, as this will add value to SA Army Vision 2020. The seminar is not aimed at discussing any documents written by SA Army Vision 2020, but should be a military interpretation of world-trends in security aspects.  Your opinions will be appreciated.  These will be valuable not only to the SA Army, but also to the South African National Defence Force and the South African Department of Defence.  I have tasked the SA Army members to submit to me via SA Army Vision 2020 all contributions which they regard as relevant to SA Army Vision 2020. 

I wish to express my appreciation to both the national and international speakers who have taken the time and trouble to prepare their presentations (which I am sure will be excellent) and for coming here to present them.  I also wish to thank the Institute for Security Studies who have done everything possible to ensure that this seminar does take place. Their efforts are the continuation of our strategic partnership which is central to our core business requirements, that is looking into security challenges and methods to deal with them. My thanks also go to the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Pretoria for providing the funds for the hiring of the conference centre and to the Department for International Development of the United Kingdom for their support through the ISS. Finally I want to applaud members of the PDSC and representatives of the SANDF’s other services and divisions for their presence at this seminar.  Jointness will play an increasingly important role in all future military efforts.  

I plan to make this seminar a biennial event to be attended by members from other government departments, defence-related industries, SADC members and regional security organisations in the continent. Future seminars may perhaps have themes relating to multinationalism, which, I am sure, will already feature in importance at this seminar. 

Ladies and gentlemen, what remains for me to say is that I wish you an enjoyable seminar, and for those who are visitors to our country, may you enjoy what our beautiful country has to offer.   

Thank you.