The South African government is set to conduct a back-room Defence Review with a fourperson
committee reporting to the Minister with their recommendations by November
2011. Such a Defence Review should, however, take place within the context of the establishment
of a national security policy framework. It must also be consultative and public.
As a result of the previous Defence White Paper and Review conducted in 1996 and
1998 respectively, South Africa purchased a wide array of high-tech equipment. Ongoing
experience with the SANDF illustrates however that good equipment and good quality
people need good training to turn it all into genuine capability. Without meeting this
formula, expensive kit is not worth having. Modest but well trained forces offer a much
greater (and more influential) capability than high-tech equipment that is useless because
insufficient people can be trained to use it.
Contemporary and future drivers of African conflict include high rates of urbanisation
and population growth, GDP per capita and inequality, demographics, food production
yields and access to nutrition and land, and climate change. Equally as important is understanding
why these stresses might translate into organised violence. This Paper argues
that the greatest danger today is in building two societies within one nation, where the
opportunities for people are constrained at birth by class, ethnicity, religion, geography,
or race – and where societies are consequently divided between those in secure employment
and prospering and those in ‘vulnerable’ employment, simply scraping by.
The 15 years that have elapsed since the original drafting of the 1998 Defence Review
have been a period of major change internationally and also for South Africa and Africa.
Adapting to those changes and re-designing for the future means reorienting the defence
force as an African peace-builder, enabler primus inter pares. Meeting future interlocking
challenges of state-collapse, radicalisation, population growth, social inequality and
hopelessness, requires a different posture – and skill-set – than the armed forces possess
today. It is one less about high-tech equipment than troop densities and logistics, knowledge
rather than higher-altitude intelligence and information, and small-steps rather than
strategic diplomatic sweeps. Overall, ensuring the right force composition and posture for
South Africa is fundamentally about putting people, not technology, first.
committee reporting to the Minister with their recommendations by November
2011. Such a Defence Review should, however, take place within the context of the establishment
of a national security policy framework. It must also be consultative and public.
As a result of the previous Defence White Paper and Review conducted in 1996 and
1998 respectively, South Africa purchased a wide array of high-tech equipment. Ongoing
experience with the SANDF illustrates however that good equipment and good quality
people need good training to turn it all into genuine capability. Without meeting this
formula, expensive kit is not worth having. Modest but well trained forces offer a much
greater (and more influential) capability than high-tech equipment that is useless because
insufficient people can be trained to use it.
Contemporary and future drivers of African conflict include high rates of urbanisation
and population growth, GDP per capita and inequality, demographics, food production
yields and access to nutrition and land, and climate change. Equally as important is understanding
why these stresses might translate into organised violence. This Paper argues
that the greatest danger today is in building two societies within one nation, where the
opportunities for people are constrained at birth by class, ethnicity, religion, geography,
or race – and where societies are consequently divided between those in secure employment
and prospering and those in ‘vulnerable’ employment, simply scraping by.
The 15 years that have elapsed since the original drafting of the 1998 Defence Review
have been a period of major change internationally and also for South Africa and Africa.
Adapting to those changes and re-designing for the future means reorienting the defence
force as an African peace-builder, enabler primus inter pares. Meeting future interlocking
challenges of state-collapse, radicalisation, population growth, social inequality and
hopelessness, requires a different posture – and skill-set – than the armed forces possess
today. It is one less about high-tech equipment than troop densities and logistics, knowledge
rather than higher-altitude intelligence and information, and small-steps rather than
strategic diplomatic sweeps. Overall, ensuring the right force composition and posture for
South Africa is fundamentally about putting people, not technology, first.
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http://www.thebrenthurstfoundation.org/Files/Brenthurst_Commisioned_Reports/Brenthurst-paper-201107.pdf
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