Lynette Louw and Willie Venter

For the past month the sound of gun fire was often heard during the day and more than the usual defence force vehicles and soldiers were seen in and around town. The reason for this was that intensive training took place at Dusty Ranch aimed on deployment of soldiers to the border between South Africa, Mozambique and Swaziland.

According to Lt Col Dries Joubert, commanding officer at Regiment Botha, approximately 560 reservists of Regiment Botha, Transvaal Scottish and the Witwatersrand Rifles have been staying at Dusty Ranch. However, he also said that it is unsure when the deployment was going to be set in motion.

Although many troops have arrived for special training it also appears that their numbers were not sufficient to patrol a border extending hundreds of kilometres over rough terrain.

In April the government announced that the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) would deploy four companies comprising 130 soldiers each along South Africa’s north-eastern borders with Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

This forms part of Operation Corona, as presented to parliament’s portfolio committee on defence and military veterans by the chief of joint operations, Lt Gen Themba Matanzima and chief director of operations, Rear Adm Philip Schöultz in February this year. The briefers told the committee that the bases which the police have been using since 2003 were still in good condition, and only the water and sewer systems required upgrades.

The soldiers will be deployed to conduct foot and mobile patrols, monitor the border fence and supply reaction capabilities. The full deployment would be staged over four phases. Phase one entails the deployment of the first four companies as well as two engineer troups comprising about 30 to 40 soldiers each to repair and maintain the Nabob fence.

However, the fences “requires major repair” as does sections of the border access road. In addition three former operational bases in the Kruger National Park (KNP) were “no longer available” and communication infrastructure had to be re-established. The SANDF will also need new patrol vehicles to replace worn-out 4x4s.

In the second phase, a further four companies as well as an engineer squadron will thicken deployments along the Zimbabwe and Mozambican frontier. Phases three and four entail deployment along the Swazi and Lesotho borders.

When one considers the length of the border to be patrolled by these eight companies, it quickly becomes apparent that they would be thinly spread. They would have to patrol approximately 800 kilometres of border in fairly rough terrain, of which almost 400km is along the KNP border. Considering that not all 1 000 soldiers would be on duty at any one time, it promises to be a daunting task.

A further problem for the SANDF is that of capacity. At the moment South Africa is involved in peacekeeping operations across Africa, notably the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and the Sudan.

Siphiwe Dlamini, spokesman for the SANDF, said that the problem of deployment would be dealt with by increasing reserve force members. This will address the problems of fitness and cost right away, as reserve force members will be deployed to internal borders on a basis of requirement, and only be paid while on active duty. This brings down overhead costs and the average age of soldiers. “We want to tilt the scales to favour the reserve force, as it is cheaper and we address the problem of an ageing army. Our reserve force numbers are increasing so we will not have a problem with deployment to borders”.

An added factor which could hamper deployment is that of cost. Matanzima and Schöultz explained that the deployment of six companies to Mozambique and Swaziland would cost R150 million, a battalion headquarters R2 million, maintenance of six operations bases and the Nabob fence R26 million, and reserve force wages R16 million. Phase one has already been completed and Dlamini says the rest will follow as soon as budget is made available.

“The government and treasury have already been appraised of the situation, and this is why we planned the deployment in phases, so that the defence budget can be adjusted according to our country’s security requirements. We cannot let our borders go unprotected.”

Troops listen intensively to their instructor

A soldier in action during the training

Soldiers in a hostile situation before forcefully entering a house

Soldiers in training