nxne I TO WATER.. The BTR Flexitank System is extensively used by the South African Defence Force in the transport of diesel and water to remote areas of South Africa. Essential to the mobility and comfort of all of our personnel, this system supplies the essential life blood of the SA.D.F. The Flexitank System is continually being expanded to include an ever widening range of applications, such as fruit juice, glue and dilute herbicides, to cooking oil and liquid fertilizer. Flexitanks are designed to withstand extreme weather conditions and as it is based on the use of specially formu­ lated flexible rubber, is ideally suited to offer the maximum amount of flexibility and safety, in the minimum amount of space. The system offers a choice of speciali­ sed applications: — Mobile Tanks — Static Tanks — ISO Container Tanks — Bag-in-a-Box Pallet Tanks. Flexitanks — the most advanced method of transporting and storing liquids, developed and manufactured in South Africa. BTR SARMCOL A DIVISION OF BTR INDUSTRIES SOUTH AFRICA CPTY) LTD P.O. Box 4161, Johannesburg 2000 Tel: (Oil) 839-3267/8 Strange but tough 75 years old this month, the South African Defence Force (SADF) has changed immeasurably since it was founded after Union. But it is still a mass of contradictions and an ethnic hotch-potch. But it functions well — perhaps because it does not realise what a strange organisation it is he SADF, 75 years ago this month, arose like a phoenix from the still- Tglowing ashes of one of the most frat­ ricidal, endlessly tragic and utterly needless wars SA has ever seen. Yet one good thing that emerged from the ggle was a grudging but mutual respect, just 10 years later Boer and Brit clasped « hands — not altogether willingly or happily, perhaps — and the Union Defence Force, later the SADF, was born. It was an act of faith or perhaps unfound­ ed optimism, given the circumstances, but it worked, and 75 years later it is still working. It has changed, of course. Its soldiers fight now with tank and 155 mm gun-howitzer, light machine-gun and Mach 2 fighter in­ stead of rifle and bushveld pony. Its com­ plexion has changed, figuratively and literal­ ly. Men of all races and cultures now serve in its ranks. But willy-nilly the old khaki magic and decades of custom, usage, habit and tradition still bind it together. The SADF is a strange organisation born of a strange country. It helps to prop up a white-ruled government, yet it attracts more volunteers of other races than it can train, and the ones that do get in serve loyally and enthusiastically. re — but unseen It can muster more fighting troops than any other nation in Sub-Saharan Africa — but for most of the year they are invisible, and have to be summoned to a deafening chorus of moans and groans (although they are all right once they get down to it). It hammers the kill-your-enemy doctrine into its troops on all occasions — but it is studded with priests, pastors and ministers of 33 different churches who constantly exhort the doctrine of the Prince of Peace. It is the statutory tool of a ruling group that has existed for almost 40 years on a doctrine of racial separation — but white troops salute black officers without giving it a second thought. It embodies all sorts of ethnic traditions and somehow manages to digest them all, so that some of its soldiers wear the red coats of the British Empire, others swagger around in kilts, still others adhere to the more sober tongue is a weird and, to the outsider, often It has fought through several rebellions, usages of the Boer commandos; most present almost incomprehensible lingo made up of two world wars and the smaller but no less arms in the normal way, but the Zulu sol­ extracts from all its parts, intermingled with deadly conflict in Korea. Its honoured dead diers of 121 Battalion port their rifles and military jargon old and new, cryptic abbre­ — white, black, brown — lie buried in slap their magazines as their ancestors once viations and the odd Swahili word left over France, in Flanders, in the burning sands of rattled their short stabbing-spears against from World War 2. the Western Desert, in ancient Palestine, in their ox-hide shields. Italy, in India and places as unlikely as It is a veritable Tower of Babel — it Belgrade. speaks English and Afrikaans in a dozen different dialects and regional accents, Battles, but not wars and Xhosa, Venda It has lost skirmishes and battles, but it and Sotho, Portu­ has never lost a war or a campaign. At this guese and Ovambo, moment it is involved in yet another war, and Nama and Kavango believes it is winning that one too although it — but its native is not the sort of war that ends in formal peace negotiations. It faces internal rum­ blings that have yet to be resolved, and the fairly distant but not-to-be-dismissed possi­ bility of a conventional war. One could make a strong theoretical case for saying it should not work as well as it does. But — like the honey-bee, which flies because it does not know the laws of aero­ dynamics says it cannot — the SADF has always gotten by, and seems prepared to do so in the future as well. And its enemies Canberra light bombers__ old but still lethal under-estimate it at their peril. The task The SADF’s task is simply to defend SA from external invasions, border-busting insurgents and internal insurrection — singly or all together, depending on how the hands are dealt. Some of the threats are real, some are merely read possibilities. One way and another, the list of them makes for disturbing reading eing a statutory body under civilian Defence Act (Act 44 of 1957, as amended a □ It must act in support of the civil poi®* control the SADF has absolutely no number of times), boils down to four points: where necessary. - B say — except in an advisory sense — □ It must defend SA and Namibia from any □ It must assist in the maintenance of life or in its choice of enemies, a fact which critics conventional threat. health and the maintenance of essential ser­ of government policy find difficult to accept □ It must undertake, when called on, the vices. and consequently often ignore. prevention or suppression of terrorism in SA The SADF’s task, as stipulated in the and Namibia. The SADF’s structure The SADF might look simple to outsiders, but although it is run by means of an elabo­ AN ALARMING PICTURE rate network of command and planning sys­ tems, it still relies to an unprecedented de­ Manpower, number of tanks and artillery pieces gree on a relatively unsophisticated militia Country Total manpower Army manpower Battle tank* Artillery manpower system which only works by con­ sent of the people who supply the men. RSA ................................ 378 000 (approx) 356 000 (approx): 250 (approx) 145 (approx! 18 000 (PF) The South African Defence Force is a vast 58 000 (NS) and complicated organism which, say its 140000 (CitForce) detractors, works in spite of itself and never 140000 (ComForce) in the last half-hour before knocking-off SWATF ............................ 22 000 21000 None 16 (approx! Angola ............................. 127 000 (approx) 50000 480 (minimum) 460 time. Ethiopia............................ 227 000 (incl. foreign) 220 000 (ind. militia) ■1 000 (approx! 700 (approx) Jokes aside, its entire intricate and some­ Nigeria ............................. 94 000 80000 112 450 what confusing upper command echelon is Source: 1986/7 edition of the International Institute of Strategic Studies' annual publication, "The Military Balance.'' dedicated to the main task of the soldier, COMBAT AND SECURITY VEHICLES, NAVAL STRIKE CRAFT. Combat and Security Vehicles Naval Strike Craft Sandock-Austral Limited has for more than two decades been The Sandock Shipyard in Durban was originally well-known for responsible for the manufacture and assembly of wheeled its efficient construction of fishing trawlers and coastguard armoured vehicles for the South African Defence Force. They vessels. In latter years it has developed into a facility capable of have all been proven in combat by armoured units and producing highly sophisticated naval craft, as witnessed by the mechanised infantry in the most testing Southern African series of fast missile-carrying vessels for the Strike Craft Flotilla environment. Furthermore, these vehicles have been exported of the South African Navy. These ships, designed for quick to foreign countries where they have similarly given an excellent strike and return are of a battle-proven design and have account of themselves. exceptional fire power for their size. The sophisticated research and development capabilities of the The shipyard has the capacity of constructing vessels of up to Group ensure ongoing studies which have already produced a 35000 tons and is supported by comprehensive back-up such as new generation of advanced combat vehicles as well as a series complete electrical services and ship’s carpentry. of armour protected vehicles for use by security organisations. In addition, Sandock-Austral Limited is well-known inter­ The latter are designed around commercially available com­ nationally for its efficient ship repair capability. ponents, with ease of maintenance in mind. SANDOCK-AUSTRAL LIMITED P.O. Box 6390, Dunswart 1508. Republic of South Africa. Telephone (Oil) 894-7251. Telex 4-24134 S.A. Telefax (Oil) 894-6910. sailor and airman, namely to efficiently wage war against whoever the gov­ ernment of the day has des­ ignated as an enemy of the country. The SADF’s titular head is the State President, in his capacity as com- mander-in-chief of the armed forces.