EDUCATING FOR PROFESSIONALISM: A NEW MILITARY FOR A NEW SOUTH AFRICA

• Main Author: Abel Esterhuyse
• Format: Article
• Language: Afrikaans
• Published: Stellenbosch University 2011-08-01
• Series: Scientia Militaria
• Online Access: http://scientiamilitaria.journals.ac.za/pub/article/view/22

This article explores the role of education in professionalising the South<br />African National Defence Force (SANDF) since 1994. The central thesis is that<br />military education, training and development played a major role in bringing the pre-<br />1994 belligerent forces in South Africa together and blending them into a single,<br />coherent, bureaucratised defence force. There is, however, reason for serious<br />concern. The article first outlines the specific need for education in the SANDF<br />since 1994. The second part provides an overview of the educational institutions in<br />the SANDF, their programmes and the nature of education, training and<br />development that are provided. The final section discusses the most salient factors<br />that have influenced education in the SANDF over the last decade. Specific<br />emphasis is placed on the lack of suitably qualified academic staff, the difficulty of<br />educating soldiers in a second or third language, the lack of research and the<br />presence of an institutional climate of anti-intellectualism.