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

Abstract

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