Pretoria – The South African National Defence Force says it has noted “with concern” some attempts in the media and elsewhere to conflate the Armed Forces Day 2023 with the upcoming joint maritime cooperation, dubbed Exercise Mosi II.
“These are two very distinct and different activities; whose only apparent similarities are the coincidence of geography and timing,” said SANDF spokesperson Siphiwe Dlamini.
“It is difficult to establish whether the confusion arises from this and a lack of understanding of the nature of the two activities, or whether it is a mischievous attempt to conflate the two, and by doing so interpret the exercise as a deviation from South Africa’s stated policy of neutrality and non-alignment.”
Armed Forces Day has been commemorated on 21 February every year since 2012, to commemorate the men and women in uniform and those who lost their lives in line of duty.
“This includes the heroism of the men of the South African Native Corps who perished on the SS Mendi in the English Channel en route to serve on the battlefields of the Western Front. As such Armed Forces Day is an annual celebration and showcase for the men and women who make up the people’s defence force,” said Dlamini.
This annual commemoration is preceded by a week of community outreach projects, discussions and demonstrations, culminating with the parade. This year, these events are scheduled to take place in Richards Bay, KwaZulu-Natal.
The Armed Forces Day events rotate through South Africa’s nine provinces, in its 11-year history.
On the other hand, Dlamini said Exercise Mosi II is a scheduled nine-day military “marrying-up” exercise, one of several that the SANDF conducts with other militaries around the world on a regular basis, “to ensure that it can learn from and benchmark its own operating capability”.
The first edition of this particular exercise was held in the 2019, and involved Brazil and India, as well as Russia and China.
“The follow up exercise, MOSI II, was postponed due to the COVID 19 pandemic. South Africa is continually home to military cooperation events, not all of which are formal exercises,” said Dlamini.
As the South African Navy prepares for Exercise Mosi II, the United States Air Force is currently using Cape Town as a landing base for its circumnavigation of the globe with two Boeing KC-135R Stratotankers.
Last year, South Africa participated in Exercise Shared Accord, the United States military’s annual African military exercise.
The joint exercise was last year hosted in South Africa for the fourth time since 2011.
“The focus of this (Exercise Shared Accord) two-week long exercise last June was to deliver humanitarian support to the Richards Bay community, coincidentally the venue for this year’s Armed Forces Day celebrations,” said Dlamini.
The SANDF has participated in several other military exercises in the last 12 months, including with the French military on Exercise OXIDE last November, the Indian military in Exercise IBSAMAR in October, and another exercise with the Brazilian military had taken place in July.
“None of this is sinister, nor suggests any agenda over and above the ongoing improvement of the SANDF’s capabilities in executing its constitutional mandate of safeguarding the territorial integrity of this country,” said Dlamini.
“Just how well the people’s Defence Force (SANDF) is doing in this regard will be clear to anyone who chooses to participate in the celebrations and benefit from the outreach programmes at the end of next month in Richards Bay,” said Dlamini.
Last week, Defence and Military Veterans Minister Thandi Modise hit back at the widespread critics of the forthcoming military exercise where South Africa hosts the People’s Liberation Army Navy of China, and the Russian Federal Navy during the multilateral maritime exercise scheduled to take place from February 17.
She emphasised that the military exercise will be “highly beneficial” for the three navies.
In recent months, Modise highlighted that South African military forces have had close engagements with their counterparts including the United Kingdom, the People’s Republic of China, Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Ghana.
She said there was “no hype” when the US military rolled into South Africa last year for Exercise Shared Accord.
“There was no hype about any of these countries, especially with regard to the United States of America, wherein we held an even longer exercise, known as Exercise Shared ACCORD in KwaZulu-Natal last year regarding our military health capabilities,” said Modise.
She said the SANDF planned and budgeted for military exercises with other nations across the globe, both at bilateral and multilateral levels.
“Exercise MOSI II is no exception, including the Exercise Shared ACCORD we held with our USA armed forces counterparts. In addition, the biennial maritime Exercise Oxide between South Africa and France took place in November last year at the Simon’s Town Naval Base,” said Modise.
“We wish to state categorically that South Africa, like any independent and sovereign state, has a right to conduct its foreign relations in line with its own diplomatic relations and national interests.
“South Africa sees Exercise Mosi II as an opportunity to contribute towards further strengthening the strong bonds that exist between South Africa, Russia and China,” she said.
The former Speaker of Parliament highlighted that contrary to widespread assertions by critics, South Africa was not abandoning its neutral position on the Russian-Ukraine conflict.
Code-named Exercise Mosi II, a massive maritime joint exercise is due to take place in Durban and Richards Bay in KwaZulu-Natal from February 17 to 27.
The exercise will be the second time of such co-operation comprising the three naval forces, with the first one held in November 2019 in Cape Town.
This year’s Exercise Mosi II will see more than 350 SANDF personnel from various arms of services and divisions participating alongside their Russian and Chinese counterparts.
