Browsing by Author "Visser, Gideon Erasmus"

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    Die geskiedenis van die Suid-Afrikaanse Militêre Akademie, 1950-1990
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2000) Visser, Gideon Erasmus; Kapp, P. H.; Kotze, J. S.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences . Dept. of History .
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The South African Military Academy was established on 1 April 1950 with a view to placing candidate officer training in the Union Defence Force on par with standards abroad and at the same time to elevating it to the level of a university degree. In addition, the Minister of Defence, F.C. Erasmus, wanted to use the Academy as an instrument enabling Afrikaners to take up their rightful place alongside English-speaking citizens in the officer corps. In so doing, he hoped, eventually, to replace the predominant British character of the Union Defence Force with a unique South African, and more particularly an Afrikaner, character. Despite strong resistance to change from within the officer corps, motivated by political sentiment and more so by opposition to the novel idea of degree studies for officers, the Academy developed into a viable training institution. Broadly based on the training systems of Sandhurst and West Point, and following the example of the Indian National Defence Academy, the Military Academy became a joint training institution for all four arms of the service. Yet financial constraints, a lack of suitable candidates, as well as the conflicting sentiments and training needs of the arms of the service, prevented the formative training of all candidate officers from being assigned to the Academy. The absence of formative training, together with the admittance of junior officers, instead of solely candidate officers, resulted in the Academy gaining the character of a military university rather than a traditional military academy. The Academy was deprived of a distinct function in the overall officers' development system, which put its survival in the balance and triggered a series of investigations into its role and function. The opposing subcultures that developed between the Dean and the Faculty of Military Science on the one hand, and the Officer Commanding and the Military Training Branch on the other, formed part of the debate. Also in dispute, was the location of the Academy at Saldanha, rather than in the military heart-land in Pretoria. By interpreting the academic training needs of the Defence Force correctly and positioning itself accordingly, the Academy survived that crisis. Thereafter, the Academy time and again adapted to the changing military and socio-political environment and strove towards ever increasing relevance to the Defence Force. In this way female and non-European students were admitted to the Military Academy, whilst the way was also paved for the admittance of students from other African states. In anticipation of the new political dispensation in South Africa, a concerted effort was launched in 1990 to make the student body more representative of the South Africa population in terms of race and sex. The Military Academy has through the years established itself as a credible militaryacademic institution and has made a significant contribution towards military professionalism in South Africa. By 1990 it favourably positioned itself to continue that role in future. Though forming only a small percentage of the total officer corps, the Academy graduates have gradually been distributed at all levels of the officer corps and have dominated the top posts in the SA Defence Force since the early 1970's. They were consequently well placed in 1990 to playa significant role in preparing the Defence Force for the so-called "New South Africa".