President Zuma Hosts Armed Forces Day in Port Elizabeth

President Jacob Zuma and the Commander-in-Chief of the South African Armed Forces hosted the fourth annual Armed Forces Day in Port Elizabeth this morning to celebrate and honour members of the South African Defence Force (SANDF) under the theme “A professional and capable defence force for the people of South Africa”.

The president said this annual celebration reflects the confidence that we as a nation and a country have in the South African National Defence Force (SANDF).

During the past two weeks, Port Elizabeth residents have been treated to a public display of navy ships, military static display, night shooting demonstrations, capability demonstrations and the community musical concerts by the SANDF – with more than 1,000 SANDF members and over 100 vehicles and aircrafts taking part.

The president pointed out that the defence force not only protects the borders of South Africa but also helps communities in times of disasters such as floods, tends to the sick in hospitals where there’s a shortage, builds bridges and other infrastructure in rural areas, particpates in fighting crime through Operation Fiela. In Port Elizabeth, he said, the SANDF has renovated three old age homes.

President Zuma said: “I would like to see more and more interaction between the SANDF and our people. It should not just end here and today. The SANDF belongs to the people of South Africa. It serves our people, and they need to know more about their defence force.”

He said South Africa is “passionate about peace” and that the SANDF participates in peace missions within the continent, as mandated by the African Union. He reiterated that “the African Union has taken a resolution that guns must be silenced in Africa by 2020. South Africa is playing its part meaningfully towards the achievement of that goal.”

The president said one of the key demonstrations of the success of South Africa’s participation in peacekeeping missions, is the recent appointment by the United Nations (UN), of “our very own Lieutenant-General Derrick Mbuyiselo Mgwebi as the Force Commander of the twenty thousand strong United Nations Mission in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, called MONUSCO”, which is the largest UN Peace Support Operation in the world.

President Zuma laid a wreath at the SS Mendi Memorial in New Brighton, and said that next year this same day – 21 February – will mark the centenary of the sinking of the vessel along the English Channel in 1917.

“The sinking of Mendi resulted in the death of 600 black soldiers who had enlisted as a labour corps in the First World War,” he said. “They were treated with disdain and their role and contribution were not valued at all by the racist colonialists of the time. In this regard, as we celebrate the Armed Forces Day, we recognise both our history as well as the future of our National Defence Force.

“We have built a defence force that belongs to all, in memory of those who died tragically in defence of this country and its people and in particular, in the quest for the new democratic order that we live in.”

He called on South Africans to “salute our Armed Forces for their heroic role in defending their country and people. We salute the South African National Defence Force! We salute the people’s defence force!”