April - Department of Defence

insight
20
Battalion preparing for
Congo
Retraining was
By Capt Lizelle Clulee,
Communication Officer
Infantry School
7SAI Bn and detached
members from more than ten
different units from all over
the country almagamated for
the deployment to the
Democratic Republic of
Congo (DRC) where they
were to serve from middle October
2003 until almost the end of April
2004.
Members who formed part of the
detached units reported at 7 SAI Bn
from the beginning of August 2003
for a two month pre-deployment
training phase, which included a two
week field phase at the General Ben
Viljoen Training Area, almost 70 km
outside Phalaborwa, and a one week
combat-readiness evaluation, Exercise
ROOIKAT.
Proper training and retraining
were conducted in detail, which
included section attacks, platoon
attacks, helicopter drills and patrols.
Specialist mortar instructors from
Infantry School joined the training for
the first week and gave proper training
to the 81 mm mortar sections,
since base protection will be an essential
function in the DRC.
Back at 7 SAI Bn the unit divided
into two groups for thorough specialist
training. The leader group (Sgt
and upwards) carried on with the
Training of the Trainer Package
(TOTT), for which the Infantry School
had sent instructors from the External
Training Team.
Members dealt with subjects such
as negotiation skills, base protection,
vehicle control points, operations and
foreign weapons. At the same time
the rest of the contingent carried on
with the Chaplains Support Plan for
S A S O L D I E R A P R I L 2 0 0 4
the deployment, and Project
Resilience was presented by social
workers from 7 SAI Bn and 5 Special
Forces Regiment respectively.
On 17 September 2003 the first
contingent-battalion parade was held
for the newly appointed Officer
Commanding of 7 SAI Bn, Lt Col
Charles Mteti, who operated from
7 SAI Bn, while the unit was in the
DRC. Lt Col Mteti was responsible
for the training phase of the deployment
contingent, so that Lt Col John
Rakau of the Infantry Formation was
able to take over the best trained contingent
in the SANDF only one week
before the advance team left the unit.
43 Brigade visited the unit on 21
September 2003 for the combat-readiness
evaluation, Exercise ROOIKAT.
The contingent had to deal with real
scenario training in the base, in which
the contingent had to erect a total
base, complete with a Brigade HQ
and a Battalion HQ.
Part of the training and evaluation
Members of 7 SAI Bn retraining on 81 mm mortars.
done in detail.
was meant to show how members
would react if an incident occurred by
filling in the reports and forwarding
all the necessary information to the
relevant personnel. On the last day of
the exercise live firing exercises were
conducted at the General Ben Viljoen
Training Area.
After the week of evaluation the
contingent went on a week's leave for
the last and final preparations. After
the leave period the advance team
had only four days to get everything
ready before leaving for the MOD
Centre in Bloemfontein.
The contingent stayed another
two weeks at 7 SAI Bn after the leave
period before they left for the MOD
Centre. The main force left for the
DRC on 2 November 2003, so that
2 SAI Bn was able to return to South
Africa after a long deployment period
of six months.