November - Department of Defence

More than pyramids and sphinxesBy Lt Ronald Maseko,Directorate Defence CorporateCommunicationThe Chief Defence Corporate Communication,Maj Gen Dan Mofokeng,went on an official staff visit to Egyptover the period 11 to 17 September2004. The military ties between SouthAfrica and Egypt can beattributed to the fact thatboth are African countriesthat pride themselves onstriving for efficient, welltrainedand informed militaries.The visit, which wasfocused on benchmarkingwith the Egyptian Departmentof Defence,sought to compare andanalyse methods used byboth countries to formulatea system or communicationstructure thatwill best promote goodcommunication withinthe department and alsoempower communicationfunctionaries in the processof achieving afavourable end product.No department can affordnot to communicate andthat communication has to be of alevel acceptable to the sender and theuser. When the two countries combineexperiences and lessons learnedin the communication environment,the departments stand to gain a lotfrom each other and this cannot butfail to ensure that the Department ofDefence will deliver a tried, tested andsuccessful communication service asis required by the Government.Service delivery is the winner whenvisits like this one are encouraged -thus the saying: "Two heads are betterthan one". Maj Gen Mofokeng saidafter the visit that Directorate CorporateCommunication was on a parwith other military forces.The Senior Officer in Charge of Print House No 1, explained to Maj Gen Dan Mofokeng,the Chief Defence Corporate Communication, and Gen Samir Abdel Wahab, DirectorPrint and Publication Department, how the printing house in Red House Mountain, Egypt,operates.Celebrating Arbor Week in BloemspruitBy Lt Nico van der Walt,Environmental Services OfficerBloemspruit AFBEvery year Bloemspruit AFB celebratesArbor Week in an effort to promoteenvironmental awarenessamong its members. This year's celebrationwas a special occasion with theopening of the Garden of Democracyto celebrate ten years of freedom on 3September 2004.An area was selected on the basewhere the Officer Commanding, ColR.C. Jonsson, along with the OfficersCommanding of 16 Squadron, 87Helicopter Flying School, 6 ASU and506 Squadron unveiled a monumentand planted ten trees in a circle tocommemorate the ten years of democracy.Tree adoption certificates werehanded out to these officers for custodianship.The trees were obtained from theDepartment of Water Affairs andForestry. Hiccupnut and WhiteSeringa do not grow in Bloemfontein,hence only trees indigenous to the FreeState, namely the Wild Olive, WhiteKaree, Common Karee and the RiverBush Willow were planted.Mr J. Joubert, Acting DirectorHuman Resources Department ofEducation, was invited to AFBBloemspruit Pre-Primary School,Bloempieland, to plant a tree to createenvironmental awareness among thechildren. The children were activelyinvolved in planting four trees in commemorationof Arbor Day and treeadoption certificates were handed outto the children.15N O VEMBER 2 0 0 4 • S A S O L D I E R