Die geskiedenis van die Suid-Afrikaanse Militêre Akademie, 1950-1990

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:The South African Military Academy was established on 1 April 1950 with a view to placingcandidate officer training in the Union Defence Force on par with standards abroad and atthe same time to elevating it to the level of a university degree. In addition, the Minister ofDefence, F.C. Erasmus, wanted to use the Academy as an instrument enabling Afrikanersto take up their rightful place alongside English-speaking citizens in the officer corps. In sodoing, he hoped, eventually, to replace the predominant British character of the UnionDefence Force with a unique South African, and more particularly an Afrikaner, character.Despite strong resistance to change from within the officer corps, motivated by politicalsentiment and more so by opposition to the novel idea of degree studies for officers, theAcademy developed into a viable training institution. Broadly based on the training systemsof Sandhurst and West Point, and following the example of the Indian National DefenceAcademy, the Military Academy became a joint training institution for all four arms of theservice. Yet financial constraints, a lack of suitable candidates, as well as the conflictingsentiments and training needs of the arms of the service, prevented the formative training ofall candidate officers from being assigned to the Academy.The absence of formative training, together with the admittance of junior officers, instead ofsolely candidate officers, resulted in the Academy gaining the character of a militaryuniversity rather than a traditional military academy. The Academy was deprived of adistinct function in the overall officers' development system, which put its survival in thebalance and triggered a series of investigations into its role and function. The opposingsubcultures that developed between the Dean and the Faculty of Military Science on theone 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 trainingneeds of the Defence Force correctly and positioning itself accordingly, the Academysurvived that crisis. Thereafter, the Academy time and again adapted to the changingmilitary and socio-political environment and strove towards ever increasing relevance to theDefence Force. In this way female and non-European students were admitted to theMilitary Academy, whilst the way was also paved for the admittance of students from otherAfrican states. In anticipation of the new political dispensation in South Africa, a concertedeffort was launched in 1990 to make the student body more representative of the SouthAfrica population in terms of race and sex. The Military Academy has through the years established itself as a credible militaryacademicinstitution and has made a significant contribution towards militaryprofessionalism in South Africa. By 1990 it favourably positioned itself to continue that rolein future. Though forming only a small percentage of the total officer corps, the Academygraduates have gradually been distributed at all levels of the officer corps and havedominated the top posts in the SA Defence Force since the early 1970's. They wereconsequently well placed in 1990 to playa significant role in preparing the Defence Forcefor the so-called New South Africa.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University