Defending the Cape
While we were on our way to Boulders Penguin Sanctuary Graham Walker, an officer with the South African Navy, talked about South Africa's military. They have an Army, Navy, Air Force, and a Health Service, together called the South African Defense Forces They use the term defense force as a means of emphasizing that their military is used only for defense, much like other European and Southern African Militaries. Graham said that his job is to perform maritime security operations on the Southeastern coast of Africa. South Africa's Navy is based in Simon's Town on the Cape. They work together with the Navies of Mozambique and Tanzania. They mostly patrol the waters for any kind of drug trafficking or human trafficking or smuggling. South Africa does not produce their own warships and aircraft. In their Navy, they use Velour-Class frigates as well as a Heroine-Class submarines, both from Germany. As for the Air-force they have Swedish warplanes called Gripens and Rooivalk Attack helicopters. They conduct training exercises in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans with other navies. Graham also told us that South African Defense Forces now are representative of the country’s demographics, both in terms of gender and race. Given the country’s history, this is a very commendable achievement.