If I have it correctly, the SAAF is one of the oldest and most prestigious Air Forces of the world, and was at one stage ranked as one of the best in the world, given the fact that they were operating old and outdated equipment, due to the once embargo's placed on SA. Can you imagine what it would have been like if they had access to equipment they have access to now... in the old days?
I have a couple of colleagues who dabbled with them around Sector 10 in the days gone by, and man, I love those campfire stories when they talk about how sh1t scared they were of being vaporised by the SAAF pilots.
Thank goodness there is none of that now! Can you imagine a Grippen on the tail of a Sukhoi 22?
I have been in African Aviation for long enough to know that the writing is now on the wall for the SAAF. Politics are getting in the way of fair judgement, and as I have stated before, Governments are wrong to push youngsters who grew up and suffer from the "hut culture" into a job they know nothing about, or have no interest in. It's murder in the first degree, because at some stage they're going to kill themselves and innocent others.
Privatising the training will lead to poor discipline in a non military environment, and make matters worse. In a civilian environment, military discipline cannot be enforced, and the moment the kid drinks his 3rd beer in the shebeen close to his school, confidence & ego accelerates to his head and he spiralls out of control, and who knows what wil happen next.....?
SA is not engaged in any conflict right now, so why don't they retain the expertise from the past en give the youngsters a good training. Should they not make the grade, the Government should allow the instructors to "wash" the students, instead of pushing them thru to become destroyers of equipment and killers of people later in their career, and this to satisfy transformation. Eesch, it's not right!
My advice to the Air Force Chief is: "Rome was not built in one day, and cement takes at least 30 days to cure"
