43 South African

Brigade A brigade is a major tactical military unit, military formation that typically comprises three to six battalions plus supporting elements. It is roughly equivalent to an enlarged or reinforced regiment. Two or more brigades may constitute ...

is a formation of the

South African Army The South African Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of South Africa, a part of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), along with the South African Air Force, South African Navy and South African Military Health Servi ...

. It was established on 2 April 1997 at Wallmannsthal,

Gauteng Gauteng ( , ; Sotho-Tswana languages, Sotho-Tswana for 'place of gold'; or ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts f ...

as 43 Mechanised Brigade and then changed to 43

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

n Brigade in 1999. Administratively, the headquarters answers to the Chief of the Army. Operationally and for force training, the formation takes instructions from the Joint Operations Division. Units and subunits are attached as required for the task at hand. When not required, those units remain part of their respective type formations.

History

The history of the brigade dates back to the late 1990s when HQ 43 Mechanised Brigade HQ provided the Headquarters of the Combined SADC Task Force and commanded the intervention stage of Operation Boleas in

Lesotho Lesotho, formally the Kingdom of Lesotho and formerly known as Basutoland, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Entirely surrounded by South Africa, it is the largest of only three sovereign enclave and exclave, enclaves in the world, t ...

in September 1998. In 2009 43 SA Brigade provided the Military Component Force HQ for the SADC Standby Force during Exercise GOLFINHO.

Mandate

Its mandate is: "To provide

combat Combat (French language, French for ''fight'') is a purposeful violent Conflict (process), conflict between multiple combatants with the intent to harm the opposition. Combat may be armed (using weapons) or unarmed (Hand-to-hand combat, not usin ...

-ready land forces for the pursuance of national defence and the prevention of war, failing which, to jointly and preferably multinationally, swiftly and decisively achieve national security goals and collaboratively promoting peace and stability internally and externally in concurrence with international obligations to contribute to the development and upliftment of South Africa, its people and the

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

n continent."

Insignia

Dress Insignia

Leadership

References

{{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017 Brigades of South Africa Military units and formations in Pretoria Military units and formations established in 1997