Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the battlefield, who was norma ...

Themba Matanzima is a former South African Army officer, serving as Military Ombudsman. He was born on 2 February 1953 in

Cofimvaba Cofimvaba is a town in Chris Hani District Municipality in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. Location The village is 79 km east of Queenstown on the route to Butterworth, in Thembuland. History The village of Cofimvaba wa ...

. He joined the

Transkei Transkei ( , meaning ''the area beyond Great Kei River,

he river The He River is a tributary of the Xi River in Guangxi and Guangdong provinces in China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it ...

Kei''), officially the Republic of Transkei (), was an list of historical unrecognized states and dependencies, unrecognised state in the southeastern region of South Africa f ...

Defence Force in January 1977.

Army career

Matanzima transferred to the

South African National Defence Force The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) comprises the armed forces of South Africa. The Chief of the SANDF is appointed by the President of South Africa from one of the armed services. They are in turn accountable to the Minister of ...

on integration in 1994. After a period on the Joint Military Coordinating Committee that oversaw the integration process, he then became General Officer Commanding Eastern Province Command in 1996. In 1998 he became Chief of Army Personnel. In 1999 he was appointed Chief of Personnel and promoted to the rank of lieutenant general. In 2000, the SANDF restructured and he was appointed into a newly created post of Chief of Joint Support. In 2004, he was appointed Chief of Corporate Staff until 2005, when he became Chief Human Resources. He was appointed Chief of Joint Operations on 1 September 1, 2007 after the death of Lt Gen Sipho Binda in car accident in 2006. In 2010, he served as acting Secretary for Defence and Acting CSANDF on a number of occasions.

Honours and awards

He has been awarded the following: * * * * * * * * * *

References

1953 births Living people South African Army generals Graduates of the Royal College of Defence Studies {{SouthAfrica-mil-bio-stub