Air Force Base Waterkloof is an airbase of the

South African Air Force The South African Air Force (SAAF) is the air warfare branch of South African National Defence Force, with its headquarters in Pretoria. The South African Air Force was established on 1 February 1920. The Air Force saw service in World War II a ...

. It is situated on the outskirts of

Pretoria Pretoria ( ; ) is the Capital of South Africa, administrative capital of South Africa, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to the country. Pretoria strad ...

, and is the SAAF's busiest airbase. The base's name means "water ravine" in Afrikaans and in Dutch. Despite the name, this base is not located in the suburban town of

Waterkloof Waterkloof (Afrikaans for "Water Ravine") is an affluent suburb of the city of Pretoria in the Gauteng province of South Africa, located to the east of the city centre. It is named after the original farm that stood there when Pretoria was founded ...

, but lies to the south of Pretoria, to the northeast of

Centurion, Gauteng Centurion (previously known as Verwoerdburg and before that Lyttelton) is an area with 236,580 inhabitants (2011 census) in the Gauteng Province of South Africa, between Pretoria and Midrand. Formerly an independent municipality, with its own to ...

and from

AFB Swartkop Air Force Base Swartkop is South Africa's oldest air force base and houses the South African Air Force Museum. It is managed as part of AFB Waterkloof and houses one of the three branches of the South African Air Force Museum. The name of th ...

, at an elevation of 1506 metres (4940 ft). The base motto is ''Acquirit Qui Tuetur'' (He Obtains Who Defends).

Units currently hosted

* 21 Squadron – VIP transport * 28 Squadron – Medium transport * 41 Squadron – Light transport * 44 Squadron – Light transport * 111 Squadron – Light transport (reserve) * 140 Squadron – Light transport (reserve) * 504 Squadron – Security * 5 Air Servicing Unit – Maintenance support * Central Photographic Institute – Photographic services * JARIC, (Joint Air Reconnaissance Intelligence Centre) The SANDF National Imagery Exploitation Centre – Strategic Imagery Intelligence (

IMINT Imagery intelligence (IMINT), pronounced as either as ''Im-Int'' or ''I-Mint'', is an intelligence gathering discipline wherein imagery is analyzed (or "exploited") to identify information of intelligence value. Imagery used for defense intell ...

) support * Mobile Deployment Wing – Emergency response * SAAF Telecommunications Centre – Communications * Ditholo Training Area is managed as an external component of AFB Waterkloof

History

The base was officially opened on 1 August 1938 as Waterkloof Air Station. Since that time it has always been in the service of the SAAF. It was upgraded to Air Force Base during World War II.

Aviation

Non-directional beacon A non-directional beacon (NDB) or non-directional radio beacon is a radio beacon which does not include directional information. Radio beacons are radio transmitters at a known location, used as an aviation or marine navigational aid. NDB are i ...

– WL315.0 *

VHF omnidirectional range Very High Frequency Omnidirectional Range Station (VOR) is a type of short-range VHF radio navigation system for aircraft, enabling aircraft with a VOR receiver to determine the azimuth (also radial), referenced to magnetic north, between the a ...

– WKV116.9 * Tower – 124.1

Controversy

On 30 April 2013 a flight full of Indian citizens who had come to attend a wedding of the

Gupta family The Gupta family is a wealthy and influential business family from India, with close ties to former South African President Jacob Zuma and his administration. The family's most notable members are the brothers Ajay, Atul, and Rajesh "Tony" Gupt ...

landed at Waterkloof airbase. This was in contravention of South African law since the airbase is classified as a National Key Point; in theory not available to be used for personal air travel by unaffiliated private individuals. It was later alleged that former president

Jacob Zuma Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma (; born 12 April 1942) is a South African politician who served as the fourth president of South Africa from 2009 to 2018. He is also referred to by his initials JZ and clan names Nxamalala and Msholozi. Zuma was a for ...

is the one who ordered the flight to land. The incident would later earn the moniker " Guptagate" in the South African media. In April 2023 the President of the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and his family landed at the base during their vacation to a South African game lodge in the Eastern Cape. This resulted in comparisons with the landing of Gupta family members at the base 10 years before whilst also closely following the unsuccessful extradition of the Guptas from custody in the UAE to face trail for corruption in South Africa. In May 2023, a year after

Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

, a US-sanctioned Russian transport plane landed at the airport carrying an unknown cargo. The landing further strained South African-United States relations by increasing American skepticism of South Africa's self-proclaimed neutral stance in the conflict.

References

Notes

External links

Waterkloof page on the unofficial website of the South African Airforce
Checked 29 March 2012 South African Air Force bases Airports in South Africa Transport in Gauteng City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality 1938 establishments in South Africa Airports established in 1938 {{SouthAfrica-mil-stub