Page 179 - Conflitti Militari e Popolazioni Civili - Tomo II

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being admitted to the Academy. 23
The Academy graduates began dominating the top hierarchy of the SADF less than three
decades after the institution first opened its doors. Three Academy-graduates, Gen. M.A. de
M. Malan (1976 – 1980), Gen. C.L. Viljoen (1980 – 1985) and Gen. J.J. Geldenhuys (1985
– 1990), became Chief of the SADF in succession – after having also occupied the position
of Chief of the Army in succession since 1973. Gen. Malan, furthermore, became Minister
for Defence in 1980, a position he held until 1990. By 1990 the Academy had also produced
a Chief of the Air Force, Lt.Gen. J.P.B van Loggerenberg (1988 - 1991) and a Chief of the
Navy, V.Adm. A.P. Putter (1982-85 and again from 1989–90). Other prominent and high
ranking officers such as Gen. Chris Thirion Chief of Military Intelligence (himself earlier on
a lecturer at the academy) can be mentioned. By June 1991 about 37% of the SADF officers
with the rank of Brigadier-General and higher were Academy-graduates. No reliable stati-
stics are available as to the percentage of Academy-graduates below the rank of Brigadier-
General at that stage, but they were certainly present at all levels of the hierarchy. 24

civiLian-miLitary interaction at steLLenbosch university
To appreciate the historical context of the time one has to have an historical imagina-
tion, as much as one has to have a sociological imagination to understand the complexities
and ironies of deeply divided societies. Stellenbosch was a burgeoning bastion of Afrikaner
Nationalism, a flag bearer of western civilisation and Protestantism. It was on the one hand
a place of typical students; care free, festive, falling in love and agonising about broken
relationships, hiking trips in the majestic Boland mountain areas, visiting wineries or lazing
out on the beach - within beautiful surroundings relatively isolated from the harsh political
realities of South Africa increasingly crushed by apartheid. On the other hand there were stu-
dents and student organisations and their professors that committed themselves to building
with zeal the new Afrikaner Republic and solving its black problems with the confidence of
new incumbents to power.
The University of Stellenbosch welcomed the Military Academy with open arms, as its
affiliation with that sturdy Afrikaner institution, was in the words of its Rector, Prof. H.B.
Thom, a direct response to ‘a national need, but primarily a need amongst Afrikaans-spea-
king people’. The planning and construction of the Academy buildings at Saldanha had
25
just begun when the relocation of the Academy down south took place during 1955/1956,
so Stellenbosch University readily agreed to accommodate the Academy staff and students
on the mother campus until the facilities at Saldanha were completed. It could, however, not
provide office accommodation to the Military Academy on campus, so the UDF rented office

23 G.E. Visser and I. Van der Waag: Military Academy – 50 years of officer education in SA. SALUT, Vol 7, No
4, april 2000, p 54.
24 G.E. Visser: British influence on military training and education in South Africa: The case of the South
African Military Academy and its predecessors. South African Historical Journal, vol. 46, May 2002, pp.
81-82.
25 H.B. thom: toekomsblik. in H.B. thom, et al (eds.): Stellenbosch 1866 – 1966: Honderd Jaar Hoër Onde-
rwys (Cape Town, 1966), p. 556.