Bambatha Rifles hand over Eastern Cape border watch as new anti-aircraft unit takes over
The SANDF says troops from 10 Anti-Aircraft Regiment completed mission-ready training at Maluti Operations Base ahead of taking on border-safeguarding duties in the Eastern Cape.
The South African National Defence Force has begun handing over border-safeguarding duties in the Eastern Cape, with the outgoing Bambatha Rifles Company briefing the incoming 10 Anti-Aircraft Regiment on the task ahead.
The SANDF said its Joint Tactical Headquarters Eastern Cape ran mission-ready training at Maluti Operations Base for both units. The training prepared them for the handover and the continuation of border operations.
In a post on X on 2 November, the defence force said the incoming regiment and the outgoing company were put through the preparation together, ahead of the switch of responsibility.
The SANDF gave no date for the handover, no figure for how long the incoming unit will serve, and no detail on where in the province its border duties run. It also did not say why the Bambatha Rifles Company is being replaced.
The post was published with four photographs from the defence force.
Border safeguarding is a standing SANDF deployment, carried out alongside police and other state agencies. The Eastern Cape’s land border runs along the province’s northern and north-western edge, and the army’s presence there is part of the wider deployment of soldiers on the country’s landward frontiers.
The handover is a routine rotation of units rather than a change in the size or mandate of the deployment, as far as the defence force’s statement goes. Nothing in the post suggests a new operation, a change in the rules of engagement, or a shift in the number of soldiers on the border.
