The Chief of Defence Force Staff (C Def F S) was a post in the

South African Defence Force The South African Defence Force (SADF) (Afrikaans: ''Suid-Afrikaanse Weermag'') comprised the armed forces of South Africa from 1957 until 1994. Shortly before the state reconstituted itself as a republic in 1961, the former Union Defence F ...

and the

South African National Defence Force The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) comprises the Military, armed forces of South Africa. The commander of the SANDF is appointed by the President of South Africa from one of the Military branch, armed services. They are in turn a ...

History

The Chief of Defence Force Staff was a

lieutenant general Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) 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 ...

post in the

which traces its origins from the sixties. In the middle sixties, the expansion of the Defence Force necessitated some changes to the overall structure and at that time, the posts of GOC Joint Combat Forces (GOC JCF), Chief of Defence Staff, Chief of Defence Force Administration to name a few were established. In 1976 this post ceased to exist and was re-established in 1986 during Gen

Johannes Geldenhuys General Johannes Jacobus (Jannie) Geldenhuys, (5 February 1935 – 10 September 2018) was a South African military commander who served as Chief of the South African Defence Force from 1985 to 1990. Early life Geldenhuys was born in Kroonstad ...

' term as C SADF. Its role was to coordinate all efforts of ''Chief of Staff Personnel'' , ''Chief of Staff Intelligence'', ''Chief of Staff Operations'', ''Chief of Staff Logistics'', ''Chief of Staff Finances'' and ''Chief of Staff Planning'' for the Chief of the Defence Force.

Past appointments

Chief of Defence Staff

* Maj Gen Toby Moll * Lt Gen

Kalfie Martin Lieutenant-General Henry James "Kalfie" Martin (10 June 191020 October 2000) was a South African military commander. Military career He joined the South African Air Force in 1935 and played rugby union for his country in 1937. During World ...

* Lt Gen Booysie van der Riet * Lt Gen

Raymond Armstrong Lieutenant General Raymond Fullarton Armstrong (14 December 1917 – early 1990s) was a South African Air Force officer, who served as Chief of Defence Staff. Biography He was born in Manchester when his father was seeing in the British Army ...

Chief of Defence Force Staff

* Lt Gen

Ian Gleeson Lieutenant General Ian Rimbault Gleeson (15 August 19347 June 2021) was a South African Army officer who served as Chief of the Defence Staff. He graduated from the Military Academy after attending Christian Brothers College in Pretoria and j ...

* Lt Gen Kat Liebenberg * V Adm Bert Bekker * Lt Gen

Pierre Steyn Lieutenant-General Pierre Derksen Steyn (born 25 November 1942) is a retired South African Air Force officer who served as Secretary for Defence from 1994 to 1998, and as Chief of Defence Force Staff from 1990 to 1993. He is also known as the ch ...

* Lt Gen

Siphiwe Nyanda General Siphiwe Nyanda (born 1950) is a former South African military commander and politician. He was a member of Umkhonto We Sizwe and served as Chief of the South African National Defence Force from 1998 to 2005, Minister of Communication ...

Staff Divisions

The staff divisions were numbered as follows: # Personnel 1 #

Intelligence Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. More generally, it can b ...

2 # Operations 3 #

Logistics Logistics is generally the detailed organization and implementation of a complex operation. In a general business sense, logistics manages the flow of goods between the point of origin and the point of consumption to meet the requirements of ...

4 #

Finances Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of finan ...

5 # Planning 6 Note: All these divisions had a three star rank as a chief of staff.

References