The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Regional Peace Training Centre (RPTC) is mandated to coordinate and oversees Peace Support Operations (PSO) training at National Peacekeeping institutions in the Member States to reach out to a wider network of participants and raise visibility profile of SADC RPTC in line with its Mandate.
RPTC is a Regional Training Centre of Excellence, under the Organ on Politics Defence and Security Cooperation whose overall objective is to ensure “an enhanced capacity of SADC at the regional and Member States levels to coordinate and ensure interoperability of various components and member States in regional and international peacekeeping and multidimensional peace support operations.”
Given the above, the SADC RPTC organised a workshop, in Madagascar and Lesotho to rollout the African Standby Force's new curricula on Peace Support Operations from 18-21 September 2023 and 22-26 January 2024 respectively.
Commandant of the RPTC, Rear Admiral Gottlieb Pandeni said the two workshops came an opportune time when the region is undertaking two Peace Support Operations, namely; the SADC Mission in Mozambique (SAMIM) and the SADC Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (SAMIDRC), which require concerted efforts to build capacity of personnel earmarked for deployment.
Rear Admiral Pandeni underscored the need for enhanced capacity and knowledge in managing peace support operations considering the complex and diverse nature of contemporary threats to peace and security that the SADC region faces.
The workshop in Madagascar was held in Antananarivo and was attended by forty-six (46) participants with 22 from Madagascar police, 22 from Madagascar Corrections, 01 from Zimbabwe military and 01 from the United Republic of Tanzania military. It aimed at capacitating participants with pre-deployment basic knowledge of the Peace Support Operations and knowledge on the roles and responsibilities of the military, police and civilian components in multi-dimensional PSOs.
The workshop held in Lesotho was attended by a total of 50 participants drawn from Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Eswatini, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, the United Republic of Tanzania, and Zimbabwe.
