Abstract:
The South African National Defence Force (SANDF), as a member state of the United
Nations, the African Union and the Southern African Development Community, has
certain continental and regional responsibilities. It is foreseen that the main areas of
influence and operations of the SANDF will be situated in Africa and are referred to
as the African battlespace, which holds challenges for deploying military commanders.
We argue that the elevated levels of complexity and uncertainty in this context make
mission command, as a command approach, especially relevant. The conceptual study
on which this article is based, found that mission command is highly suitable to promote
a command culture that is flexible yet robust, fosters unity of command at all levels, and
simultaneously provides subordinate commanders with the freedom to act decisively
when new opportunities are identified. For mission command to be applied in the African
battlespace, sensemaking is an important cognitive skill that should form an integral part
of the psychological preparation and training of commanders. Recommendations are
made for sensemaking development in the current training of commanders in the SANDF.
