The South African Border War - The United Nations Security Council Resolutions
South Africa started raising eyebrows early on due to its apartheid policies and refusal to transition South West Africa to independence.
In 1964, United Nations Security Council Resolution 191 was adopted, reiterating previous requests made by the UN security council and further condemning apartheid with an arms embargo.
In 1970, UN Security Council Resolution 282 was adopted further emphasizing the previous arms embargo.
By 1977, after the Operation Savannah interventions into Angola and the heavy handed approach during the 1976 "Soweto uprising" the United Nations had had enough.
Resolution 418 was unanimously adopted and now the arms embargo was mandatory.
The embargo was not quite as effective as was hoped. Due to its slow escalating nature, in the decade preceding, many methods had been established to circumvent it.
Local production had a good head start, as could be seen from excellent locally designed and manufactured weaponry.
The Eland, Ratel, Buffel and Casspir were just a couple of many world class locally produced armaments that would be locally designed and produced... as they say necessity is the mother of invention.
The Eland MK7(first produced in 1962)
Responsible for so much carnage in Operation Savannah.
By User:Katangais , CC BY 2.5, Link
The Ratel (first produced in 1976)
The Buffel(first produced in 1978)
By Bob Adams from George, South Africa - Buffel armoured personnel carrier, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link
The Casspir(first produced in 1979)
By Borisgorelik , CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
Later smuggling, utilization of foreign specialist and manufacturing under license would all be methods employed to circumvent the arms embargo.
Ultimately South Africa would end up falling behind, especially in the fighter aircraft department with a clear loss of air superiority to the MIG-23's in the closing years of the war.
Previous posts in this series can be found at the bottom of this post:
The South African Border War - 1976, The end of a chapter and the beginning of a new phase.
The South African Border War - Mines, Mines did I say mines?
The South African Border War - Enter the Ratel
The Buffel was a beast. I remember when my dad was serving in the army he would every now and again take me for a spin in one. Driving in The Buffel eating ration packs, i can still taste it. Good memories.
Looks like we had the same experience as a kid. ;) Great profile, I'm now following you.
Follow me i follback
Love the photos and make me think back of a time in my life long long ago!!
very,beautifull,babe
@gavvet,
"The Buffel" I know it :D We are using this vehicles in our country internal war against terrorism! Great article and thank you very much for sharing it with us!
Cheers~
I've personally driven in the bottom three vehicles, remembering the awe as a kid in driving in one of these magnificent machines. I know the Ratel and Buffel are still in commotion in the South African National Defence Force (SANDF). Not sure about the other two?
Fascinating stuff for this import to South Africa. I saw my first Casspir in 1991 somewhere in Southern Africa and was duly intimidated, then the denizens climbed out and I was seriously intimidated. Thanks for an informative post which brought back humbling memories.
yea thats nice
@gavvet Haha, i have very different memories of the Casspir, fond memories of being chased around ape Town Campus in the late 80's and feeling the tingling of the pinch from rubber bullets, I still have 2 indentation on my lower buttocks. lol.
I dont get it what was the point of this war?
people still ask that
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"The Buffel" I know it :D We are using this vehicles in our country internal war against terrorism! Great article and thank you very much for sharing it with us!
Hey @gavvet
I like your style of writing, i tried to give it a go... if you have time would you mind popping around and reading this one and give me your thoughts? Maybe let me know what to focus on and where to improve.
https://steemit.com/war/@byronviljoen/king-of-the-sky-f-14-tomcat
A lot impressive, destroying anything machines. Its a pity countries have to show their muscles by machines which could kill thousands of people. In many cases harmless civilians..... will there be a solution, or is the war business to big ....
I agree with you. Peace lovers cannot stand to see them. They are equal to destruction.