The South
African Navy Spousal Forum is a nongovernmental
organisation (NGO) that is mandated to bring together
all spouses of serving naval officers. The organisation
mandate is to conduct charity work and support the Chief
of the Navy’s community responsibility programmes. On
behalf of Mrs S. Shoke, the spouse of the Chief of SANDF,
the South African Navy Spousal Forum hosted the DOD
Spousal Forum function on Saturday, 30th June 2012 at
Naval Mess Pretoria.
The members who were present at the function
The event had
a great turnout and among the guests was an intelligent
young girl, Ontlametse Phalatse, who is suffering from a
rare disease, called Progeria. The Chair of DOD Spousal
Forum, Mrs Shoke, youth from Soweto and the members of
the DOD Spousal Forum as a whole gave a breath of life
to the event. Mrs Mudimu officially opened the event and
welcomed everyone present. She spoke about the navy and
its role as most people often have their own perceptions
as to what the navy does. She particularly talked about
SAS DRAKENSBERG, the replenishment ship deployed in
anti-piracy mission in Mozambique. The start of the
event was blessed with a scripture reading and a prayer
by Chaplain M.S. Manganye who read from the book of
Timothy 4:12.
This was
followed by a series of speakers who gave different
presentations about the South African Navy. The Navy
Recruiting Officer, S Lt P.M. Kuhlase, explained to the
youth about the South African Navy career opportunities
and requirements. Sea A.F. Zulu briefed the audience
about the capabilities of diving and their day to day
roles. PO G.T. Phatudi from the fire fighting department
enlightened the youth about fire fighting in the navy.
She mentioned that fire fighting is not only a male’s
work as many people think. LS P.D. Diale shared her
experience with the young people as to what being a chef
in the navy entails. She gave a very good advice to the
youth that chefs can also go as far as they want in the
navy and actually get a chance to explore the world.
Health is one of the most important things that one
should take it very serious. The members were also
informed on oral hygiene and about hygiene courses
available in the South African Navy.
Cdr N.
Mahlangu, the first black woman to qualify for a bridge
watchkeeping certificate gave words of encouragement to
the young South Africans by sharing her experience in
the navy. Cdr Mahlangu said “don’t allow any obstacle to
be on your way, become what you want to be”.
The bright
Ontlametse Phalatse, as the guest speaker of the day,
gave an inspiring message to the youth that if you
believe in God, everything is going to be possible. R
Adm (JG) K. Litchfield-Tshabalala, the speaker of the
day gave a vivid message to everyone that the young
people are the mirror of their parents. The Admiral’s
speech emphasised on change. She highlighted that if you
change your attitude and expectations you will then be
able to change your behaviour. She advised the youth to
have a vision and work hard to develop one’s brain.
Again pleaded to the youth to finish whatever they
started. Admiral said “by not finishing what you started
is an example of ill discipline”. The message to the
youth was that the youth must think about economic
liberation and progress in life.
AB N. Dimba
entertained the guests with soulful music and Ms N.
Dlamini, the youth leader gave words of thanks. The
young people continued to entertain the crowd with
music. Mrs Shoke thanked everyone for attending and
special thanks to Mrs Mudimu for the initiative she made
to bring everyone together. She then encouraged the
members of the spousal forum to keep on doing the good
job by saying “BASHUMI KE BONA” (simply meaning we are
workers), her message to the youth was ‘take the spear
run with it and do something for the country’. In return
Mrs Mudimu gave a vote of thanks to everyone and in
particular to the sponsors Mrs Rosé from Old Mutual, Mrs
Mitchele (Gijima), Mrs Mutsi (MTN), BAE, Denel
(Decorators), and the Officer in charge of the mess. She
also gave special thanks to the Public Relations
Department, especially to Cdr P.Tshabalala and WO1 W
Humphreys-Naidoo for doing a tremendous job in
organising the function.
Members of
the spousal forums who received presents were:
Mrs S Shoke,
Mrs Masonto, Mrs Malinga of Joint Operations, and R Adm
Litchfield-Tshabalala. Ontlametse Phalatse received a
cheque from the spousal forum representative, Mrs Mudimu.
