Cuban technicians fix thousands of SANDF South African army vehicles.

According to Sarah Lesedi in Military Africa, close to a hundred Cuban military mechanics and have refurbished and repaired more than 10,000 Samil and similar vehicles of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF). Brigadier-General BG Mtsweni of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) Logistics Division’s SA Forces Institute (SAFI) commended the 10-year life to date of the Cuban-South African defence bilateral agreement.
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Samil 100 armoured trucks (Picture source: Army Recognition)

Around 7,750 South African Army vehicles, ranging from Samil 20 trucks and Samil 100 armoured trucks to Mamba personnel carriers, Mfezi ambulances, and recovery vehicles have been given a new lease on life, Sarah Lesedi reports. Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces specialist personnel were deployed at vehicle parks and military workshops sited at, among others, Potchefstroom and Wallmannsthal under Project Thusano for the maintenance, repair, and refurbishment of military vehicles.

The SANDF had earlier complained that it was being charged excessively by local companies for doing the work and there was insufficient in-house capacity. Cuban personnel also mentored and provide mechanic-type training to SA Army Technical Services Corps (TSC) personnel.

Samil 20 (Picture source: Wikipedia)

However, Sarah Lesedi writes, a total of R277,625,161.40 has been expended on Thusano. Project Thusano director, Brigadier-General Joseph Tyhalisi, explained the presence of the Cubans: “The project was the result of a decline in the core capability of our technical service. In assessing this, we decided to look at what kept the Cubans going through the years of the US trade embargo. Even now, they have vehicles manufactured around 1940 still running. They also manufactured spares and did not rely on supplies from any country.”

The Cuban contingent has, in addition to its numerous taskings across three services, also done skills transfer. This, according to the Ministerial reply, saw 1,386 SANDF personnel forming part of the project’s skills transfer component with 319 of them receiving “official qualifications” and 483 transferred back to and working at their original units.

Mamba APC (Picture source: Army Recognition)