South Africa's and Africa's armed forces play a key role in guaranteeing the conditions for development. So affirmed Department of Defence chief of defence policy, strategy and planning Dr Thobekile Gamede in Pretoria on Thursday.

Closing the 2013 South African Joint Air Defence Symposium, on behalf of the Secretary of Defence, she also called for Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries to commit funding to develop local defence systems.

"Our continent will only prosper if our armed forces take collective responsibility for the safeguarding of our resources and the protection of our people by defending our territorial integrity and sovereignty," she stated. "This goes hand in hand with using the wealth in our powerhouse of natural resources to ensure the development, economic growth and wellbeing of our people."

She noted that, in a democracy, the armed forces supported both the government and the people, because the government represented the people. And the requirements of the armed forces could also be used to help develop local industry, through the indigenisation of equipment, including air defence systems.

She referred to the government's Industrial Policy Action Plan and the Department of Trade and Industry's objective of developing a dynamic and globally competitive South African industrial sector. Gamede further noted the SADC's Mutual Defence Pact, the objectives of which include the development of mutual cooperation.

"To give impetus to this plan and pact we must fully support the notion of jointly embarking on a programme of indigenisation of air defence equipment, amongst other initiatives, in the future," she asserted. "To achieve this will, however, require commitment and 'buy-in' from our regional political and defence leaders. To ensure that we have defence equipment tailor-made for the SADC's unique requirements, it is of the utmost importance that we mutually agree on designs and specifications. Most importantly, we must commit ourselves financially by allocating appropriate budgets and signing formal agreements before we approach industry to embark on programmes of research, development and production of the desired joint air defence indigenous equipment."

Developing indigenous systems should result in the region having a joint air defence capability that is affordable, operational and sustainable. This will allow effective interoperability and joint operations. In turn, this will allow rapid and efficient responses to "rising challenges".

"The challenges that we face in the region, continentally and globally can be better resolved by the strengthening and deepening of ties between the military, industry, research institutes and our partners both in Africa and internationally," averred Gamede. "Besides air defence there are many other challenges that can be collectively resolved with the determination and commitment of our people."