THE SILENT CRY FOR RANKS: THE DEPRESSING RATE OF PROMOTIONS IN THE SANDF

BY THE SENTINEL BRIEF | SOUTH AFRICA

The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) stands as a hyper-professional and revered military institution, fielding a highly skilled and experienced fighting force of 75,000 active personnel. Its soldiers are cross-trained, competitive, and exceptionally resourceful ,an elite core shaped by years of operational deployments and rigorous training pipelines.

At the heart of this force is Africa’s most professional and battle-tested Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO) corps, leading with grit, discipline, and tactical excellence. Augmented by sharp, competitive junior and senior officers, the SANDF’s leadership is instinctively strategic, trained to think under pressure and lead relentlessly in the heat of battle. These men and women are often pushed beyond conventional limits, emerging as ingenious and unbreakable leaders forged in both theory and conflict.

Behind this operational capability is a strong, organized military education system, one that forms the backbone of the SANDF’s professionalism:

The SA Military Academy (Saldanha) , Ranked 10th globally, rivaling established global powers, this institution produces officers with deep academic grounding in leadership, military science, and strategic thinking. It is the intellectual engine room where future SANDF leaders are made.
Lohatla Combat Training Centre ,Spanning 158,000 hectares, Lohatla is the second-largest combat training centre in the world, after the U.S. Army’s Nevada National Training Center. It enables large-scale brigade-level operations under realistic, live-fire conditions.
The South African Army College (Thaba Tshwane) One of Africa’s oldest and most respected military education institutions, it specializes in senior officer and NCO development. It has trained officers from across the globe, including from South Korea, Japan, the United States, Pakistan, India, Saudi Arabia, China, Ghana, Rwanda and beyond

But behind all this capability, loyalty, and discipline lies a quiet frustration.
A frustration that grows louder with every year spent in the same rank.
In this edition of The Sentinel Brief, we expose one of the SANDF’s deepest cracks: the crisis of rank stagnation. we ask: What’s holding back the very people who carry the SANDF on their backs?

Trapped at the Top of Their Game

Imagine being a lance corporal in your late 30s. You’ve served on the frontlines in DRC, Sudan, Mozambique, Burundi, or even Central African Republic, slept under enemy fire, carried comrades out of ambushes, trained juniors, and never failed a deployment. But your rank? Still the same.

In the SANDF, this is not the exception. It’s the rule.

The average age of an infantry soldier is 38. The average sergeant? Nearly 50. Many NCOs like Officers have spent 15 to 20 years in the same rank. Not because they lack skill. Not because they lack discipline. But because the promotion pipeline has collapsed under its own weight.

Merit isn’t the issue. Opportunity is.

It is so demoralizing even for me to look at a 46-year-old lance corporal on sentry duty when he could be a warrant officer or a Major who should have been a Colonel 5 years ago . I personally know brilliant mid to senior officers who by now should have been in the general officer ranks. In my time in Thaba Tshwane, I knew people who sat with the rank of full colonel for 10 to 15 years,others even 20. Those who were at least recognized were promoted to brigadier general. A few of them possessed great military knowledge and strategic capability, individuals who are among South Africa's brightest military minds.

The Cost of Loyalty

The SANDF soldier is loyal to a fault. They don’t mutiny. They don’t abandon posts. They stay, serve, and carry out orders even when the system fails them.

The reason the SANDF functions with little to no budget lies in the professionalism, skill and dedication of the South African soldier. Had it not been for that, the SANDF would have been like a ragtag joke of a defence force like other African Countries. It is the NCOs and junior leaders who plug the gaps, stretch resources, and still find a way to win.

That’s not sustainable.!

We’re not just risking morale, we’re draining it.!

No Budget, No Movement

With over 60% of the SANDF’s budget going to personnel costs, there’s little left to incentivize promotion. Vacancies aren’t created fast enough. Retirement structures are clogged. And so, promotions sit in limbo.

Soldiers wait years, sometimes decades, for movement. The few who do rise through the ranks often do so only after their leadership has retired, died, or left the service. It’s a waiting game. And it’s killing ambition.

What message does that send to the 28-year-old corporal who leads his squad with battlefield precision, or the 35 year old Lieutenant leading his platoon with low casualty and high mission success, what about the 56 year old Lieutenant Colonel who make miracles with the little resources to make the operation a victory ?

What do we tell the sergeant who’s too senior to deploy but too junior to retire?

It is so saddening to hear members say "I would be lucky and blessed to be promoted" , promotion should not be grounded on luck and blessings, but rather Service, performance, professionalism, dedication and identified talent. it should be systematic, not random.

The World Moves, We Wait

During my time at the South African Army College in Thaba Tshwane, I had the privilege of speaking with a Lieutenant Colonel from the Ghana Armed Forces who was undergoing senior command training. I asked him candidly how long it took for a Ghanaian infantry officer to make it from second lieutenant to captain. His answer was striking: “About five to six years. If you are sharp, you will be recognized.” He also added that even NCOs in Ghana are identified early and given responsibilities that match their potential not just their years served.

He expressed confusion when I told him that in South Africa, a corporal might wait 10–15 years to become a sergeant, and that some majors had been waiting since the early 2000s to be considered for lieutenant colonel. His final words stuck with me: “You have a brilliant army, but why do you punish your best performers?” That observation hit deep, he continued to add that in his further observation, our soldiers are seriously demoralized, the relationship between the senior leadership and the soldiers is disconnected.

In the U.S. Army, it takes four to five years to make sergeant. In the UK, about eight. In South Africa, some soldiers take two decades to climb the same distance,or never reach it at all.

Even in African peers like Kenya, young officers move up or out. In Botswana, their lean force ensures performance is seen and rewarded. But in South Africa, talent often sits idle until it expires.

In the U.S. Army, British Army, Kenya and Botswana an officer in infantry can start off as a second lieutenant and within six years make captain. In South Africa, for example, to make captain would take at least 10 years if you’re lucky, seven and if you have connections, maybe four. A prime example is in 44 Parachute Regiment and various infantry formations.

However, SAMHS and the Air Force have recently gotten it right. I personally know someone who joined SAMHS 12 years ago with just a matric at the time. He was promoted to lance corporal, then corporal, and eventually underwent the Officer Formative Course. Today, he is a major on his path to lieutenant colonel before the age of 38.

In the infantry formations, it’s a different story. To make major would take you a leg and an arm.

The bureaucratic excuse is that there is not enough money for promotions. This is simply not true. Botswana, with a defence budget of $511.93 million and a higher labor cost than South Africa, promotes with efficiency. Meanwhile, South Africa with a budget five times larger than that of Botswana and a lower labor cost is struggling.

The Seniority Trap

The Seniority Promotion Policy isn’t working. In fact, it’s a morale killer. Imagine being a corporal waiting to be promoted to sergeant. You’ve never had a disciplinary charge. You are a high performer with multiple operational deployments and dozens of courses to strengthen your experience. You’re the best candidate to be promoted just to be told you need to wait in line. In terms of seniority, you are number 43. Will you ever be promoted? This is crushing.

The SANDF has a serious morale management deficiency. If there were alternative security careers in the private sector specifically targeting SANDF members, many would leave en masse. Not because they don’t love their career, but because the working conditions make staying in the Defence Force unlovable.

Another issue is placement. The DOD knows you’ve lived in Cape Town your whole life. Your family has made a life there. Just to be told that if you want promotion, you need to relocate to a remote town in Venda or Hoedspruit. We must understand the socioeconomic conditions of our country access to quality education, health care, and safety for your family. Many would refuse such relocation not because they don’t want the rank, but because it is a serious downgrade in quality of life.

A Force Worth Fixing

The SANDF isn’t broken. It’s burdened.

Its people are sharp. Its training world-class. Its leadership proven. But the system must move. Rank must reward performance, not just patience. Age should bring wisdom, not frustration.

This force is worth fixing because it still functions with precision under conditions that would collapse others. Because the South African soldier is still standing. Still saluting. Still fighting.

It’s time the system saluted them back.

The Way Forward

To fix this crisis of stagnation, the SANDF needs to implement reforms that prioritize performance and sustainability. First, develop and enforce clear time-in-rank policies that align with international norms. A soldier should not be trapped in one rank for decades. Second, introduce dynamic personnel mobility programs such as early retirement incentives or lateral movement to civilian departments to unclog the top ranks and open space for rising talent.

Third, adopt a promotion points system similar to the U.S. model, where professional development, operational deployments, academic qualifications, and leadership evaluations are all weighted in promotion boards. This ensures promotions are transparent and merit-based.

Fourth, leadership development must become intentional. Brigadier Generals should be selected not based on years in service but on strategic competence, mentorship legacy, and institutional impact. Fifth, restructure the placement policy to take into account the socioeconomic impact of relocation on families offering incentives, housing, or remote leadership options where feasible.

And finally, morale recovery must be an operational priority: soldiers need to feel respected, seen, and invested in. The SANDF cannot afford to keep losing its brightest to bureaucracy.