The troops will form part of the African Union Stand-by Peacekeeping Force.
The regional stand-by force to be called the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Brigade will be made up of troops from members of the regional body.
South African Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota today confirmed the details of the SADC Brigade on the sidelines of the meeting of the SADC Ministerial Committee of the organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation taking place here.
"It's highly commendable that the regional chapter of the African Union Stand-by Force, the SADC Brigade, has progressed to the point where we can talk with confidence about its imminent operationalisation," he said during his speech. "By August, we will have an idea of how many troops we have, ground troops, navy personnel and medics for the stand-by force for SADC and for AU," he told journalists.
The operational centre of the Brigade will be in Gaborone, Botswana the headquarters of the SADC.
Recently, 12 of SADC defence forces held a joint military exercise called Exercise Thokgamo in Botswana, to further train and test the readiness of the force should it be needed for deployment.
The regional body now has a few issues to establish.
Minister Lekota said by August, Zimbabwe which is the host of the Regional Peacekeeping Training Centre will tell SADC about the readiness of the Brigade.
However, the outstanding element in the full operationalisation of the Brigade is the SADC Early Warning Centre.
"We need to speed up the preparation to the point, where like the SADC Brigade, we can talk of its imminent operationalisation," said Lekota. The minister said in terms of deployment of troops, the troika of the organ on politics, defence and security, will have the mandate to deploy the stand-by force where needed.
However, the troika, would have consulted with the African Union and the United Nations and the country in need of peacekeeping intervention.
The SADC Ministerial Committee meeting is looking at political, defence and security issues of the region in preparation of the SADC Heads of State and Government Summit to be held on August 15.
The committee is also discussing the draft protocol on the facilitation of movement of persons in the region.
The aim of the draft, South Africa's Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula told BuaNews was "to remove obstacles that impede the free movement of people" in the region.
The minister said although some countries had bilateral agreement on free movement of people, goods and services, it might take years, for the region to have "harmonious immigration laws."
"It's not like we have not started with the implementation, countries have bilateral agreements with each other on issues of free movement.
"It might take years before people have free movement in the region. We first have to harmonise immigration laws and put systems in place," she told BuaNews. - BuaNews
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