The Chief of the South African National Defence Force (C SANDF), General Solly Shoke, will convene an urgent media briefing on Tuesday, 31 July 2018, at DOD Log Support Formation, corner of Snake Valley Rd (M24) and College Ave, Lyttelton (Tek Base) in Pretoria at 10:00. General Shoke will make use of this opportunity to address the misinformation that has been peddled as fact by certain media houses on alleged issues pertaining to the country’s military. Some of the recent misinformation that sought to sow confusion about what the military is about has to do with the following:

• The baseless claims of the suspension of Chief of the SA Air Force, Lieutenant General Zimpande Msimang. 
• The unsubstantiated false story on an ‘averted coup’ in South Africa. 
• The incident pertaining to a charted aircraft to Cuba that was allegedly carrying arms to that Caribbean Island nation.

General Shoke has the constitutional responsibility to articulate the official position of our country’s military by virtue of being Chief of the SANDF under the constitutional restraints that our Republic’s founders envisaged when they set off to create a diverse but united military that takes no sides but defends the interests of all South Africans from all backgrounds without favour. The Chief of the SANDF will also touch on our soldiers’ border safeguarding operation termed Operation CORONA, impact of budget cuts as well as the general status of the SANDF. He will also field questions from the media on salient issues that the media landscape has been grappling with and fuelling a robust public discourse on the state of our military and how it is positioning itself in the ever-changing economic environment that our country finds itself in. the sandf RESTRICTED 2 General Solly Shoke will brief the media and be supported by the Chiefs of Services and Divisions of the SANDF. The media briefing will also afford journalists from outside Gauteng an opportunity to be part of the deliberations through a co-ordinated live stream. Editors, reporters, journalists, media commentators and security sector analysts are encouraged to attend and engage the SANDF on burning issues that have dominate the media space in recent times.