What started over five years ago as an effort to create gainful employment for part-time soldiers whose only income came from call-ups has now seemingly become a project embraced by the landward force of the SA National Defence Force (SANDF).
4 Logistic Support Unit of the SA Army Support Formation is based at Cape Town’s Fort Ikapa and, at the beginning of this year, took the first vegetable harvest from a garden set up as per the Project Koba-Tlala blueprint, the handiwork of Brigadier General Gerhard Kamffer and his team.
“The motivation for starting the garden was to look into food security, and the idea is to get the garden to a point where it can sustain Reserve Force members as well as some veterans and later involve women in the community. The Koba-Tlala project is now a success and has produced many vegetables with input and care of unit members,” Private Pearl Zubane of the SA Army Support Formation reported. She makes the point that the Fort Ikapa garden is “part of Koba-Tlala that is supported by the whole SA Army through different projects.”
From humble origins, the Koba-Tlala concept evolved into what will become a production brigade supplying fresh produce to military messes nationally.
Last May, Kamffer told Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Defence (JSCD) he saw Koba-Tlala evolving into a unit which will supply, primarily fresh produce, to the overall national defence force as part of a self-sustainability drive.
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