South Africa: The Chief of the South African Army presided over the promotion of Major General Mninimzi Sizani, the newly assigned Chief Director of Operations at the Joint Operations Division Headquarters on Tuesday, 24 October 2023.
The profound Officer has held various posts within the South African National Defence Force, including being responsible for Departmental Security at Defence Intelligence from December 2013.
Subsequently, in 2017, he was transferred to the Permanent Mission of the Republic of South Africa as South African Defence Advisor to the United Nations. In 2022, he successfully completed the tour of duty and returned to Defence Intelligence as Director of Special Acquisition.
His highlights of serving in the Republic of South Africa Permanent Mission in the United States of America, New York City, are the following:
• Successfully negotiated with the Tanzanian Defence Advisor for the retention of the Force Intervention as a coherent force.
• Participated in the Security Council from 2019-2020 in the Military Staff Committee.
• Lobbied for the Republic of South Africa to host the 6th International Peace Keeping Technology Symposium held at CSIR in South Africa which was the first to be hosted by an African country, the biggest ever with more than 300 delegates from different countries around the world.
• He also managed to increase the Republic of South Africa’s gender representation at United Nations Headquarters.
• Undertook Southern African Development Countries (SADC) Defence Advisors Assessments of the Force Intervention Brigade (FIB) and MUNUSCO as a leading delegation.
Finally, Major General Sizani humbly thanks the South African National Defence Force Leadership, members of the Diplomatic Core (Team South Africa-UNSC) and all colleagues who propelled him to this level. He also put it on record that he will continue to serve the country and its Armed Forces with courage, discipline and pride.