Pretoria - The Department of Defence and Military Veterans will on Friday celebrate 10 years of involvement in peace missions in the Southern African Development Community and Africa.
The celebrations will commence with a colourful Military Parade in 1 South African Infantry Battalion unit lines, and later be concluded with a march past at the Bloemfontein City Hall which will be presided over by senior government official.
After a decade of participation in peace missions, South Africa's endeavour to establish peace and stability in Africa has become a key element of its foreign policy, with South Africa being one of the largest troop contributors to peace missions in Africa.
Earlier this year, the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon commended South Africa's continued role in peacekeeping and post-conflict reconstruction in Africa.
South Africa, since 2000, has been a major contributor to United Nations and African Union peacekeeping missions and has troops and military observers deployed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Darfur (in Sudan) and Nepal, among others.
