An Examination of the Environmental Factors that Undermine the Provision of Security to African Citizens by the Military

The objective of the paper is to examine the role of environmental factors to the provision of efficacious security by African military to its citizenry. The paper is positional and empirical in nature. It is further a qualitative case study design. Interviewing technique and document analysis were applied to collect data from residents of the three different countries in Africa, namely, Lesotho, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Focus is on the Southern African Militaries. The salient findings of the study include: lack of the physical and the psychological posture by the military; lack of consolidation and sophistication to cope with terrorism and immigration; delaying the prioritisation of enduring peace; stability, economic development and deepened democracy on the continent, misalignment of the enabling milieu with security for the development of the continent; failure to prioritise the prevention of mass killings to enable humanitarian action to proceed unhindered and delay by the military to divest itself of the liberation movement inclinations. The researcher recommends that these findings should be engaged in order to gyuarantee impactful peacebuilding and post-conflict reconstruction and development of the entire continent by the African military.