VUWANI – Members of all sections of the community gathered at the 15 SAI main hall last week Friday evening to bid farewell to Colonel Xolisa Poni, the Commanding Officer of this battalion.

Poni was appointed Commander of 15 SAI on July 1, 2000. Speaker after speaker hailed Poni as a popular, dedicated and efficient leader. Terence Thivhileli Lithole, who spoke on behalf of the staff, said Poni has achieved many things in the unit.

"Col Poni brought unity and taught us that cultural diversity was manageable, which seems to be a difficult thing to manage in an organisation like this one," said Lithole.

Chief Kennedy Midiyavhathu Tshivhase said he learnt a lot from Poni, both in life and in his job as a soldier. Tshivhase, who was honoured as Colonel by 15 SAI under the leadership of Poni in 2001, said they will miss Poni, "even though we are also happy that you are promoted to serve the nation at a higher level as Commander of Group 15, at Thabatshwane near Pretoria."

Chief Thivhulawi Makumbane, mayor of Thulamela, said he was humbled by the leadership skills of Poni. Makumbane said Poni was a modern leader who managed to unite the battalion with the community. This according to Makumbane is the reason why they as a municipality gave 15 SAI the freedom of the Town of Thohoyandou in 2000.

Poni acknowledged that he faced challenges of cultural diversity in 15 SAI. "There were general problems in the unit as it was pre-dominantly a Venda Defence Force. There was also a challenge of the chasm that existed between the community and members of the unit. However, I had to stabilise the situation. We started by identifying the challenges and set goals. My goals were to unite the unit, make efforts to have a human face in administration so that we can be accessible, identify and develop human resource capacity from both the civilian component and the uniform component where I had to establish leaders."

He added that they managed to re-orientate and bring 15 SAI closer to the people, which resulted in the appointment of Chief Tshivhase as Honorary Colonel. To show that the community accommodated us, the Thulamela Municipality gave us the freedom of Thohoyandou," said Poni.

He will be succeeded by Lt Col Johannes Tlharesakgotla Foke. The official handing over parade will take place on March 7, at 15 SAI.