Johan Raath is a senior security, military-training and protection professional with four decades of combined military and private-sector experience.
He served for seven years in 1 South African Special Forces Regiment. After operational service, he was posted to the Special Forces Training Wing, qualified in military instructional methodology and became involved in the research, development and presentation of specialist training.
After leaving the South African Defence Force in 1992 at the rank of Staff Sergeant, Johan founded a specialist security training and consultancy business. His later work included Presidential Protection Unit training, close protection, high-threat private security, critical-infrastructure protection, intelligence-led risk management and the leadership of multinational security teams.
Between 2004 and 2017 he spent more than a decade deployed on the ground in Iraq. He progressed through team leader, site security manager, country security manager, senior project manager and national operations roles, supporting reconstruction, energy and port-infrastructure projects.
Since May 2023, Johan has managed a Security Operations Center supporting the Mozambique LNG project in Cabo Delgado. His work includes operational monitoring, threat-led reporting, movement tracking, communications, incident coordination and emergency-response support in a complex insurgency environment.
Alongside his operational career, Johan writes non-fiction grounded in direct experience. His books examine the realities behind Special Forces training, private military contracting and the security history of northern Mozambique.
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