Battle lines are seemingly drawn ahead of the 2024 fight for defence funding, with National Treasury (NT) on one hand warning the powers that be in the seventh administration’s defence ministry to be wary of overspending, particularly when it comes to cost of employees (CoE), and a Parliamentary defence oversight committee wanting “proper funding” for the SA National Defence Force (SANDF).
With Parliament set to be officially opened on Thursday (18 July, Mandela Day) already staffed oversight committees – including the Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans (PCDMV) – met to hear and discuss departmental budgets. Minister Angie Motshekga will have her turn later today (Monday, 15 July) when the defence budget is tabled for the National Assembly (NA) sitting in the Good Hope Chambers of the Parliamentary precinct.
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana, following up on a letter to Motshekga’s predecessor Thandi Modise, points out to Motshekga her Department of Defence (DoD) has “in recent years, overspent its budget for CoE, leading to the accumulation of irregular expenditure of R10.1 billion”. Government’s keeper of the purse strings further informs the former basic education minister “unauthorised expenditure of R2.9 billion” was incurred in 2022/23 with “a potential unauthorised expenditure of R3.5 billion in 2023/24”.
“These figures indicate that the department’s pressure on compensation of employees is unsustainable, as it is displacing funding for other departmental expenditures. This situation also poses a fiscal risk to the broader public finances,” Godongwana’s letter informs his Cabinet colleague, adding NT was asked to “condone” DoD accumulated irregular expenditure emanating from CoE overspend.
The finance minister maintains a long-term solution is essential and notes two measures to be attended to by “authorities including the department’s accounting officer” (Acting Secretary for Defence, Thobekile Gamede). One reads: “The DoD must take part in the spending review of its cost drivers one of which is compensation of employees’ budget, which will be conducted by the NT” and the other stating SANDF personnel eligible for retirement “must take part in the government-wide early retirement without penalisation of pension benefits”.
On the opposite side of the fence is the PCDMV under the chairmanship of Dakota Legoete which wants “proper funding” for the SANDF as a matter of “utmost urgency”. The PCDMV met for the first time last Friday to consider and adopt budget vote reports on the DoD, Department of Military Veterans (DMV) and associated entities including Armscor and the Castle Control Board (CCB).
On the thorny and long-standing issue of defence funding, Legoete’s committee – a Parliamentary Communication Services statement has it – expressed “deep concern” about the SANDF deployment in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as part of SAMIDRC (Southern African Development Community Mission in DRC) which “remains unfunded”.
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana, in his 12 July letter to Motshekga, said he has authorised the use of funds from the National Revenue Fund to defray expenditure to the amount of R2.1 billion for the South African Development Community Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo through Operation Thiba. “A report on the amounts so authorised will be submitted to Parliament and the Auditor-General and the expenditure will be included in the next adjustments.”
“Furthermore, I have approved the inclusion of the expenditure in the 2024 Adjustment Appropriation Bill in terms of section 30(2)(d) of the PFMA to the amount of R750 million for the South African Development Community Mission in Mozambique (SAMIM) through Operation Vikela,” Godongwana continued.
“The report of the committee indicates that the challenges of limited funding and lack of logistical support continue to put the lives of members of the SANDF at risk,” the PCDMV sated. “The committee has identified several critical areas that need immediate attention and that effective collaboration is essential to address funding and operational requirements. This includes not only proposals for engagement between the DoD and NT, but also engagements within Parliament between the committee and other committees that include the Joint Standing Committee on Finance (JSCF),” the statement reads in part.
The PCDMV noted the CoE irregular expenditure, and “will further engage on employee costs during the Seventh Parliament”.
