In spite of Presidential assurances and some ad hoc allocations, South Africa’s defence budget will shrink by R2 billion next year.
This is according to the 2026 Estimates of National Expenditure (ENEs) published by National Treasury on Wednesday alongside Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s Budget Speech.
The 2025/26 defence budget (Vote 23) stands at R59 billion, up from R57.9 billion the year before, but will drop down to R57.6 billion in 2026/27 before increasing slightly to R59.8 billion in 2027/28, and R61.7 billion in 2028/29. This represents a 1.5% average growth rate, which is well below inflation and represents a decrease in real terms.
This “is due to a sharp decrease in spending in the Regional Security subprogramme in the Force Employment programme because of the phased withdrawal of South African National Defence Force troops deployed in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo through Operation Thiba,” Vote 23 read. Operation Thiba was in support of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (SAMIDRC), which was terminated in March last year. South Africa’s contribution to the United Nations mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) is also being terminated.
The real term decline in the defence budget goes against promises by President and Commander-in-Chief Cyril Ramaphosa at Armed Forces Day commemorations on 21 February. Ramaphosa acknowledged the underfunding of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) over many years and pledged additional financial allocations to turn the situation around, as well as matching resources with missions.
In his speech he said funding of the SANDF has been tapering down over a number of years, but this “can no longer continue”. As a result, the military must be repositioned to make it stronger, with resources matching operational missions.
“Given the critical importance of the SANDF to our security, sovereignty and development, additional resources have been allocated from the budget”, to equip the SANDF to execute its task of defending the people of South Africa, Ramaphosa said. “This is a targeted intervention to close funding gaps, improve efficiencies and ensure our operational ambitions are matched by our resources.”
Godongwana said that R2.7 billion has been added to defence over the three-year medium term period to improve operations, including to maintain the South African Air Force’s fighter capability: defence will receive an additional R857 million in 2026/27, another R899 million in 2027/28, and R942 million in 2028/29.
“In addition, we have allocated R1 billion to the police service, and another R1 billion to the SANDF, through the CARA [Criminal Assets Recovery Account] fund for the fight against organised crime,” the Minister said.
This is in line with Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address announcement that the SANDF would be deployed alongside police to fight illegal mining and gangsterism in the Eastern Cape, Western Cape, and Gauteng.
Additional allocations
Some good news for the SA Air Force is that an additional R1.4 billion is allocated over the next three years in the Air Defence programme for the maintenance of the South African Air Force’s fighter capability. “These funds are expected to ensure that 12 000 hours are flown each year over the medium term, thereby strengthening the fighter fleet’s readiness for urgent internal and external deployments,” the ENEs stated. For 2024/25, just 6 210 flying hours were flown.
For the SA Navy, a total of R1.6 billion is allocated over the next three years for the maintenance of vessels. “The department aims to maintain the number of hours at sea at 8 000 in each year over the MTEF period to align performance with the available budget. The Maritime Combat Capability subprogramme in the Maritime Defence programme has a budget of R3.7 billion over the medium term to carry out these activities,” Vote 23 read.
Funding has hampered hours at sea due to the non-availability of serviceable vessels – the SA Navy spent only 3 717 hours at sea in 2024/25, against an 8 000 hour target.
During the period ahead, the Department of Defence will continue to combat maritime threats, including maritime crime and piracy, terrorism, illegal fishing, the smuggling of contraband, the illegal dumping of toxic waste, and uncontrolled migration at sea, according to the ENEs.
The South African Navy plans to conduct maritime border patrols and combat piracy particularly in the Mozambique Channel through the deployment of frigate), submarines and offshore patrol vessels to keep South Africa’s maritime space safe and support the execution of the Southern African Development Community’s maritime security strategy, Vote 23 continued.
Travel and subsistence funds are going to be reprioritised over the next three years from across the SANDF and allocated to the Maritime Defence programme to strengthen the maritime reaction squadron, “a specialised unit of the South African Navy responsible for providing combat-ready amphibious, diving and small-boat capabilities for peacekeeping and humanitarian operations, and for the procurement of South African Navy ammunition.” R338 million will be reprioritised.
The South African Army will be getting new vehicles and technology for border safeguarding. These force multipliers are “expected to increase the range of the borderline under protection and help prevent illegal border crossings, smuggling and other activities that could compromise national security.”
“The department will also continue to support the South African Police Service to address internal security challenges, including the protection of critical government infrastructure and national key points, and operations related to illegal mining, public unrest and the 2026 local government elections. These activities are carried out through allocations amounting to R4.2 billion over the next three years in the Support to the People subprogramme in the Force Employment programme,” according to the defence vote.
SA Army personnel will benefit from an allocation of R255 million over the next three years to procure new uniforms as the SANDF rolls out its new camouflage scheme.
Compensation of employees
The spending on the compensation of employees (CoE) accounts for 65% of the defence budget, although this is likely to be higher as the SANDF consistently overspends on salaries. As a result, the 2026 ENEs stated that “To ease the pressure on the department’s personnel budget, over the next three years, it will continue to manage commuted overtime within the South African Military Health Service by ensuring that it does not exceed 30% of each employee’s total annual salary package and allow natural attrition to ensure that total personnel numbers do not exceed an average strength of 74 000.” At present, personnel headcount is 70 000.
To further manage personnel costs, the department plans to exit 227 eligible personnel hired in terms of the Public Service Act (1994) by the end of 2026/27 through the government-wide early retirement programme, which allows retirement without penalties on pension benefits. The department is set to receive an additional R76.1 million in 2026/27 in its budget for transfers to households to make provision for early retirement and voluntary exit programmes.
Commenting on the latest budget, Deputy Defence and Military Veterans Minister Bantu Holomisa noted Treasury’s efforts to provide additional funding through various means, but warned that “the resources provided do not even come close to the directive given by the President to spend 1.5% of GDP on Defence. It’s not only a decrease in real terms but in normal terms as well.” Defence spending is currently about .8% of GDP.
Defence analyst Ricardo Teixeira noted that the current budget is a 5.14% decrease in nominal terms, and a far cry from the promised 1.5%. “At this rate, SANDF will have zero capabilities left by the end of the decade. Treasury seems to treat defence with disdain.”
