Rise Mzansi is one of the many political parties criticising the latest defence budget, calling the current allocation ‘indefensible’ as the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) is, according to its own admission, 52% underfunded.
Rise Mzansi National Assembly Caucus Whip, Makashule Gana, during the Consideration of Budget Vote 23 (Defence) earlier this month told Motshekga that “The defence budget is indefensible. Minister, as a Member of Cabinet you have a duty to table and defend it, but you cannot be happy with 52% underfunding.”
During Motshekga’s maiden defence budget vote, almost all political parties – including those with diverse ideological outlooks such as the MK Party, ActionSA and Freedom Front Plus – slammed the defence budget as being inadequate. “This matter has achieved the impossible, uniting political parties across the spectrum. Speaker after speaker in the mini plenary said our armed forces need more resources,” Gana noted.
Addressing the minister, Gana said Rise Mzansi will support Motshekga in arguing for more money next year, “but you must clean the rot in the defence force. There is too much corruption there and it endangers the lives of those who serve the nation. We will support this budget for now, but next year we will refuse to be part of what future generations will see as criminal negligence in failing to protect the sovereignty of our nation.”
The United Democratic Movement (UDM) was one of the few parties to express support for the R51.8 billion defence budget, but the party’s Thandi Nontenja criticised relatively high spending on administration as opposed to operational programmes (66% of the budget goes to salaries).
Nontenja also said the decline in the Special Defence Account (SDA) from R3.6 billion in 2023/24 to R2.6 billion in 2024/25 was concerning. “Such a limited allocation to this fund is a reflection in the lack of investment in SANDF equipment and technology in recent years. We suggest that the department allocate more into the fund to ensure investment into the modernisation of the armed forces in order to keep pace with the evolving security challenges.”
The UDM also called the number of border patrol subunits (15) as being insufficient, “leading to South Africa’s deteriorating border security,” although Nontenja acknowledged National Treasury’s allocation of additional funds for border safeguarding technology to serve as a force multiplier.
Nontenja added that it was disappointing that some soldiers have been forced to buy their own uniforms, and that the Department of Military Veterans is struggling to finalise pension benefits for veterans.
The Democratic Alliance’s Maliyakhe Shelembe echoed these sentiments, saying it is disappointing that military veterans are still not treated with the dignity they deserve due to failures by the Department of Military Veterans, and the DA expects better from the Department charged with veterans’ welfare.
Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Groenewald added his voice to those criticising the funding shortcomings in the Department of Defence. “Let us say to each other that if we want to strengthen the South African National Defence Force, if we want to ensure they can do the job properly, if we want to say that we care for our soldiers, then, Honourable Minister, we must ensure that the money is there.”
Referring to the peace mission deployments to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Groenewald said, “it is totally unacceptable to send soldiers on peacekeeping missions but they don’t have the necessary military resources and support to do their job. We are actually becoming complicit to the killing of our soldiers and this is not the first time. We can go back to 2013 in the Central African Republic when 13 of our soldiers were killed in a confrontation by protecting certain leaders in Africa.”
Groenewald added that, “be assured that as also a member of cabinet and part of the security cluster you can count on my support that we can work together to ensure that we have enough funds to make our South African National Defence Force a strong and professional force.”
