One of two Parliamentary oversight committees specifically tasked with defence and military veterans is up and running with, as yet, no sign of the Joint Standing Committee on Defence (JSCD) being constituted.
The Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans (PCDMV), drawn from the National Assembly (NA) benches, has to date met on a number of occasions since the government of national unity (GNU) now in its second Parliamentary term, was established, and undertaken two oversight visits. In one meeting, chair Dakota Legoete dressed the Department of Military Veterans (DMV) down for not doing what it’s supposed to – provide services ranging from pensions and housing through to healthcare – for South Africa’s old soldiers.
The oversight visits – to 9 SA Infantry (SAI) Battalion in the Cape Town metropole and SA Navy (SAN) fleet headquarters in Simon’s Town – gave committee members their first SA National Defence Force (SANDF) hands-on opportunities.
Another familiarisation effort saw the PCDMV receiving an induction briefing from the Auditor-General (AG).
Among others, the committee heard the top contributors to irregular and unauthorised expenditure in Minister Angie Motshekga’s area of responsibility in the 2022/23 financial year was the Department of Defence (DoD) with R553.9 million and the SANDF a long way back on R38 million. The DoD audit was qualified on “completeness of irregular expenditure” in 2022/23 as well as the previous four years and the DMV was similarly qualified in the same financial year.
On the impact of unauthorised expenditure, staff from AG Tsakani Maluleke’s office has it all five pillars of procurement – equitable, fair, cost efficient, transparent and competitive – were “breached”. Two examples are South African procurement law not followed for the Cuba/South Africa bilateral Project Thusano involving R308 million and the St George’s Hotel (now the SA National War College) lease agreement not in line with “a transparent procurement process”.
The JSCD, defenceWeb was told by a Parliamentary insider on condition of anonymity, is in the same boat as other joint committees. “We don’t know – none of the joint committees has been established,” he said. The JSCD, under the jurisdiction of Parliament’s Joint Rules Committee, is constitutionally tasked to investigate and make recommendations on the budget, functioning, organisation, armaments, policy, morale and state of preparedness of the SANDF.
The disappearance of a dedicated public enterprises ministry for State-owned enterprises (SOEs) including Denel, from President Cyril Ramaphosa’s GNU Cabinet saw SOE oversight responsibility move to Minister in The Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni. The change meant the end of the Portfolio Committee on Public Enterprises (PCPE) with the Denel oversight function now appearing to be the responsibility of the Portfolio Committee on Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (PCME) if a presentation last month (August) providing an insight into the defence and technology conglomerate is any benchmark.
Included was an overview of its turnaround status from, among others, inefficient operations, low morale, high legacy debt and loss of market and strategic capabilities as well as “no investment in skills, infrastructure and ICT (information and communication technologies)”. Now, the PCME heard, retrenchments and restructuring are complete, “critical suppliers” debt is settled and “cost reductions” to the tune of R433 million annually for employees and a further R112 million a year for ICT have been achieved.
“Denel,” the PCME presentation reads in part, “has stabilised, secured some critical skills, brought operations online and delivered on key programmes”.
Listed are SA Army G5 and G6 upgrades; progress to completing the first phase of the SA Army infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) programme (Project Hoefyster); completion of the Malaysian AV8 programme (turrets); “ramp up of supply of barrels, spares and product support into the market”; restarting the A-Darter programme for the SAAF (SA Air Force) “against a revised schedule”; “successful demonstration of upgrades to Umkhonto systems in Finland”; supporting Seeker UAV systems for the SANDF and UAE; ongoing aerospace testing at OTR (Overberg Test Range); “airworthiness support and availability of aeronautics MRO (maintenance and repair) facilities to the SAAF”; and “an approach to completion of the current phase” of the SA Army ground-based air defence system (GBADS) programme.
A third oversight committee multi-tasks defence alongside correctional services, home affairs, international relations, justice and police and is drawn from the benches of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP). The workload of the Select Committee on Security and Justice (SCSJ) according to defenceWeb’s source, is such that it does “not regularly focus on defence matters”. There has, to date, been no announcement or statement from Parliamentary Communication Services on either its compilation or programme for the current sitting.
