The SA Air Force (SAAF) base in Bloemfontein – home to its Rooivalk combat support helicopter squadron – is another addition to the list of SA National Defence Force (SANDF) facilities where lax security has seen theft, including that of ammunition, happen.
Air Force Base (AFB) Bloemspruit, which shares runways with Bram Fisher International Airport, was under the security spotlight over a year ago when a SAAF inspection report warned poor security systems and careless guarding would inevitably lead to theft, it was reported in yesterday’s (Sunday, 31 August) Afrikaans newspaper Rapport. Broken alarms and perimeter fencing, along with what is termed “defective lighting” and unmonitored CCTV (closed circuit television) are given as contributors to the sorry state of security at the base.
The paper reports the mid-August theft apparently included Rooivalk ammunition, without specifying type, as well as a bus engine and gearbox. All were removed from the base reportedly without any documentation inspected by supposedly on-duty guards. It does not identify the guards as either SAAF personnel or private security.
Chris Hattingh, one of three Democratic Alliance (DA) Members of Parliament (MPs) tasked with defence and military veterans oversight, was first responder to the lax security at the base. He wants three senior SANDF officers along with Minister Angie Motshekga “in the dock”, as it were, of the Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans (PCDMV) to explain within seven (working) days from today (Monday, 1 September). SAAF Chief, Lieutenant General Wiseman Mbambo, as the responsible service senior, along with SANDF Chief, General Rudzani Maphwanya, and Department of Defence (DoD) Logistics Division Chief, Rear Admiral David Mkhonto, are the uniformed personnel Hattingh would like the PCDMV to hear from.
His request includes tabling a dated, costed and funded base security recovery plan with responsible officers, deadlines and deliverables, together with outstanding reports called for in May. Those reports are, according to Hattingh, on the functioning and results of an inter-departmental working group in terms of time-bound work plans with set milestones and funding with another quantifying the total value of equipment and vehicle parts stolen across all SANDF bases.
As regards the Bloemspruit theft, he points out it is not an isolated incident – it’s the predictable result of “rotten perimeter security, dead alarms, unmonitored CCTV and broken lighting, risks flagged more than a year ago by the Inspector General [presumably of the SAAF] warning theft was ‘a matter of time’”.
At its 28 May meeting, the PCDMV heard evidence of encroachment, theft and infrastructure vandalism at bases and resolved that an inter-departmental ministerial working group be set up. This hasn’t happened, Hattingh maintains. Additionally, “no seven-day theft value report has been tabled”.
“Parliament,” a statement has Hattingh saying, “has already been briefed on widespread trespassing on SANDF bases — due to informal settlements against or inside base boundaries, fences cut, illegal electricity and water connections, cable theft and even illegal mining and subsistence farming authorised on defence land. Sites flagged include Marievale, Lenz, Defence HQ precinct, 93 Ammunition Depot (Jan Kempdorp), 43 SA Brigade and the Main Ordnance Sub Deport at Wallmannsthal and Wingfield, with partial or stalled evictions and weak inter departmental follow-through”.
