SA Navy (SAN) Chief, Vice Admiral Monde Lobese, used a Military Skills Development (MSD) passing out parade to make public the growing utilisation of the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) without additional funding.
The three-star at the helm of the smallest combat service in the SANDF spoke last week at SAS Saldanha where 368 MSD recruits who successfully completed Military Training for Ratings (MTR) part 1 were honoured – as is military tradition – with a passing out parade.
On increasing personnel numbers for the national defence force, Lobese told the parade: “For many years now Government have [sic] restricted the number of members that the SA Navy and indeed the entire SANDF can recruit each year. Constantly we hear that our personnel expenditure is too large and that we must reduce our numbers”.
“On the other hand,” he continued, “the same Government instructs the SANDF to deploy all over the country. Examples include deployments to protect Eskom power stations, deployments to repair the Vaal waste water infrastructure and deployments to combat illegal miners”.
This, he said, was regardless of government restrictions on SANDF recruitment numbers. “On the other hand they [Government] demand additional ad hoc deployments that were never part of our planning process.”
By way of illustration he gave the number of SAN recruits – 1 200 – over the past five financial years which he reported to Defence and Military Veterans Minister Angie Motshekga. Against this, the maritime service lost over 1 500 personnel in the corresponding period. The loss is ascribed to resignation, retirement, non-renewal of contracts and death.
On a positive note, Lobese told the parade the SAN component of next year’s MSD intake “is expected to be nearly twice this number [367],” adding Motshekga has “pledged to fight for our cause and lobby for additional funding for the entire SANDF”.
“Our new government is realising that for too long the SANDF has been underfunded and neglected. The indications are there for all to see that this situation will be turned around. We trust that this will mean that for the next 40 years of your careers, there will be lots of opportunities for you in the Navy.”
On the utilisation of SAN platforms, Lobese told the parade he was “intensifying the mission of bringing ships back to sea” by ensuring ships and submarines are maintained, without further elaboration.
