More than 13 years in the making and the SA Army still doesn’t have a replacement for its Ratel infantry combat vehicles (ICVs) in service, a Parliamentary questioner was told by Defence and Military Veterans Minister Angie Motshekga.
In Parliamentary terms that’s four ministers ago with then incumbent Lindiwe Sisulu in charge until June 2012 – a month after the phase one development order for Project Hoefyster was approved. Since Sisulu the Defence and Military Veterans Ministry has been headed by Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula (2013 to 2021), Thandi Modise (2021 to 2024) with Motshekga now democratic South Africa’s fourth woman in the Defence Ministry suite in the Armscor building.
Seemingly not happy with what appear to be endless delays, termed “a deferment” by SA Army Chief, Lieutenant General Lawrence Mbatha at Exercise Vuk’uhlome last year, Democratic Alliance (DA) point man on defence and military veterans in the National Assembly (NA) Chris Hattingh sought clarity.
He wanted to know the original dates for the finalisation of Project Hoefyster, the dates of each extended finalisation, and reasons for the extensions.
The Ministerial reply makes known the Badger variants and phase one development completion date (November 2012) and Phase 2 (production) date (before 30 November 2023) but not the number of vehicles to be delivered. “The delivery date of the Phase 1 Development Order was extended to 30 November 2018. The delivery date of the Phase 2 (Production Orders) remained at 30 November 2023,” Motshekga stated.
She added that the delivery date of Phase 1 was extended “due to additional requirements included in the scope of the orders as well as non-compliance and default of Denel to execute the orders in accordance with the terms and conditions thereof.”
Clarifying the current delivery dates for each Badger variant, Motshekga revealed that the Section variant (SV) has a “proposed” Phase 1 completion date of May this year; July this year for the Fire Support variant (FSV); January 2027 for the Command and Missile variants (CV and MSLV); February 2027 for the Mortar variant (MV) and integrated logistics support (ILS) for all variants by August 2027.
While not included in the Ministerial reply, indications are the landward force will see 88 Badger vehicles – sufficient for a single battalion – delivered and not the three battalion 240 plus planned.
Dates for production deliverables remain outstanding “pending Armscor and Department of Defence (DoD) decision making forum decisions”.
Hattingh was also updated on the costs of phase one development. The initial cost, according to the ministerial reply, was R1.048 billion, excluding escalation and value added tax (VAT) with an original completion date of November 2012. Production orders at the same time were costed at R8.345 billion, again excluding escalation and VAT.
