Following this week’s Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans (PCDMV) meeting there’s been another call for “urgent intervention” in the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) without which South Africa “will be defenceless”.
To prevent this Democratic Alliance (DA) defence and military veterans spokesman Chris Hattingh wants “a comprehensive review of our military”.
And, it’s not only the SANDF he wants under the microscope. State-owned defence and technology conglomerate, Denel, now the responsibility of Defence and Military Veterans Minister Angie Motshekga following the demise of the Public Enterprises Department, must also have a fine tooth comb run over it, he maintains.
Pointing to the biggest expenditure item in the defence budget – salaries – at 61% of the R51.8 billion allocated by National Treasury (NT), Hattingh said it goes to “high ranking officials” and does not “primarily benefit soldiers”. This happens, according to him, when the SANDF lacks funding for 62% of its critical commitments, including the “ongoing deployment in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)”.
The DoD salary bill, “cost of employees” (CoE) in human resource-speak, is not confined to salaries. Medical aid and pension are among other overheads in the CoE.
Another negative is R3.4 billion worth of unauthorised expenditure at the Department of Defence (DoD). “This money, earmarked by Parliament for important programmes, was used to fund the department’s bloated cost of employees. In addition, the DoD incurred R338 million in irregular expenditure contributing to a pattern of financial mismanagement,” he said in a statement after the Tuesday meeting.
Confirmation of the sorry financial state the DoD and SANDF are in comes from the qualified audit of Auditor General (AG) Tsakani Maluleke. The rating, Hattingh maintains, reflects an inability to maintain accurate financial records. The same applies to Denel, on the receiving end of AG disclaimer audits – the worst possible – since 2019/20.
Others who echo Hattingh’s call for another Defence Review include his former Parliamentary colleague Kobus Marais, Democratic Alliance shadow defence and military veterans minister in the sixth administration and African Defence Review (ADR) Director Darren Olivier. On the other side of the fence is Bantu Holomisa, one of two deputies to Motshekga in the government of national unity (GNU).
Speaking during the National Assembly (NA) defence debate in July Holomisa said there was no need for another review in the wake of the 2012 edition, revamped and re-released in 2015.
“The 2015 Defence Review is still relevant,” he said during the debate, adding “effort was never made to implement it” which he laid at the door of South Africa’s financial constraints. The former two-star is of the opinion “new plans based on an appreciation of current realities can be drawn from it without wasting precious time”.
Hattingh was critical of the Department of Military Veterans (DMV) for its inability to maintain a secure, functional database for veterans’ pension payments. “The Auditor General could not even audit the system, as it is currently unworkable.”
“Given these failings, immediate action is needed or else our nation will be left defenceless,” Hattingh concluded.