By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Defence and Military Veterans minister Thandi Modise has repeated once again that the government has nothing to hide regarding the docking of a Russian ship in Simon’s Town in December.
“I will reiterate what I said: We put fokol on that ship,” said Modise in Tuesday’s debate on the Defence Budget Vote.
Modise said she welcomed the “President’s calling for an inquiry into the matter of Lady R”, and that all necessary documentation would be made available in the inquiry.
The Minister’s statements came in response to questions from the opposition.
DA MP Kobus Marais had questioned who had granted authorisation for Lady R to dock at Simon’s Town naval base, in December 2022.
Marais put it bluntly: “Let’s deal with the elephant in the room: the irrational Russian love affair”.
“Ammunition imports and exports happen via official Portnet ports of entry. Authorisation was granted to the Lady R, a Russian commercial vessel, to bypass commercial ports and abuse our naval base instead.
“Unrestricted access was seemingly allowed for offloading and reloading cargo, during the midnight hours of 6 to 8 December, with little or no control on the naval precinct,” he said.
Marais described the clandestine operation at Simon’s Town aval base as “a major national security breach.”
“Who authorised this, and why? “he asked.
“With the 2019/2020 import permits for the Russian ammunition still valid, something was loaded onto the Lady R. Was it ammunition? If not, release the vessel’s cargo manifest to confirm this.”
Marais warned the Minister that the longer she stayed silent, the more damage to the country’s international image, investments and trade interests — such as the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) — and economic prosperity.
Modise said that South Africa’s relationship with Russia was steeped in history and predated the docking of the vessel in Simon’s Town in December, which she described as a “spectacle” .
Delivering her budget vote speech, Modise said the DoD has a budget of R51.1-billion for the 2023/2024 financial year. This is slightly lower than its previous budget for 2022/2023, which was R51.6-billion.
The defence allocation for 2023/2024 represents 2.28% of South Africa’s total expenditure of R2.243-trillion.
“We have set aside R30.6-billion for compensation of employees, because this still leaves us underfunded by R2.6-billion, if you count the actual boots on the ground, “she said.
“Due to the underfunding of the cost of employment, we are likely to be over-spending by R3-billion in the current financial year.”
The spending on compensation of employees (CoE) has been an ongoing concern for the DoD in recent years, as the DoD has been unable to stay within the CoE ceiling of the National Treasury, with significant over-expenditure.
The National Treasury has agreed to additional funding of R500-million in 2024/2025, and R200-million in 2025/2026 to procure equipment and technology to aid the safeguarding of borders.
In 2023/2024, South Africa will maintain a total contingent of 957 members deployed in the DRC, and 1,495 members in Mozambique as part of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) peacekeeping mission.