By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Defence and Military Veterans Minister, Thandi Modise, has warned her department has such a lack of resources that if a critical event arose, the military would be hard pressed to respond.
Modise said this when she tabled the department’s Budget Vote during a mini plenary of the National Assembly on Tuesday.
“Honourable Members will remember that we have a dire shortage of critical equipment currently, not to speak of future disasters and continuous climate change events, for example tents, water purification and distribution systems are critically low. Serviceable airframes and flying hours are also in a critical state.
“I must inform this House that the SANDF will be hard-pressed to respond to critical events in other provinces should the need arise. I state this with a very heavy heart – we are willing, but we lack resources.
“Unless there is a significant intervention – the cupboard will remain bare,” she said.
Modise said over recent years, the SANDF has been called on to support civil interventions to ensure the delivery of basic services to the citizens of the country, and this is over and above the force’s contribution to African peace missions.
“We have assisted the North West province with health services, the Department of Water and Sanitation with the Vaal River clean-up project, the National Disaster Management Centre called on the SANDF to assist during the COVID-19 pandemic and we are still involved in the KwaZulu-Natal flood relief.
“The deployments speak to our responsibilities and there is no way we cannot be at the centre of saving lives.”
She said the deployments also come at great cost to the equipment and funding of the SANDF. “There is often little or no re-imbursement delivered. This puts the SANDF under great pressure.”
In July 2021, there were incidents of civil unrest in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.
Modise said properties and businesses were damaged and looted, and the target areas were malls and businesses.
“The SANDF worked in cooperation with SAPS to quell the unrest and to restore law and order. We deployed plus or minus 15 000 members of the SANDF, to quell the unrest. Operation Prosper was successful and was lauded by the citizens and business across the country,” she said.
UDM leader Bantu Holomisa raised several concerns within the department which he said harmed staff morale, and urged Modise to fight for a bigger cut of the budget.
“Honourable minister, I would urge you as a new minister to fight for the allocation of [a bigger] budget,” Holomisa said.
The EFF’s Tseko Mafanya accused Modise of failing the country amid revelations of R3.3bn in irregular expenditure and the alarming state of aircraft.
“The level of decline of the defence force has surely got worse over the years, “said Mafanya as he noted that out of 270 aircraft only 46 are serviceable and most were in a dire state.
The IFP’s Narend Singh said the defence force was a shadow of its former self, citing budget austerity measures and the loss of professional career military personnel.
“The morale remains low, which is not assisted by issues relating to career progression, food scarcity and quality for troops as well as the low standard of maintenance upkeep of military bases in general,” he said.
While some MPs called for soldiers and military veterans to be properly remunerated, Modise admitted the compensation of employees portion of the budget was a grave priority area which needs to be addressed.