By Daanyaal Matthews
The military sector of the Republic has been inundated with issues for years, both due to inadequate leadership and, additionally, budget cuts that have left the Department of Defense and Military Veterans anaemic. This is most evident when evaluating the words of Minister of Defence and Military Veterans Angie Motshekga, who has painted an image of her department as one that lacks proper leadership in various departments, lacks proper audit structure, and, by virtue of the latter point, results in assets being in a state of decay.
This ‘state of decay’ has once more reared its head as reports indicate that over 300 aircraft are sitting idle awaiting repairs, leading to queries on the depth of the department’s degeneration and its capacity given the government’s tendency to avail the armed forces to peacekeeping missions in the SADC region.
Halmoedt Heitman, a defence analyst, has argued that the numbers floating in the public sphere are somewhat outdated but stresses that the budget, in tandem with the missions given to the department, has created a crevice within the military sector that continues to widen as proper intervention, through proper budgeting.
“The problem is a complex one; it is partly due to the budget being too small and complicated. Further, a lot of the missions that the government tosses to the defence force, whether it’s a peacekeeping mission fixing sewage outlets dealing with illegal mining or protecting power stations, a lot of the missions are not funded. So, the defence has to take money out of what little budget it has to fund those, and the third problem is actual maintenance issues,” stressed Heitman.
These issues in funding are reflected in the equipment possessed by the department, with Heitman furthering that equipment procured in the ’99 arms deal is over 20 years old with seemingly no urgency to curtail the issue.
