SANDF's running on empty

Kornhub

Kornhub

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PRETORIA – The chief of the army shifts nervously in his chair. “No army in the world likes to talk about numbers,” he explains.

However, for Lieutenant General Vusimuzi Masondo, it is all about the numbers.

He is struggling to find enough fighting-fit soldiers to carry out the multiple and ever increasing work with which the government is tasking the SANDF.

Add to that a chronic underfunding of the defence force, and Masondo’s frank statement, “I can easily say we are overstretched” comes as no surprise.

The army supplies the bulk of the troops used in internal and external deployments.

Major General Lawrence Smith, who is Masondo’s deputy, says those deployments currently adds up to 18,000 combat-ready troops of which 6,000 are deployed at any given time.”

It includes over 2,000 soldiers on peacekeeping duties in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan.

Another 2,000 are guarding the country’s borders, up to 800 troops are deployed in support of the police aimed at stemming xenophobic violence and nearly 2,000 troops for the African Capacity for Immediate Response to crisis, the long-winded name for the temporary African standby force.

While the average deployment is supposed to last six months, some are now stretched to a year.

Budget constraints mean the army cannot simply recruit more soldiers.

Masondo says they are in talks with Treasury to secure funding to retire unfit soldiers and replace them with ““young, fit soldiers that we are able to deploy”.

Meanwhile, the army has also put on hold, or “deferred” its important projects aimed at replacing archaic equipment.

Masondo says some projects are urgent like replacing the army’s communication.

More important equipment such as the acquisition of heavy calibre weapons is also top of the list as “belligerents in Sudan” are outgunning the army.

“At times when we paint the picture of the decline, many people seem to think that we are alarmist, and this is because due to the resilience of our women and men in uniform, the SANDF has been able to maintain operational presence. Sometimes I don’t understand how we do it,” Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula told a meeting of defence industry experts.

Earlier this month Parliament adopted the Defence Review report that calls for urgent intervention to stop the “critical state of decline” of the SANDF.

Mapisa-Nqakula reckons it could take up to five years to “develop a limited and sustainable defence capability”.

“If we do not start now, the decline will get worse,” she warns.

In her budget speech last month Mapisa-Nqakula also told Parliament what it will cost: “The defence budget for financial year 15/16 amounts to R44,5-billion, which is approximately 1,1 percent of the GDP. Our wish is to reach 2 percent of GDP”

But with tough economic times, it seems unlikely that the SANDF will receive more budget and it is up the staff to come up with solutions.

“You know when I declare soldiers combat-ready, I want them to be indeed combat-ready … I don’t like to compromise on things,” Masondo says. – Louis Oelofse


- eNCA
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http://www.enca.com/south-africa/sa...al&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
 
Budget constraints mean the army cannot simply recruit more soldiers.
Click to expand...

No money for this, no money for that, more govt debt..... if this was a business it would be placed under liquidation.
 
Surely these guys have a budget that they operate from?
What happened to all the budget money?

No wait... don't answer that. I don't want to know.
 
So we only have a force of about 10k fighting fit soldiers?

Holy **** balls... Even Zim can invade us :eek:
 
... “belligerents in Sudan” are outgunning the army.
Click to expand...

We should just fire all our foot soldiers and use the salary budget to buy Rooivalks, because the Rooivalk's single success in the DRC obviously means it is the best helicopter IN THA WORLD and everything else is useless. It's certainly not an outdated overpriced POS that should be scrapped in favour of far cheaper and more capable choppers.
 
Politicians wants to spend more money on Nkandla, go speak to your superiors about that.
 
The process of procurement is up the pole as is the process of enrolement.

The tender system has moved from ''best product'' to ''cheapest'' to "BBBEE'' to ''who benefits that I know''.

Generals are cadres, and promotion comes with racial profiling ....

Not surprised in the least.
 
The process of procurement is up the pole as is the process of enrolement.

The tender system has moved from ''best product'' to ''cheapest'' to "BBBEE'' to ''who benefits that I know''.

Generals are cadres, and promotion comes with racial profiling ....

Not surprised in the least.
 
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