Defence and Military Veterans of South Africa Minister Angie Motshekga appeared before the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) on Tuesday. Picture: Parliament of the Republic of South Africa
THE Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Angie Motshekga, has revealed that the defence force has enlisted the help of Chinese companies to assist in fixing some of its ageing maritime fleet, which has not been repaired due to a lack of spares.
Motshekga made these revelations while appearing before the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) on Tuesday. She outlined the challenges faced by the department as a result of budget cuts.
The minister appeared before the committee as families of SANDF members who were killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were preparing to bury their loved ones. Military experts, along with some political parties, have argued that the mission was ill-fated as the soldiers lacked the necessary resources owing to budget cuts.
Motshekga detailed the impact of the budget cuts, saying that they affect everything, including the defence force’s mission readiness. She revealed that the defence force shipyard still has ships that are 90 years old and cannot be repaired because there are no spares.
In addition, pilots are not getting enough flying time as there are not enough planes available. There are similar problems in the maritime units.
“We cannot service our equipment. In the air force, instead of having six F-planes, we currently have four that are operational. This reduces the number of flying hours that we can provide to our personnel. If we do not have enough money to service our boats and ships, it means that there is less time for people to be trained, which affects our capacity and the contribution of Defence to the country because most pilots and sailors are trained in the defence force,” she said.
Motshekga said the defence force was considering alternative solutions to the spares issue.
“We are working with countries like China that have very advanced engineering to come and look at our equipment and help us re-engineer because some of the spares we can’t find in the country,” she said.
Motshekga also addressed issues in maritime operations, saying that they have acquired vessels that will be operational in the next financial year, along with combat support.
“We have reprioritised within our budget to support the air force in terms of repairs, as we have had problems with spares,” she noted.
She said they are working to improve and supply the air force because without the air force, the defence force is weak.
“The underfunding has affected every other area of our work, so it is a significant concern for us. We are in constant communication with the Treasury to explore ways to save the department from its serious financial issues.”
She said the department should have allowed employees aged 55 and above to take retirement, which would have reduced the wage bill. This would have enabled the defence force to hire younger personnel at a lower cost.
Scopa chairperson Songezo Zibi said the Auditor-General had found chronic underfunding in the department, as well as a collapse of the governance system across the board, to the extent that they are failing to respond to audit concerns.
Pikkie Greeff, of the SA National Defence Union (Sandu), said: “Chinese engineering can’t offer any better than SA can. Our engineers can do the same.”
Greeff also disagreed with the early retirement suggestion.
“It’s a fallacy to think letting older members retire will save costs,” he said.
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