Cape Town - The budget cuts of R9 billion in the defence force over the past five years have nearly crippled the military as it struggles to survive in a tough environment requiring modernised weapons.
Chiefs of the SANDF told MPs on Thursday that these cuts would add to more woes for the military in conducting its business. The military was briefing the joint standing committee on defence on the defence review and state of decline in the SANDF.
Currently, the budget for the military is R42bn. Chief of the army Lieutenant-General Vusumuzi Masondo said the budget for the defence force was standardised in most countries in the world. But in South Africa, the National Treasury has repriotised funding, which resulted in budgets cuts in the SANDF force over the past five years.
“In terms of the budget, the defence review makes a point that it is imperative that a certain percentage of the GDP (gross domestic product) goes to the defence force,” Masondo said, adding that the international standard was that countries channelled 2 percent of their GDP to the army.
In his visit to Singapore with the then minister of defence in 2009, he found that that country took 6 percent of its GDP for the military.
In his presentation to the committee, chief of military strategy and policy in the SANDF Major-General Michael Ramantswana said while the role of the defence force had expanded in the past 15 years, the budget had remained limited.
Despite the SANDF deploying its soldiers to South Sudan, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo, budget cuts remained enforced. The soldiers had also been sent back to patrol the borders following a decision by the cabinet.
Ramantswana said the budget had been slashed drastically over the past five years and that the defence review of 2014 looked at what could be done to address the decline of the military.
There was also the issue of modernisation of the defence force’s weapons.
Ramantswana said only 11 percent of the army’s weapons were modernised. The defence force also needed to train more young, fit soldiers to be able to conduct military operations.
Asked by MPs on measures taken by the SANDF to address the defects in the budget, Masondo said they were in a tight corner.
At present, the soldiers undergoing training and those deployed were sharing equipment, which was not good.
“There has been a decline in the capacity of the defence force to do its work optimally,” he said.
Masondo said they had also embarked on cost-cutting measures, as directed by the National Treasury, to minimise the impact of the budget cuts.
Committee co-chairman Stanley Motimele said this was a matter they were going to look into. “When you talk about the budget cuts, you must not shy away to say what budget you would like to enable you to fulfil your constitutional mandate.”
He said they were still going to talk to the defence force further about the figures.
Cape Times