Bloated by the brass
SANDF loses the wrong people in retrenchments while it remains top heavy with generals
“Rearranging the deck chairs while the ship is sinking” is how one former general described the department of defence’s latest appointments and promotions of about 80 colonels and naval captains.
The department’s financial woes have been highlighted repeatedly during briefings to parliamentary committees and in media reports.
The urgent need for reorganisation to cut back on units, capabilities and people to trim down the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) has been widely expressed.
The bloated top-heavy rank structure is but one aspect that has not been adequately addressed. At the beginning of October it seemed the penny had finally dropped when the promotions and appointments of colonels and navy captains were put on ice at least for a while.
The SANDF is, after all, trimming its numbers by approving severance packages for about 1,500 mostly senior ranks in this financial year. When promotions were frozen, it seemed the necessary reorganisation was happening.
But it caused a backlash from those in line for promotion, or who had been promised one. They said senior generals’ promotions had been approved earlier in the year. Yet the next level of senior officers those involved in the day-to-day management of the organisation had to bite the bullet.
Whatever happened behind the scenes, the promotions were approved. According to one senior officer, almost half of the posts now filled had been vacant for up to two years with acting positions in place.
That leaves the logical conclusion that 50% of the generals’ posts could easily be done away with while pulling the SANDF’s salary budget out of the red.
The National Treasury’s main reason for adding R1.5bn to the defence budget was to implement severance packages. In reality, younger, more able-bodied soldiers and officers are being retrenched while the top remains exactly what it was: top heavy.
What is meant to be the neat pyramid shape of the force design with more doers at the bottom and fewer generals at the top has gone out the back door. No doubt the ANC wants to keep its senior military commanders happy in the run-up to the election next year.
Military analysts agree that a future threat would come from within South Africa rather than from without. More assistance for the police and crime-busting operations, more infrastructure to be protected, and more interventions when protests render state hospitals helpless will be part of the SANDF’s daily commitments rather than peacekeeping duties in countries far away especially with the expected volatility during the election.
A drastic rethink of the force’s design of the future, perhaps even changes to the constitutional obligations of the SANDF to be more focused on service to the nation, rather than other countries appears the best solution to modernise the military.
The SANDF has become its own worst enemy by refusing to change. The newly promoted generals will get new cars and more bodyguards for themselves, their homes and on their travels.
At the same time senior and noncommissioned officers, including a number of generals, figured that the severance packages would be more financially beneficial than working for another year or two before retiring on pension. Such applications were approved, quickly consuming the retrenchment package, while the deadwood that the military would have liked to get rid of remains behind.
Even Vice-Admiral Asiel Kubu, chief of human resources, is leaving soon rather than waiting for retirement. He was the one who regularly had to defend the state of the SANDF in parliament.
One senior officer tells the FM: “One gets the idea that the more than 80 new appointments and promotions were done almost in desperation to have a last go with patronage and comradeship.”
The SANDF remains in a broken state with broken equipment and aircraft, and without the money to make proper repairs. With air operations becoming optional for the air force, the next to fall is the defence capabilities of the SANDF yet at least there will be no shortage of top brass.
Whatever happened behind the scenes, the promotions were approved