No cash for defence review
STRAPPED: MINISTER TO DISCUSS THE DECLINING ALLOCATION WITH GOVERNMENT
Budget for armed forces has shrunk by about 5% a year and R10bn was cut in past three years.
DPhoto: Amanda Watson efence and Military Veterans Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula has confirmed there will be no new defence review, leaving the SA Defence Force (SANDF) to make do with the ageing and grossly underfunded 2015 review.
The minister provided a written response to a recent National Assembly question by Democratic Alliance MP Kobus Marais about whether she would commission a new defence review, in light of the budget constraints facing the SANDF.
The defence budget has been declining by approximately 5% a year in real terms.
Over R10 billion has been cut from the department’s budget in the past three years and a further R5 billion will be cut in 2021.
“No, I have not commissioned a new defence review,” said the minister in the reply.
“We have concluded that the defence review 2015 is and remains the national policy on defence and it should not be withdrawn.
“The bulk of the defence review 2015 remains valid and appropriate, even though it was predicated on a steady stream of improving defence allocation.
“Furthermore, we have concluded that I, as the executive authority responsible for defence, must engage strongly with Cabinet and parliament on the ever-declining defence allocation.
“This must include discussion, debate and resolution on the level of ambition South Africa wants, including the shape and size of the defence force, the emerging security risks, contingencies and priorities that we require the defence force to be prepared for and the concomitant defence capabilities that we must fund and support.”
The department of defence, in its most recent annual report, for 2018-2019, said the defence review was dead due to a lack of funding.
It stated: “Strategically, the funding allocation to the [department] effectively negates the SA defence review 2015 policy position and dramatically reduces the level of defence ambition that can be pursued”.
The 2015 defence review is in reality the 2012 defence review, commissioned by then defence minister Lindiwe Sisulu, but only approved by Cabinet when Mapisa-Nqakula was appointed. “Implementation of the SA defence review 2015 remains a work in progress and the [department] will continue to pursue this within resources allocated to it by the National Treasury,” it said in the report.
SANDF officials have admitted there is no money available to even implement the first stage of the review, to arrest the decline of the SANDF and defence industry.
The department’s 2017-2018 annual report also cautioned that the defence review could be implemented, saying “cost-driven components of the plan to arrest the decline in defence capabilities remain unfunded”.
In 2015, the defence department asked National Treasury for R1.8 billion to start implementing the first phase of the defence review, but the request was denied, forcing the department to try and find other ways of funding implementation.
Although acknowledged as a comprehensive and well-thought-out document, the 2015 defence review remains a paper exercise without the necessary funding. – defenceWeb
Cost-driven components remain unfunded