SA defence force is no longer relevant

There are a lot of suggestions being bandied about regarding what sort of world or society we will be living in postCovid-19.

With what has happened in SA, I would like to suggest that a major change should be doing away with the army in its present form.

One could be forgiven for thinking that in the beginning of the lockdown we needed an army to protect us from the army, given the heavy-handedness demonstrated by many of its members.

An army stands in readiness to defend the country against an invasion or to assist our allies in times of need, which does not mean propping up dodgy governments.

So these troops spend a lot of time doing very little, which is evidenced by the waistlines of many of them.

We are unlikely to be invaded by our neighbours, so who are we worried about?

The US could bring us to our knees in days with a few well-directed missiles launched from a submarine in the Red Sea and guided by technicians in Arkansas.

The army has thousands of unused vehicles parked all over the country. It has vast tracts of unused land and a great many buildings.

We should be using this great asset to retrain the soldiers into policemen.

The many unused vehicles could be allocated to police stations around the country so that we would never have to hear about calls for help from being delayed due to the non-availability of a vehicle.

Land and buildings in the urban areas could be used for schools or clinics, among other things.

Army health staff including doctors could easily be absorbed into the health system.

There is a need to have better control over our porous borders and some of the freed-up soldiery could certainly be formed into a mobile border patrol unit as an extension of the police force.

A helicopter support from the air force or army would form part of this unit.

The reduction in duplication of many fixed costs running the police and army would reduce pressure on the Treasury as well.

Turning to the navy, we need to have some presence on our coastline to protect our fishing industry as well as offer a form of sea rescue service.

To this end, two submarines that have been in drydock since the rindepest and another which cannot obtain spares do not fulfil this role.

They should be scrapped and let local shipbuilders construct small but fast coastal craft that can react to pirate fishers or assist shipping in distress. These would be based at all major ports.

The air force does not need fighter jets which are trotted out every few years to add to the razzmatazz of a presidential inauguration.

We can’t get spares easily and an honest audit of serviceable aircraft would no doubt be an embarrassment to the government.

Sell off the jets and invest in helicopters, and on the coast base a few long-distance search aircraft.

In the same way egos got in the way of common sense regarding a national airline, we need to put the egos aside and acknowledge that all the army, navy and air force are helpless against a tiny virus.

The world has changed. Wars in the Middle East and in Africa are fought with machine guns on bakkies and rag-tag armies with rocketpropelled grenades.

The real wars are wars of trade and scarce resources, and mainly in the hands of the big boys in the playground.

Our defence force is a nonentity in world terms and should be done away with post-Covid-19.