The DA Member of Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Defence and Military Veterans Kobus Marais has assured the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) Chief of Staff General-Michael Mantswana that the committee’s criticism of the defence force is not personal.
Marais says the committee has to ensure that South Africa’s defence force is always ready.
Mantswana and the department appeared before the joint committee last night to brief it on the level of satisfaction with services that state-owned aerospace military technology company DENEL renders.
Marais elaborates: “We might come very hard but the General must not take it personally. He can see that our passion is with the defence force and we want a defence-ready defence force, with all the prime equipment we require. So, we will be passionate about this and we want a stronger defence force. So this is not a reflection on you . Do not take this personally, but this is a reflection of how strong we feel about the defence force and the future of that, we want to see.”
Meanwhile, the committee was also informed that the deployment of soldiers to prevent crime in South Africa has not been budgeted for.
Ramantswana says this included safeguarding Eskom power stations.
The SANDF Chief of Staff says Eskom requested the deployment through the National Joint Intelligence Structure.
The SAPS supported the request.
The deployment which started on the 17th of last month, will continue until October the 17th this year.
Ramantswana says the defence department will cover the over R146 million cost of the deployment.
“The compensation of employees is R68 million, and good and services is R78.6 million, you can round it of as R78.7 million – which takes us to R146 million. The expenditure for this deployment is unfunded for this financial year, so it’s actually not allocated. So we considered it as unforeseen and unavoidable because it’s an instruction from our Commander in-Chief and we have got to execute as such.”
