SANDF to assist police during lockdown

An SANDF soldier patrolling the Cape Flats in 2019.
Picture: Brendan Magaar/African News Agency (ANA)

Defence Force budget cuts: Should the SANDF be downsized?

Major cuts have crippled SA’s defence force to the extent that serious questions need to be asked about it’s current structure.

SANDF to assist police during lockdown

An SANDF soldier patrolling the Cape Flats in 2019.
Picture: Brendan Magaar/African News Agency (ANA)

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni delivered a few bits and pieces of good news during his 2020 Budget Speech, but some sectors of South Africa will have tuned in on Wednesday with their hearts in their mouths. 

The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) is one of those that will be very concerned after Mboweni announced major cuts to their operational and acquisition budgets. 

The SANDF has seen its budget dwindle in recent years, with cuts totalling R10 billion over the last three years effectively bringing it to its knees, or so African Defence Review director Darren Olivier believes. 

“That this is now an urgent issue is an understatement; we’ve gone way past urgent and are now at the stage where capabilities are being permanently lost. If you continually underfund operational and acquisition budgets, the inevitable end result will be a fully staffed force without equipment nor the current qualifications on specialised skills.

Darren Olivier

‘Downsize the SANDF’

Olivier said that the only sensible thing to do under the circumstances would be to down-scale all operations and convert the bloated force into a more compact regiment. 

“In my opinion, the only logical option is to have a new defence review with a mandate to downsize the SANDF and its capabilities to fit sustainably into a smaller funding allocation.”

“It’s going to be unpleasant, requiring difficult decisions and much pain in the short term, but it’s preferable to having a force gradually grinding to a halt with ever-worsening morale.”

The idea of downsizing the SANDF has been floating around for some time, but has always been passed on, with the SANDF usually opting to look for measures like outsourcing to keep the lights on. 

Defence Seceratary Dr Sam Gulube said in 2019 that the reality that the SANDF may have to downsize was based entirely on National Government.

“Government will have to decide if we have an air force or an air wing. A navy or a coastal force,” he said following the previous budget cut. “It will mean a drastic reduction in the capacity of these different parts of South Africa’s defence force.”

Calls to remove Minister grow 

With Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula having failed to convince the treasury of the SANDF’s dire need for more funding, she has come under fire from sceptics like Olivier.

Mapisa-Nqakula has been in the position since 2013.

“Clearly, the current approach by the minister of defence and military veterans to persuade her Cabinet colleagues to allocate more funding to the SANDF is not working and should be abandoned,” Olivier said.

“She and her predecessor [Lindiwe Sisulu] have been utterly ineffectual at managing to convince successive finance ministers of the need for increased defence spending, let alone the rest of Cabinet and the wider public. Nor does it seem the minister truly understands the urgency of the problem. It’s past time for something else to be tried.”

Despite monetary constraints and without any threat of impending war, the SANDF keeps itself busy with several important tasks.

The SANDF has been stationed in Cape Town’s Cape Flats in an effort to quell the scourge of gang-related violence since June 2019, and the South African Navy branch operates along the Mozambique Channel fighting piracy and trafficking of people and drugs. There are Peacekeeping wings stationed across Africa that currently operate on a shoestring budget.