Defence expert says 2,500 SANDF members ‘enough’

After days of violent rioting and the loss of at least a reported 45 lives, as well as infrastructure and property damage worth millions – if not billions – of rands, President Cyril Ramaphosa finally called in the troops on Monday.

But questions have been raised around whether the 2 500 members of the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) are enough to make a difference.

Defence expert Darren Olivier says they are.

“Clearly this isn’t a lot, but we don’t spend enough on defence to have so many infantry units that tens of thousands could be deployed at a time,” Olivier said.

“That being said, it’s still 2 500 extra armed peace officers out on the streets and that can make a big difference in many areas, especially where the police have been badly overrun.”

The SANDF announced it was deploying troops to hotspots in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal on Monday afternoon.

On Monday night, 2 500 members were authorised for “Operation Prosper” by way of Government Gazette. According to the gazette, the deployment will span three months – until mid-October – and will see members working in cooperation with the SA Police Service “for the prevention and combating of crime and maintenance and preservation of law and order”.

“Although 2 500 troops is not a lot, it needs to be placed into context,” Olivier said,

He said there were only about 34 000 active uniformed SANDF members in total, of which only about 12 000 were part of the regular force infantry battalions.

Olivier said at any given time, 4 000 of those were deployed elsewhere, leaving about 8 000.

“But that doesn’t mean they’re idle,” he said. “They’re often going through the pre-deployment, post-deployment, reintegration or training phases that either precede or succeed their own deployments. In practice, that means no more than 2 500 to 3 000 regular force troops are available at short notice for contingencies.”

Last year, about 76 000 SANDF members were authorised to enforce the Covid lockdown..

“The SANDF does not even have 76 000 soldiers to deploy,” said Olivier. “Where the confusion came from is that the president authorised the employment of the SANDF’s entire uniformed regular, reserve and auxiliary force for any required actions to combat Covid.”

He said the highest number of soldiers actually deployed to enforce the lockdown was never more than about 8 000.

“And it was fewer than 3 000 for most of the time,” he added.