Opinion

A VIEW OF THE WEEK: It’s a warzone and we are not prepared

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By Kyle Adam Zeeman

While I would never wish for it to happen, I always wondered if SA would be prepared for a military invasion. Would it come from the mountains or over which border? And what would spark the war?

For many South Africans fed a steady diet of updates from, among others, the Russia-Ukraine and Gaza conflicts, war came a lot closer to home this week with the climbing death toll of South African National Defence Force (SANDF) soldiers killed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The smell of war is in the air, even though no enemy fire is heard in our towns or neighbourhoods.

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13 deaths in less than a week leads to serious questions of just how prepared our soldiers were when their mission to maintain peace would eventually turn to conflict.

Reports of our troops being surrounded by enemies with no ammunition, essential supplies, or even access to a locked mobile mortuary shocked the nation- and rightly so.

ALSO READ: EFF demand Angie Motshekga resign, Ramaphosa face Parliament over SANDF DRC fiasco

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While the president said he was concerned about speculation on the state of SA soldiers and their battle conditions, we can only hope that defence minister Angie Motshekga was briefed fully and honestly during her recent trip to the area and that she recounted this to the president similarly.

Anything else would be deceitful and negligent, and should be punished harshly.

SA to the rescue … just not at home

Ramaphosa may call on us to “rally behind our brave men and women who have dedicated their lives to bringing peace to our continent,” but our thoughts and prayers will do little if the SANDF remains underfunded, ill-trained, and poorly resourced.

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SA’s international efforts are admirable, but they stretch us too thin.

Financially, the Department of Defence has been given less and less crumbs every year. The 2024/2025 proposed budget allocated R51.8 billion, or a meagre 0.7% of SA’s GDP, to defence. Compared to the adjusted budget of 2023/24, the budget decreased by 1.3% in nominal terms and 5.69% in real terms.

When your total budget for defence is 2.2% of your total expenditure as a nation, there is little surprise when it is completely inadequate.

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ALSO READ: A VIEW OF THE WEEK: We are a nation crippled by hope

War at home

While it is obvious that this allocation needs to be increased for us to keep up appearances overseas, where would the money come from?

Much of the current budget is taken up by debt repayments and servicing, education, social benefits and grants, health, and general public service costs.

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All of these are necessary, and each has its own crisis.

There may be 2 900 SA soldiers in the DRC, but the more than 63 million people in South Africa are waging a war on school placements, overcrowding, and broken infrastructure.

They are waging a war on poverty that has left more than 28 million of them needing grants to feed their families, and 84% at the mercy of a public healthcare system often plagued by neglect, bad service, long lines, and inadequate care.

All are fighting the battle against corruption that has swallowed the resources meant to alleviate these issues.

And until that struggle is won, South Africans will keep dying – whether in the DRC or within our own borders.

NOW READ: A VIEW OF THE WEEK: Look out below! We live in cities stolen piece by piece

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Published by
By Kyle Adam Zeeman