SA armed forces need a rethink

The time has come for South Africans to decide what sort of military this country needs – and can afford – in the future.

That’s the only conclusion to draw following the grim news about two important arms of the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) – the SA Navy and the SA Air Force (SAAF) – delivered to parliament recently.

Put simply, both organisations do not have enough money to continue doing their basic jobs. The navy doesn’t have sufficient budget for training and for the hours at sea it needs to keep in top shape, never mind patrolling our territorial waters and exclusive economic zones.

Nor does it have more than a fraction of what it needs to upgrade its fleet.

The SAAF is in just as parlous a situation, with not nearly enough money for maintenance and flying training, without considering daily tasks including air defence or emergency humanitarian deployments.

Many would say we do not need a defence force at all – because where is the threat coming from? That ignores the reality that, in today’s world, threats to sovereignty develop quickly and unexpectedly – on land, sea and in the air.

Also, without an effective maritime patrol capability, our marine resources are being ripped off by foreign trawlers.

However, the other reality is that there is not enough money to take care of all the pressing socio-economic problems in this country – and these are, arguably, even more of a threat to national security than any external forces.

We need to decide – and that means all of us, through an inclusive defence review – exactly what we want from our armed forces. And then we need to cut our military coat to suit our cloth.

In all of this, we should remember that a military can save lives as well as take them.

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