SANDF budget constraints: Not enough soldiers at the border, reserves getting older

Members of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) Reserve Force are getting older as no recruitment has been done in the past five to six years.

The Reserve Force Council (RFC) briefed the parliamentary portfolio committee on defence on Friday. The briefing painted a grim picture of the Reserve Force’s operations due to budgetary constraints.

Last week, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana allocated R60.8 billion for defence and state security.

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However, this may not be enough, as the force has been running deficits over the years.

Budget cuts affect Reserve Force

Brigadier-General Zoleka Niyabo-Mana, acting chief of defence reserves, says the budget constraints have affected the functioning of the Reserve Force.

More than 90% of reserves do not have alternative employment and do not receive an income if they are not called up.

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“In the past, when we did not have any budgetary constraints, this was not an issue because reserve force members were called up continuously and were guaranteed a salary,” said Niyabo-Mana.

The Reserve Force has also been struggling to keep up with training of its members as required when they are deployed.

“You must always have combat-ready forces. Because when you have to deploy them, there is no time for training. However, we have been struggling with the continuation training required to ensure they remain combat-ready due to budgetary constraints,” said Niyabo-Mana.

“There are not sufficient funds for us to call up reserves at times, train them and utilise them. So the services are always balancing whether you call them up for training or to utilise them.

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“This poses a risk to our operations because if we say we fight as we train, then we cannot afford to have reserve force members who don’t have the same training as our regular force members have because when we deploy, we deploy as the SANDF, not as reserve force or regular members.”

‘Getting older’

The committee heard that the reserves are also getting older, as no younger members had been recruited in the past six years.

“There has been no recruitment of new reserve force members for the past five to six years due to the budget – so the age continued to rise from 45 to 49 now,” she said.

“The average age there is now 49, it has risen from age 45 in the past five years and this is because we have not recruited any reserve force members.

“The reason for this is that when we’re trying to maintain the cost of employment that is at a R16 billion deficit. This has been rising over the years because every financial year, the allocation that we get from the National Treasury to pay our soldiers is less than the number of soldiers we have.”

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The reserves augment the regular soldiers in peace support operations, border safeguarding and support to the people (unrest, disaster).

While the entire defence force of other countries normally comprises 30% to 40% of the Reserve Force, South Africa’s range from 15-22%. The country is aiming for 30%.

The army is the biggest employer of reserve members.

Not enough soldiers guarding borders

South Africa’s borders are also at risk as the country has not deployed enough soldiers to guard them. According to Niyabo-Mana, 50% of the soldiers guarding our borders are reserves.

The force is looking into utilising intelligence to assist the soldiers deployed at the border.

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“We don’t have sufficient soldiers manning the entire border line, so if we can complement this by making sure that we have adequate intelligence provided for Operation Corona, this will make up for instances where we have not deployed forces because we only have 16 companies at the border and what is required is 22,” the committee heard.

The Reserve Force intends to recruit 1 000 reserve force members annually for the next three years, using the medium expenditure framework.

“This, in turn, will increase our cost of employment and it will also further increase our irregular expenditure.”

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The irregular expenditure is accumulated when the Reserve Force calls up members not budgeted for.

“When it comes to utilisation of the reserves, we’ve always exceeded the mandates that have been allocated because there is always a requirement for the reserve force to augment regular force members and assist with structural deficiencies in another environment.”