Changing of SANDF’s leadership slated by experts

President Cyril Ramaphosa has been slammed for changing the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) leadership, while “the army is in crisis”.

Military expert Helmoed-Romer Heitman decried Ramaphosa’s Cabinet announcement in which he named former basic education minister Angie Motshekga as minister of defence and military veterans, replacing Thandi Modise.

Motshekga has two deputies, an experienced former military leader and senior politician Bantu Holomisa and Richard Mkhungo, who is not a well-known figure in the military field.

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“The president has been very unfair to the defence force and the new ministers by appointing new people, two of them with no apparent relevant background when the SANDF faces a very difficult situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and must complete the withdrawal from the failed mission in Mozambique,” said Heitman.

He said it would have been better to keep the existing team until things were stabilised.

He said if change was needed it would be better to allow Holomisa to lead the team as a minister, not a deputy. “A deputy minister is limited in what he or she can do,” he said.

Heitman said the SANDF was in crisis as they continuously deployed soldiers on the battlefield without offering inadequate support due to the lack of funding.

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He added an urgent intervention was needed to equip the soldiers as they were obliged to be part of some internal battles to protect South Africa’s interests.

Since the DRC mission started the SANDF soldiers several SA soldiers were killed. Last week, two soldiers died and 20 were injured after their base in Sake, in eastern DRC, was bombarded by mortars, probably fired by the rebels.