Please find attached English and Afrikaans soundbites by Nicholas Gotsell MP.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) will write to the Co-Chairpersons of the Joint Standing Committee on Defence to request urgent clarity on the three-month deadline that Defence Minister Angie Motshekga committed to for presenting a concrete plan to reprioritise Defence spending and arrest the SANDF’s collapse.
The DA will continue to exercise its oversight role relentlessly to ensure that this plan does not become yet another empty promise while the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) deteriorates further under her watch.
Minister Motshekga’s appearance in the National Council of Provinces yesterday revealed her alarming detachment from the dire state of the SANDF. While she insisted that the Defence Force remains capable, she contradicted her own admission to Parliament just weeks earlier that it is in crisis.
Her repeated attempts to blame the SANDF’s failures on budget constraints are a smokescreen for the Department’s skewed priorities. She defended costly luxuries like VVIP air transport and overseas junkets, even as the Air Force fails to meet international search and rescue obligations and critical equipment remains grounded.
The DA has already proposed urgent cost-cutting measures, including ending lifetime medical benefits for retired VIPs through SAMHS. These privileges persist even as 1 Military Hospital continues to deteriorate, the RAMP project stalls, and active service members are left without adequate care.
Recent revelations by Armscor confirm the SANDF’s operational collapse, including:
- A R7.7 billion shortfall for the Air Force over three years;
- Unfunded maintenance for the President’s jet and the Falcon fleet;
- Pilot training at risk due to underfunding of critical aircraft;
- Delays, obsolescence and vendor disengagement across air and naval platforms; and
- Failure to spend nearly R2 billion ring-fenced for critical fleet refurbishment.
South Africans deserve a Defence Force that prioritises operational readiness and the safety of its personnel, not one that props up luxury for the political elite.
The DA will not rest until the Minister’s three-month deadline is honoured with a credible, costed, and deliverable plan to save our crumbling Defence Force.