The Democratic Alliance has written to the National Assembly House Chairperson, as a way to escalate the failure of the Joint Standing Committee on Defence to hold a meeting for Parliament to finally do its job and get to the bottom of what happened to the missing R813 million, that is unaccounted for by the SANDF.
Minister Motshekga has not been to Parliament to account for the DRC calamity for months, and she is being shielded from this by committee chairpersons who refuse to call her to account.
The Joint Standing Committee on Defence continues to fail to secure Minister Motshekga’s appearance, as Committee Chairperson Malusi Gigaba of the ANC now refuses to call her to come to Committee. Minister Motshekga simply must account for the R813 million allocated to the payment of SANDF deployment allowances, which is “missing or unaccounted for” but until Gigaba forces her to come to Parliament, she remains silent.
This blatant lack of oversight undermines transparency and accountability, but also insults our brave men and women in uniform, who were deployed to the Democratic Republic of Congo, under very dangerous conditions.
The DA’s concern over the missing R813 million is further validated by new revelations that troops were short-paid, forced to survive on R22.91 a day, had to buy their own food – despite SADC funds meant to cover these very needs – and, even when they were kept by the M23 rebels, received no food from the SANDF.
The chaos surrounding the payouts to troops reveals the inability of the SANDF to do basic accounting. Whilst office-based staff are alleged to have received the full allowances meant for frontline soldiers, leave pay was calculated incorrectly, and there is no clarity on where the rest of the money went. The SANDF continues to bungle its finances as a grand scale.
Instead of addressing this mess, JSCD Co-Chair Malusi Gigaba has shielded the Minister and the SANDF from scrutiny.
After initially agreeing to write to the Minister for answers, Malusi Gigaba made a sudden u-turn and blocked the Committee from acting. This came just days after Minister Motshekga issued a press statement bemoaning the DA’s oversight.
The question must be asked: What is the SANDF and Minister Motshekga trying to hide? And why is Gigaba protecting a Minister presiding over such chaos?
Whilst the constant under-funding of the SANDF is a matter that requires urgent attention, the Department’s lack of prioritisation is a matter of greater concern.