The DA is outraged by revelations surrounding the South African Army’s latest golf day extravaganza, which lays bare a disturbing pattern of misplaced priorities inside the Department of Defence and Military Veterans and continues to show just how out of touch its Minister is with reality.
While the Department repeatedly tells Parliament that it is in a financial crisis – unable to fund aircraft maintenance, troop readiness, or the healthcare needs of military veterans – it continues to spend public resources on lavish ceremonial events involving hundreds of guests, extensive logistics, and VIP hospitality.
Reports indicate that nearly 400 VIP guests, including Premiers and royal guests, are invited to the Army Chief’s annual golf day in April, accompanied by accommodation costs running into millions of rands and a large-scale prize-giving function. At the same time, counter-intelligence teams will be deployed to sweep venues for eavesdropping, sniffer dogs are assigned to secure the event and roads leading to the golf course are to be repaired – even as surrounding communities continue to suffer from neglected infrastructure.
Recently, more that R300m was spent on the Armed Forces Day which included exorbitant subsistence and travel payments for SANDF members of up to R70 000.
This is not simply about optics. It is about priorities – and accountability.
South Africa’s military is currently facing a severe operational and financial crisis. The South African Military Health Service continuation fund is on the brink of collapse, which will leave thousands of military veterans without health care. Critical platforms remain grounded due to maintenance backlogs and troops have raised concerns about equipment shortages. At the same time, President Cyril Ramaposa has deployed the army to five provinces to combat illegal mining and gangsterism at the cost of R823 million.
Despite this critical mission, the Department continues to allocate time, personnel and resources to non-operational activities that do nothing to improve readiness or capability.
Equally troubling is the fact that the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Angie Motshekga, on Friday insisted that the R823 million budget for the SANDF deployment across five provinces cannot be broken down in a normal open meeting of the Joint Standing Committee on Defence, claiming the details must instead be discussed behind closed doors. This, despite the fact that it was confirmed that the amount was an “estimate” and that it may not even be enough.
The DA rejects this approach outright, especially whilst the Minister continues to take advice from a special advisor whom the Supreme Court of Appeal has found to have unconstitutionally bound the Department when he acted as Director-General for the Department of Military Veterans to the tune of R60 million.
Transparency cannot be optional when public money is involved – particularly when corruption investigations into Minister Motshekga’s department constitutes 34% of all current investigations into departments in the security cluster by the Hawks and the SIU. These investigations total a conservative estimate of R2.1 to R2.5 billion.
If the SANDF can produce detailed operational plans for a golf day, complete with logistics, security arrangements and ceremonial displays, it can certainly provide a clear financial breakdown of its deployment budget to Parliament and the public.
The DA will formally request the Chairpersons of the Joint Standing Committee on Defence to summon the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans and the Chief of the Army to account, in an open committee session at the first opportune time to:
- Provide a full breakdown of all costs associated with this golf day, including accommodation, security, transport, infrastructure repairs and hospitality expenditure;
- Table all financial records and audit documentation related to the event before the Joint Standing Committee on Defence.
- Present a complete and transparent breakdown of the R823 million SANDF deployment budget.
The DA will continue to insist that every rand spent by the corruption-plagued Department of Defence is justified, transparent and aligned with operational readiness; not by ceremonial excess.