Defence and Military Veterans Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula has warned that defence cuts are severely affecting the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), while security within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region has deteriorated. She was addressing the House of Assembly on Tuesday.

She pointed out that the more than R15-billion cut in the defence budget over the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework was causing great difficulties for her department. “Our capital budget has effectively been reduced to a trickle and the operating budget is under extreme pressure,” she reported.

The SANDF was consequently finding it most difficult to increase the serviceability of its ‘prime mission equipment’. “Whilst we are fully aware of the fiscal challenges that South Africa has, the reduction in our allocation has had a devastating impact,” she affirmed.

She pointed out that the Covid-19 pandemic had hit economic growth, trade and development, and human security in the SADC region. The disease had reinforced already existing drivers of conflict within the region. There would have to be careful, deliberate and coordinated interstate efforts to restore human security across SADC.

“We continue to be concerned by the security developments in the region, in particular the upsurge of insurgency in our neighbouring country,” she cautioned, in a clear reference to the Islamist insurgency in the Cabo Delgado province of Mozambique, neither of which she identified by name. “This has a potential of spilling over the entire region. The SADC regional leadership is seized with the matter and we hope for a speedy resolution.”

Budget cuts had forced the SANDF to adopt a short-term perspective, focused not its mandate but on its budget. It could only function to the degree that it was funded and resourced. Consequently, the SANDF would have to rebalance its military capabilities, seeking to create a future force that would still be able to fulfil a wide range of functions. To this end, she had issued a series of wide-ranging directives to her Department, the SANDF and the Defence Secretariat, covering cost cutting, restructuring and reorganisation. These steps would, however, involve “significant risk”.

“We are not immune to fundamentalism and extremism, terrorism, cybercrimes and organised crime,” she warned. “All these are significantly increasing on the continent and in the region. ... Against this backdrop, I once again ask of this House to apply its mind and wisdom to this question: ‘What kind of Defence Force should South Africa have and what can it afford?’”