Key to South Africa’s combatting of the Covid-19 pandemic has been the efforts of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), which has been at the “eye of the storm”, having been heavily engaged with combatting the spread of the disease, says National Defence Industry Council director Trevor Mketi.
At the request of the commander-in-chief Cyril Ramaphosa, he says the SANDF deployed tens of thousands of personnel across the country.
As such, Mketi says the SANDF members have been engaged in a variety of tasks in support of the national state of disaster, including securing South Africa’s porous borders and supporting the South African Police Services in maintaining law and order, as well as compliance with the state of disaster regulations.
Since the lockdown started in late March, he points out that SANDF soldiers have carried out thousands of patrols, arrested several thousands of people and confiscated hundreds of firearms, as well as millions of rands worth of drugs, counterfeit goods and stolen vehicles, besides other successes.
“Operation Notlela highlights, in the most practical way, the need for well-resourced and well equipped national defence force, as the pandemic has shown that lives depend on it,” he states.
However, even prior to the Operation Notlela deployment, the SANDF has been struggling to remain financially afloat, with Mketi pointing out that the Covid-19 pandemic has placed increased strain on the SANDF’s and the Department of Defence’s (DoD’s) budget, with the DoD “attempting to cut costs wherever it can”.
To this extent, he says the DoD is limiting spending on things such as advertising and training development, limiting travel and suspending procurement and the refurbishment of vehicles.
In addition, funds for the DoD’s acquisition agency Armscor have also been trimmed, says Mketi, adding that, consequently, the number of projects Armscor has been tasked with will “soon reach zero”.
Meanwhile, he says that, in line with reduced budgets, the functions and activities of the defence establishment have not stopped as a result of Covid-19.
“In fact, there are more demands than ever on the DoD to meet domestic and international obligations. For example the SANDF continues to contribute to the United Nations [peacekeeping] mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, continues to patrol South Africa’s exclusive economic zone in the Mozambican channel and continues to safeguard our borders, even though there is no funding for the 22 companies for border protection.”
In this regard, Mketi says, at present, South Africa only has 15 companies securing South Africa’s borders.
“The fact that they have seen a significant number of contraband goods smuggled under lockdown proves how important adequate border protection is.”