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America is not impressed with us, Russia would throttle us if anything happens to Putin on our turf, and our own people are on the verge of Civil War almost all of the time thanks to our corrupt and incompetent government.

So it is rather alarming and vulnerable to hear how poorly the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) is doing at this point in time.

It’s not really anything new, but our defence Minister Thandi Modise has admitted that the defence force is becoming more and more unsustainable. This has prompted an expert to warn that if a military superpower were to attack, South Africans would be defenceless, News24 reported.

The SANDF has weakened substantially thanks to severe budget cuts, but Modise explained that reviving the SANDF would require a comprehensive approach that encompassed various aspects, including leadership, funding, training, and strategic planning.

Responding to a written parliamentary question from EFF’s Washington Mafanya, Modise shed light on whether she intended to resign in light of the failure to revive the SANDF and make way for new leadership that will understand the 2015 defence review:

“The South African Defence Review 2015 is, and remains, the national policy on defence. The Defence Review 2015 remains largely valid and appropriate, even though it was predicated on a steady-stream improvement in defence allocation, agreed to by Cabinet at that time, but which did not materialise,” Modise said

“The defence force is becoming progressively more unsustainable in terms of the declining defence baseline allocation and we have now reached the point where the Republic must decide on the kind of defence force it wants and what it can afford.”

She advised that a review and analysis of the South African Defence Review 2015 will be required by 31 March 2024, “to provide a realistic and sustainable future-orientated defence value-proposition, cognisant of current fiscal realities, that delivers against the constitutional mandate of defence, South Africa’s national interests and the government’s priorities and risk appetite”.

Meanwhile, defence expert Helmoed Heitman believes the country’s defence systems are nonexistent:

“If any big player came to attack us, we would not be able to do anything. The only reason we are not in trouble is because no one is attacking us. In the state of our navy, we cannot patrol our waters and we can’t prevent smuggling.”

Hietman added, “The army does not have enough troops to go everywhere. It’s got troops in Mozambique, in the DRC, plus they do work on the border. Then every now and then they get called out to do work locally. They just don’t have enough bodies to do the work.”

Besides there not being nearly enough boots on the ground, equipment is also an issue:

“The defence force has no money to maintain its equipment. So [much] of it simply does not work. Almost all defence forces use drones, but we don’t have a system to counter attack drones and we don’t have much anti-aircraft capability,” he said.

Another issue for the SANDF is their deployments to various areas both on the domestic and international front. Soldiers have been needed locally for everything from protecting Eskom power stations to assisting police in Cape Town’s gang-ridden areas or with the unrest in KZN.

Modise said all stakeholders would be discussing the draft defence and national security policy concept as well as the future military capstone concept in the next few months.

[source:news24]