SECURITY
SANDF warns budget cuts a threat to SA’s safety
The Department of Defence is among the hardest hit by the government’s belt-tightening
The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) is battling to cope with bruising budget cuts and a rising wage bill, which threaten its ability to protect SA’s borders. The Department of Defence has been among the departments hit hardest by the government’s belt-tightening and is projected to have its annual funding slashed by R5bn in the next five years. The SANDF has resolved to do its maintenance in-house in order to stay afloat. The SANDF’s budget allocations from the Treasury have been declining in real terms and this is not helped by the rise in the military’s personnel costs. An unintended consequence was that the SANDF was struggling to fulfil its mandate as the guardian of SA’s borders, defence secretary Makhudu Gulube conceded in an interview with Business Day. Gulube, however, defended the SANDF’s growing salary bill, its biggest expenditure item, saying the defence force could not function without its people. Estimates show the SANDF spends more than 40% of its budget ...
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