Thandi Modise laments dire state of SANDF

In Hout Bay, the sight of navy submarine SAS Manthatisi stopped in the water for some time led to unhinged speculation that the vessel had become lodged on a sandbank, and was thus a flag-bearer for the apparently dire state of South Africa’s armed forces.

That the speculation went viral, even as defence minister Thandi Modise told parliament that the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) was becoming unsustainable, has surely not helped morale in the force’s thinned-out ranks.

Modise admits the crisis has come about because the force has been bled dry after decades of budget cuts. This has reduced its ability to even protect South Africa’s coastline and borders.

This drama leads, inevitably, to comparisons with the old days when the army figured large and mostly unhappily in the minds of South Africa’s citizenry. Back when there was money for tanks and bullets and strike craft and missiles, and funds for cross-border raids and other military misadventures.

It is a view that conveniently ignores the reality of the “old” army when it was a swamp of fear, loathing, inefficiency, conscription and epic corruption, marinated in farce such as gunners burning down the navy newspaper offices during gunnery practice into an onshore wind, to top brass allegedly stuffing air force transport planes with rhino horn and ivory poached in Angola.

It is also a view that forgets how helicopter gunships and infantry have served bravely in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Central African Republic, even as politicians strangled the defence budget back home

For sure the SANDF needs more money, not less, if it is to carry out its most basic mandate to secure the republic from outside threats.

Meanwhile, to clear up speculation over the “stuck” submarine: the crew of SAS Manthatisi were scattering the ashes of a fellow submariner in an old navy tradition — burial at sea.