[imagesource: Ashraf Hendricks / GroundUp]
The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) is, to put it kindly, a bit of a mess.
Budget cuts announced recently are likely to result in more than 3 000 uniformed soldiers leaving over the course of the next two years.
Not that the money allocated to SANDF has been particularly well spent. Remember the absolute farce that was the Cuban military training exchange programme, code-named Project Thusano?
Our military has been labelled “top-heavy, under-resourced and ill-equipped” and is currently involved in a dispute with AfriForum, which accuses the SANDF of failing to adequately protect our border with Zimbabwe.
The picture is not a pretty one and Carte Blanche recently decided to dig a little deeper in a segment titled ‘SANDF: Might or mayhem?’:
How has the South African National Defence Force landed up in critical care? From stemming countrywide riots last year, to humanitarian relief operations following the Durban floods; quelling gang violence in the Western Cape, and keeping the peace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo – the SANDF has been called upon to defend the land and its citizens in many ways.
Now, the budget taps are running dry. While President Cyril Ramaphosa announced sweeping changes to the military command and just greenlit an extended deployment in Cabo del Gado, Mozambique, for another year – at a cost of R2.8 billion that was never budgeted for – Carte Blanche questions whether our military can continue fulfilling its mandate.
All in all, it’s yet another example of our government’s seemingly ceaseless ability to wreck everything it touches.
Settle in and watch the wheels come off:
[source:carteblanche]
