http://www.treasury.gov.za/documents/na ... terans.pdfSo far I've just skimmed through the "Expenditure Analysis" narrative, there don't seem to be any great surprises.
There seems to be a real effort to reduce personnel expenditure, but a worrying aspect is the drastic reduction in new recruit numbers. With so few new youngsters entering through the MSD programme the "over-age lower ranks" problem is set to get worse in the short to medium term. Retaining privates for longer might result in immediate savings in reduced basic training expenditure, but the consequences are higher healthcare expenditure later as general fitness levels are not sustainable. This also results in reduced work output per person at the "heavy lifting grunt-work" end of the spectrum.