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Herewith some Tweets (@deanwingrin) I sent earlier this afternoon after the release of the 2024/25 Budget by National Treasury, as it relates to the SANDF:
Remember, CPI is 6%. The real military rate of inflation is far higher.
The total Dept of Defence budget for 2024/25 is R51 810.4m (2023/24: Adjusted to R 52 468.2), a decline of 1.25% in nominal value, or a decline of 6.85% in real terms.
This is a DISASTER for the #SANDF and its abilities to carry out its missions.
Compensation of employees remains the main spending area, accounting for 64.8% (R138.9 billion) of total expenditure. This includes an additional allocation of R7.6 billion over the next 3 years to cater for adjustments arising from the 2023/24 public sector wage agreement.
Reductions amounting to R5.3bn over the MTEF period include reductions on transfers to Armscor of R155.6m in 2024/25, R162.7m in 25/26 and R170.2m in 26/27.
They will review to id inefficiencies & redundancies without compromising core defence capabilities. Heard that before!
How are the various programs are impacted:
Admin: Down by 51.6m (0.93%)
Force Employment: Down by 1,202.1m (23.17%)
Land: Up by 771.4m (4.76%)
Air: Down by 874.8m (11.78%)
Maritime: Down by 32.1m (0.72%)
Military Health Support: Up by 205.3m (3.64%)
Intel: Up by 95.1m (9.20%)
With missions req support in the DRC and Moz, the Army has received a 4.76% increase, but Force Employment is down (23.17%).
The Airforce is down 11.78%. Already unable to pay for critical spares, maintenance and upgrades, the external deployments may be in serious trouble.
With the Navy's budget down 0.72%, the death knell is sounding. The SAAF is not far behind.
The South African Defence budget for 2024/25 equates to approximately 0.70% of GDP.
The norm should be 1.3% to 1.5% of GDP, the target is 2%.
I know SA is facing critical social issues, but then don't deploy troops into harms way. Either support them, or withdraw them.
The Min of Finance says the SANDF mission in DRC will not be financed from the Defence budget, but that they are still looking at it!
Seriously?The troops are already there, some have already died. And he is still looking at how to fund them?
The Defence Force is in crisis.
This is the SAAF's budget:
Helicopter Capability is down by 10.5m (1.37%)
Transport & Maritime is down by 270.4m (35.27%)
Air Combat is up by 190.5m (41.50%)
Operational Support & Intel is up by 49.4m (13.98%)
Training is up by 19m (4.29%)
For the SAAF, this is a disaster.
The heli line, critical for supporting troops in the DRC and Moz (as well as the citizens within SA), even less is allocated!
Despite a critical shortage in transport & logistics, this is down significantly!
Yet the fighters get an increase.
For the Navy, it's no better.
Combat decreased by 58.7m (6.03%)
Logistic Support is down by $32.3m (2.11%)
HR & Training is up by 50.2m (9.62%)
Base Support is up by 63.2m (11.05%)
Already unable to maintain its current fleet, expect worse.
Herewith the Military Health figures.
At least they get a small increase. Not enough of course, but will hopefully stop the deterioration in services. But not enough to make them much better.
The Defence Force relies on the Reserve Force to provide boots on the ground for internal deployments. Without them, the Army simply cannot function. The other arms also rely on Reserve Force members.
So, the # of RF person days/yr is 1.9m, up by .40%.
In 20/21 it was 3.3m!
The number of personnel in each programme.
Total funded is 70 939 (23/24 69 591):
Admin: 4 043
Force Employment: 2 433
Land: 34 983
Air: 9 107
Maritime: 5 870
Military Health Support: 6 829
Intel: 1 055
General support: 6 620
The CoE bill is already R3.5bn in the hole.
The President said that the #SANDF would get an increase. Did we see it? No!
The South African soldier must be severely disappointed by their Commander in Chief.
The SANDF is given an ever increasing mandate, yet a reduced budget. This leads to deaths (it already has).
The Air Force has a target of 12 000 hrs/yr, the Navy of 8 000 sea hours. It is doubtful that either will reach it in the current year. Highly doubtful they will attain near such numbers next year.
Really depressing reading.
The police and defence are allocated an additional R350m to support elections. Big deal, Defence's portion will not go far.
The President said that the #SANDF would get an increase. Did we see it? No!
The South African soldier must be severely disappointed by their Commander in Chief.
The SANDF is given an ever increasing mandate, yet a reduced budget. This leads to deaths (it already has).
I'm tired. Been a long afternoon of figures and disappointment. A total failure for the Defence Force.
Apologies for any errors or omissions. I'm sure there are other informative comments and I look forward to reading them.
See, I didn't even mention about the lack of funding for new and upgraded equipment and systems to support our troops.
Army needs new vehicles (not refurbished 40 year old), new EW and other systems in the DRC and Moz.
Rooivalk must be upgraded as it's not operational in it's current state, even if they can get a few flying. Far too few Oryx are airworthy and even then they need an EW upgrade. Too few crews too.
No transport aircraft for vital logistics.
Navy? X
Do I need to carry on?
For those interested (or bored enough to get this far), herewith the source of income and how it's spent.
"Peace and Security" includes defence, police, border agency, etc.
It will be too late when the Govt realises that they should have increased spending a decade ago.
So there we have it, a severely underfunded Defence Force that cannot meet the commitments required of it ito its mandate and Defence policy. Costs are increasing by more than the small budget increase received, yet the SANDF is still required to deliver more with less.
The Defence Review of 2015 is out of date. Although accepted by Govt, it was never fully funded. Now the Govt expects the SANDF to perform at that level, yet does not adequately fund the Defence Force.
Time for a new Defence Review!
Either fully fund the Defence Force accord to the current Review, or keep the funding and reduce the capabilities & missions required of it.
It cannot be both.
Capabilities have already been lost. It takes a lot of money and time to get them back, decades.
Yet, the SANDF is always on call to assist other failed State depts, such as providing bridges and other civil infrastructure, cleaning rivers, internal policing, providing security at power stations, assisting Police with illegal miners, fire & rescue services, etc, etc.
Like the ugly step-child, the SANDF is forgotten and unloved, fed scraps and only just tolerated.
Yet, when disaster strikes, your home is threatened, SA's foreign policy needs a boost, internal instability increases, who is always called?
The SANDF of course!
_________________
How come every time my ship comes in, I'm at the airport?
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