Tightening your belt around your spine
Date: 5 September 2001
Sources say the SANDF has to save R1.2 billion to pay for unbudgeted expenditure, mainly support to the SA Police Service for which the SANDF may not budget. This, they said, would lead to a dramatic cut in flying hours, available flights and mandays for the employment of troops.
Courses, some already in progress, have apparently also been cancelled. The prohibition on the SANDF budgeting for police support its primary function by default today because of treasury rules is becoming increasingly untenable. The treasury only allows government departments to budget for their primary or line functions, in this case the defence on South Africa's territorial integrity and sovereignty. Since neither are currently threatened the SANDF has since 1996 been mandated to assist the civil powers in fighting crime but have not been allowed to finance accordingly. As a result the DoD's budget is more and more an exercise in creative writing.
Defence Systems Daily
