Air Force clips its wings
Date: 9 April 2003
By Donwald Pressly
The South African Air Force is to reduce its staff by about 1,500 personnel to reach a figure of 10,000 in three years time, Lt Gen Roelf Beukes said in a briefing to Members of Parliament on Tuesday.
Beukes, the Air Force chief, told members of the National Assembly defence committee that the bulk of the just over two billion rand a year budget was largely focused on personnel spending - a situation which had to change if one was to tackle the backlogs in operational spending.
A total of nearly 60% of the budget is spent on salaries and related costs while only about 16% is used for operational matters. In the next three years operational spending will rise to about 30% as staff numbers are reduced. While he did not go into details about how the force would manage the staff losses, he did note that the commercial airline companies were raiding the ranks of the force through "aggressive headhunting" and 13 black pilots and four women pilots had been lost in the last few years.
The Air Force was also looking into public-private partnerships to shield the force against further deterioration of air force bases.
"Most aircraft systems and bases have deteriorated to some degree" he said, noting that the air force had been heavily cutting back on upgrading and maintenance in recent years.
The Hoedspruit base was earmarked for such a partnership, he said.
From a point of being overwhelming white in 1994, the staff composition of the Airforce was now reach a rough parity between black and white members. There were now 12 female pilots. He said there were now 450 black officers - up from 27 in 1994. There were 1,400 black non-commissioned officers in 1994 but this had risen to 3,700.
Beukes noted that the first Agusta A 109 helicopter would be arriving in November this year and engine performance tests were being carried out on the Hawk fighter jet - the first of which is to arrive next year. These were part of the multi-billion rand defence strategic equipment package.
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