The arms deal has been a point of controversy for much of the past decade, with estimates of the total taxpayer costs ranging from R60 billion to R70bn.
Now, some experts feel the Defence Department doesn’t have enough money to man and equip its new purchases, which included 28 Gripen jet fighters and four frigates.
“The military is most definitely not capable of manning all their frigates and submarines or fighter jets,” said Pikki Greeff, national secretary of the SA National Defence Union (Sandu), which has about 15 000 soldiers on its books.
“This is common knowledge. There is a severe shortage of fighter pilots in the SA Air Force. That is part of the furore around the arms deal. We acquired expensive equipment, often not needed, and we’re short on personnel to man it.
“At one stage we were so short-staffed of flying instructors that we had to use instructors from Zimbabwe to train pilots at Langebaan in the Western Cape,” Greeff said.
Those inside the SANDF have admitted they are not capable of training soldiers to man their new equipment without reasonable budget increases.
Last month, air force chief Lieutenant-General Carlo Gagiano conceded that at current funding levels, the air force could not afford to fully implement the Gripen system and put the aircraft into flight for the required number of hours.
“One of the travesties of the arms deal is that we purchased state-of-the-art military equipment that we cannot afford to operate,” said David Maynier, the DA’s spokesman on defence. “The Gripen fighter jets seem destined to spend more time in their hangars than in the air.”
So far, 18 of the 26 Gripen jet fighters purchased have arrived in South Africa, while the rest are being stored by the Swedish Air Force free of cost, according to Gagiano.
Last December, Minister of Defence and Military Veterans Lindiwe Sisulu said there were only eight fully-trained pilots and two navigators for the Gripen aircraft.
The air force’s budget is R6bn of the total defence budget of R34.6bn, which Sisulu described as totally inadequate before the defence budget vote in Parliament in April.
Additionally, one of three submarines acquired in the arms deal – the SAS Manthatisi – has been undergoing repairs for the past two years after SA Navy spokesman Commander Prince Tshabalala confirmed in October that “the single-phase and three-phase power supplies for the electrical supply system to the submarines” were “inadvertently connected into the incorrect sockets on board”.
The submarine cost the navy R1.2bn.
The latest estimate says the arms deal will have cost taxpayers R70bn by the end of 2011. That’s according to research by former ANC MP Andrew Feinstein, author of the critically acclaimed book After the Party.
Godfrey Ramuhala, a military strategy professor at SA’s Military Academy, said the arms deal was necessary in order to have any sort of functioning defence force.
“I think it was necessary and long overdue,” said Ramuhala.
“It would have been much more expensive to reinvigorate our older equipment in the long term. The difficulty is always that of counterbalancing security needs with the socio-economic challenges faced by our people.
“Logic is at odds with spending on defence amidst poverty, lack of housing and unemployment, but the same logic has no place in matters of security.
“In the long term, it would have been less cost-effective to postpone or completely halt the defence package.”
Ramuhala added it was always easy to question the money that was spent on military equipment and technology, but he believed that bringing a state’s arsenal up to date translates to better preparedness for unforeseen threats and missions down the road.
“We have maritime resources on our shore, which are responsible for loads of economic activity.
“We may need the frigates to protect those resources.”
Helmoed Heitman, a military analyst for Jane’s Defence Weekly, said without the arms deal there would be no defence force and it should only take a “reasonable” budget increase to properly equip the new purchases.
“The defence force is capable of operating and maintaining the equipment, although the funding is so that it will not be able to do all that it should,” he said.
“As a simplistic but… valid assessment, I would say that it is a case of add some money, shake and stir a bit, let things settle and we will have a very competent defence force.”
michael.kaplan@inl.co.za