Mon séjour en Afrique du Sud (Cape Town)

Growing obligations of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) in peace and support operations around Africa have stretched beyond its budgetary capacity, according to the opposition African Christian Democratic Party.

The party said the military was on the verge of collapse for want of funding, stressing the government needs to urgently review its attitude towards defence expenditure.

It said the current defence budget of only 1.6 percent of GDP compares very poorly to an average of 1.8 to 2 percent for developing countries.

"A recent assessment by command structures of SANDF indicates that an additional 2 billion rand is needed to enable the SANDF to meet all its obligations. The SANDF has been extremely thrifty over the past few years and there is a danger that the country is losing its capabilities," said ACDP spokesman Adriaan Blaas.

"We are now seeing the symptoms of insufficient funding manifesting in the total breakdown of communication in SANDF, a lack of discipline with increased reports of assault on senior officers, disregard for orders and unprofessional conduct by senior personnel and the promotion of unqualified personnel," Blaas charged.

He said every country, including South Africa should take pride in a defence force that should be disciplined, motivated, confident and in a state of readiness for any eventuality.

"The executive must accept responsibility for the collapse of SANDF, because without reasonable and sufficient funding, a reliable professional defence force cannot be sustained. They are not fulfilling their commitment to the constitution in that they neglect to provide for an effective defence capacity for South Africa," he said.

Meanwhile the official opposition Democratic Alliance said SANDF must carry out a detailed strategic review of its current threats and needs and balance their decisions against domestic needs and requirements.

"South Africa can play a meaningful role in peace support operations in Africa but this has to be weighed up against domestic security needs," DA spokesman Roy Jankielsohn said.

"The cost of foreign deployments in 2003 is one billion rand and is expected to cost an additional 2.4 billion rand between 2004 and 2006," he noted.