SA’s military proves resilience despite the odds

It was either American novelist Mark Twain or British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli who famously wrote that there are three kinds of lies; lies, damned lies and statistics, which proves just how difficult it is to get to the truth.

It is easy to twist facts to fit convenient narratives, but for the truth to emerge, it is vital for these narratives to be tested against other truths.

In the war for survival, the South African National Defence Force’s (SANDF) greatest foe is disinformation in the battle for hearts and minds, not enemy soldiers taking aim at our members.

There is no doubt that the majority of our key equipment is on average 40 years old, nor that our air force is struggling to maintain serviceable fighter capacity, nor that our navy has maintenance challenges.

But what this narrative does not include is the fact that the threat that our country faces is of a very different profile from the insurgency war of liberation that ended 40 years ago and, indeed, of the conventional wars of invasion and attrition in the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

This narrative also forgets that our prime mission equipment is very well maintained despite its age and budgetary constraints, as evidenced every year during our live fire all arms brigade-strength exercises at the Army Combat Training Centre in Lohatla in the Northern Cape.

The doomsayers’ narrative also ignores the fact that while the median age of all serving members might be as high as 40, the average age of those in our special forces and airborne is well within international norms and that these members conduct themselves in an exemplary fashion across Africa, winning the respect of other militaries.

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As for our navy, we have budgetary challenges with the mid-term refits for our frigates and submarines, but we have also made great strides through the construction and acquisition of our littoral multimission in-shore patrol vessels and the building and acquiring of SAS Nelson Mandela, the navy’s new hydrographic vessel.

Our air force remains a concern.

We have severe constraints with our transport fleet while our Gripen fighter squadrons have well documented woes, because of a lack of budget.

This is perhaps the crux of the matter. As successive ministers of defence and the chiefs of the various arms of service and the chief of the SANDF have said time and again over the past seven years, the SANDF is woefully underfunded by international norms.

Prior to the ongoing conflicts in Eastern Europe which have pushed defence spend beyond 5% of GDP among Nato countries, the average norm was 2%.

In South Africa, it’s traditionally 1% or less and currently below 0.7% of GDP is budgeted for our defence needs.

The biggest question that has to be asked before anyone starts any debate is simple: what kind of defence force should South Africa have? The second question is just as important: how much is SA prepared to pay for the defence force it thinks it wants?

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The fact that we have a functioning people’s defence force that has smashed glass ceilings, created opportunities and does more and more with less is a story that should be told.

It is easy to fixate on vehicle parks of redundant and superannuated equipment, but ignore the work being done every day inside our borders on humanitarian missions and beyond on peacekeeping missions, where there are no media or influencers to tell that story.

For an organisation that works cheek by jowl with danger, deploying into perilous situations, our members execute their tasks commendably and most return safely afterwards.

Critics would have you believe the SANDF is a shambles, wholly unfit for purpose and a waste of taxpayers’ funds.

Nothing could be further from the truth – and our proud record since our founding more than 30 years ago is stark testimony to precisely that.

The SANDF and the department of defence do have problems.

In typical age-old South African style, we have made a plan and it has got us this far. All we ask is that the critics take that into account when they step into glasshouses and pick up stones to lob.

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