Mission impossible for broke SANDF
As a former military man, Bantu Holomisa must feel intensely frustrated in his current position as deputy minister of defence as he presides over the slow-motion collapse of the SA National Defence Force (SANDF).
His boss, Defence and Military Veterans Minister Angie Motshekga, seems to think our military is still capable of defending the country.
But against what, she does not say. If she is thinking we would be safe from attack from countries around us, then perhaps we might be able to see off Swaziland and Namibia… but Zimbabwe, Botswana and Zambia would be a different proposition, because all boast better equipped defence forces than we have.
Holomisa says there is a lack of support from parliament, Cabinet and National Treasury in ensuring the SANDF gets adequate funding.
The bottom line is that anyone who knows anything about military matters is in agreement: either the SANDF gets the money it needs for maintenance and upgrades, or its mission will have to be redefined.
ALSO READ: 'We're bleeding but not finished': Motshekga defends struggling air force
That our borders and coastline cannot be defended or protected at present is beyond question. But what has been emerging in recent months is the fact that, when the SANDF is required for its major role of 'support to the civil power' in emergency situations, for example… it cannot cope.
In the recent floods in the Eastern Cape, the SA Air Force was unable to deploy rescue helicopters because, as news reports said, it did not have sufficient budget to pay flight engineers their flying allowance.
There is no real airlift capacity to speak of, either, so troops and equipment have had to be transported to and from deployments in Africa by chartered aircraft.
Worryingly, even if money is found now, it will take years to rectify the damage and acquire new systems, never mind maintenance to keep current assets operational.
South Africans are, effectively, sitting ducks.
NOW READ: Ten more SANDF members arrested in Hawks officer murder case
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
IOL News
3 hours ago
- IOL News
Free 1996 Constitution booklet signed by South African greats now valued at nearly R1 million
A free 1996 booklet titled "The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa", bearing the signatures of South African greats, is now valued at nearly R1 million. Image: File "I know him, I know him and I also know her." These were the words uttered by former President Nelson Mandela when he was asked to autograph a 1996 booklet, "The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa", lovingly gathered over a few years by retired chef Neels du Plooy. Now the much-travelled booklet is on sale on Facebook Marketplace with a price tag of a million rand, which might seem steep were it not for the fact that it has the signatures of 30 iconic South African political leaders and judicial pioneers who crafted our peaceful transition to democracy. Many South Africans got a copy of the beloved booklet when it was released, but while ours have no collector value, Du Plooy's is sure to pique the interest of collectors of Mandela memorabilia and those fascinated in our transition to democracy. It has the signatures of former presidents, Nelson Mandela and Mbeki, as well as the last apartheid president, FW de Klerk and current head of state, Cyril Ramaphosa. It also bears the signature of the King of Lesotho and the first Speaker of Parliament, Frene Ginwala, Albie Sachs, Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court in 1999 and a host of others. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Next Stay Close ✕ Chef Neels du Plooy with then-President Thabo Mbeki at a game farm in 1999, where he got a signature from Mbeki and his wife, Zanele. Image: Supplied "Mandela was the only one who autographed the booklet who was interested to see who else had signed it, saying 'I know him, I know him and I know her'", Du Plooy told "Independent Media Lifestyle". Du Plooy, 71, was given a copy of the booklet by a journalist friend, and he wasted no time as a chef with Fedics to gather as many signatures as he could of the influential personalities whenever the opportunity arose. "I cooked 99 percent of them, so I always carried the booklet with me and would ask the head chef if I could ask them for autographs. "I even cooked for former President Thabo Mbeki and his wife on a game farm at Mapungubwe in 1999, where we spent four days just before Christmas, and that is when I got both their signatures," he said. He was involved in the catering for the inauguration of Mbeki. Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki at the latter's inauguration as president of South Africa in 1999, both of whom signed Neels du Plooy's booklet on our Constitution. Image: Debbie Yazbek "In the late '90s, I was at the opening of the Lesotho Highlands Katse Dam and took the booklet with me, and after the meal, there were a lot of MPs, including Ramaphosa and five or six premiers of the first administration whose signatures I was able to get." That's where he also got the signature of King Letsi III, ruler of the Kingdom of Lesotho. Du Plooy managed to get the signatures of George Bizos, Mangosuthu Buthelezi, Kader Asmal, Arthur Chaskalson and Govan Mbeki. Du Plooy, who lives in Sandringham, Johannesburg, was later a chef at a restaurant in the Joburg Civic Centre in Braamfontein, and so he used that opportunity to gather signatures of important people when they came to dine. He believes it is the only booklet in the world that bears the signatures of four state presidents. But there is one signature at the top left of the first page of the booklet which he has not been able to identify. "I only got signatures of significant people at the time, so it was someone important, I am just unable to work out whose signature it is," he said. The signature at the top left of this page has turned out to be a puzzler for Neels du Plooy, who only sought the signatures of significant players in our transition to democracy. Image: Supplied Du Plooy said there is one signature he wishes it had, and that is of Roelf Meyer, who was a key drafter of the Constitution, with whom he has lost contact. The Marketplace advert states that the booklet is accompanied by a provenance certificate and official ISBN registration. "This volume is a verified original - an irreplaceable piece of South African history... Ideal for collectors of Mandela-era memorabilia, constitutional scholars or institutions preserving democratic heritage."
The Citizen
3 hours ago
- The Citizen
De Lille dissolves SA Tourism board – but Outa calls her decision ‘disgraceful'
Patricia de Lille dissolves the SA Tourism board for governance failures. However, Outa said it is 'outraged' by her action. Tourism Minister Patricia de Lille has dissolved the SA Tourism board with immediate effect over what she called unlawful decisions. De Lille informed the board of her decision on 19 August, following consideration of their written representations as to why the board should not be dissolved. De Lille removes SA Tourism board for unlawful conduct The minister said the board members neglected to address the crucial question of the legality of the process the board used when calling a special board meeting on 1 August, when the unlawful resolution was taken. De Lille said legal advice to her confirmed that the board's special meeting on 1 August 2025 was convened unlawfully. She said section 18(2) of the Act empowers only the board chairperson to convene a special board meeting. 'As of 1 August 2025, the board had no chairperson to lawfully convene a special board meeting following the resignation of Professor Gregory Davids the day before (31 July 2025), but this notwithstanding, the board elected to convene a special board meeting, and in doing so, the board acted unlawfully and ultra vires its powers,' the minister said. ALSO READ: WATCH: Minister of Tourism Patricia de Lille launches Tourism Month Minister warned board in the past In the past, De Lille had warned the board about the potential consequences of calling special and ordinary meetings without following the proper procedures. In a meeting with the board on 4 July 2025, and a letter to the board on 13 July 2025, the minister voiced her concerns about the board's disregard for governance protocols. The minister said this compromised the board's integrity and may have made the results of such meetings invalid and unlawful. The board responded by letter on 22 July 2025, assuring De Lille that it had put in place interventions, and these 'enhancements have and will ensure that all meetings are properly constituted, chaired and documented…' 'In the exercise of its powers, the board must always be guided by the principle of legality, which is part of the rule of law as set out in section 1(c) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa,' De Lille said. The department said the minister will initiate the process to appoint a new board and invite nominations for eligible people in due course. In the interim, De Lille will appoint one or more individuals to manage the board's affairs until she installs a new board. 'The minister assures South Africans and the tourism sector that these developments will not derail the ongoing programmes, including SA Tourism's collaboration with the Tourism Business Council of South Africa, to deliver a successful G20 summit,' the department said. Outa calls De Lille's decision 'disgraceful' In response to De Lille's action, the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) said it is 'outraged'. 'This action is nothing short of gross political interference and represents a direct assault on governance and accountability within a state entity,' it said. Outa said the SA Tourism board was addressing serious governance concerns, including irregular financial conduct. It added that it suspects De Lille's decision was made to protect the suspended SA Tourism CEO Nombulelo Guliwe. 'Instead of supporting her own competent board for holding executive management accountable, the minister has chosen to protect the SA Tourism CEO by disbanding the very body tasked with oversight. 'As far as Outa is concerned, the fact that the board does not have a chairperson – which incidentally is the minister's fault – doesn't make the board's decision unlawful in taking the necessary action that it did. We believe the board was quorate and unanimous in how it arrived at the decision to suspend the CEO, pending a disciplinary enquiry into her conduct. NOW READ: The missed opportunity in South African tourism
Eyewitness News
4 hours ago
- Eyewitness News
The National Convention did not change my mind about the National Dialogue
Malaika Mahlatsi 20 August 2025 | 12:30 national dialogue Cyril Ramaphosa Government of national unity (GNU) UNISA hosted the two-day convention for the National Dialogue at its main campus in Pretoria. Picture: @GovernmentZA/X On the 15th of August, as I left my house in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg and drove to UNISA's main campus in Muckleneuk, Pretoria, to attend the first National Convention of the National Dialogue, there were many thoughts on my mind. I was attending the National Convention as part of the media - an in-house analyst for Newzroom Afrika. The first thought on my mind was that the National Convention should not have been taking place on the day. Days prior to the event, various organisations - political parties and non-governmental organisations had pulled out. These include, among others, the Thabo Mbeki Foundation, the Desmond and Leah Tutu Foundation, the Steve Biko, and the FW de Klerk Foundation. The legacy foundations cited concerns over the rushed timeline, inadequate preparation, and a shift towards government control as reasons for their withdrawal. According to the legacy foundations, the National Dialogue was intended to be a citizen-driven and inclusive process, but ran the risk of morphing into a government-led initiative, eroding its legitimacy as a people's dialogue. Parties such as the Democratic Alliance (DA), the second biggest political party after the African National Congress (ANC), and a member of the Government of National Unity (GNU) had already withdrawn from the process (albeit for reasons I deem opportunistic). The Freedom Front Plus (FF+) withdrew just a day before the event was scheduled to take place. Other political parties, including uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP), the biggest opposition party in South Africa, and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), which won nearly 10 percent of the vote in the 2024 general election, the fourth highest after the ANC, DA and MKP, had long since stated their rejection of the National Dialogue. The EFF, in a statement released on the 13th of June 2025, characterised the dialogue as a platform "for failed politicians to rehabilitate themselves under the guise of public consultation". The MKP, which revealed that it was not invited to the dialogue and wouldn't have participated regardless, described it as "a politically compromising gathering" that was aimed at flattering president Cyril Ramaphosa rather than genuinely engaging with ordinary South Africans about the problems facing the country. This is a sentiment is shared by many - and certainly, by the protestors who were gathered on sidewalks near the venue, raising issues around the privatisation of public goods, the erasure of the Khoi people from collective national memory, poor service delivery and high levels of unemployment. It was this group that I first came across as I made my way through the police checkpoint a few meters from the UNISA entrance. On the first day of the National Convention, the venue was abuzz with activity as delegates and the media waited in anticipation for proceedings to begin. The contentious National Convention was flighted on all news channels, and the media was as invested as some South Africans in what the National Convention would achieve given the withdrawal of the legacy foundations and the crisis of legitimacy that exists around the role of the national government in the Cyril Ramaphosa, who delivered the keynote address, was supposed to convince South Africans about the value of the National Dialogue, given the crisis of legitimacy around it. What he did, instead, was confirm the concerns and criticisms that are being levelled against the process. Specifically, he confirmed what the EFF has been raising about the platform being an attempt by the government to rehabilitate itself under the guise of public consultation. Nowhere was this as aptly captured as in the part of his speech where, explaining what South Africans would have to cogitate on, said the following: 'We will need to have difficult conversations about many issues, including: Why do South African women have to live in fear of men? Why do so many people live in abject poverty and so few live lives of opulence? Why, after decades of democracy, are the prospects for a white child so much better than those of a black child? Why do women get paid less than men for the same work? Why, when we have a Bill of Rights, are LGBTQI+ people still discriminated against, stigmatised and harassed? Why do clinics run out of medicine? Why do taps run dry? These are some of the questions that we must be willing to ask and which we must prepared to answer'. It is unconscionable that in 2025, the president genuinely believes that these are issues that a National Dialogue must reflect upon. These issues are neither new – they are the very issues that South Africans have been dialoguing about for decades. More than that, solutions to these problems have been proposed by every stakeholder in the country – from the government itself to the private sector, civil society, unorganised people, the media and multilateral institutions. There is a copious amount of data, a lot of it scientifically rigorous, that engages with and answers these very questions. In public participation platforms such as ward meetings, presidential imbizos, planning processes including the Integrated Development Planning (IDP), labour surveys, data gathering processes for government reports, media platforms including social media, parliamentary committee hearings, and even protests, this data has been provided. How, in 2025, does the president stand before the nation and demand that we ask ourselves why service delivery is failing, why violence against women and children is rampant, why discriminatory attitudes towards the LGBTIQ+ community persist, and all other issues that South Africans have reflected upon, raised on many platforms, made recommendations on solutions for? Does he not read data collected from people by the very government that he leads? Does he not hear these issues at presidential imbizos and other public participation processes? Does the president not read newspapers, watch the news or listen to community radio stations? Why, for goodness' sake, would a president think issues that emerge largely from the failure of the state, a state that he was intentional to make clear at the beginning of his keynote address that he heads, must be preoccupy the minds of South Africans who are living with the consequences of this failure? The tone that the president set for the National Dialogue confirms the sentiments of Sinawo Tambo, the spokesperson of the EFF who once argued on this EWN platform that president Ramaphosa is attempting to make South Africans take collective responsibility for the failures of the party he leads and seeks to mask this scapegoating with the sentimentality of a National Dialogue. Nothing else explains why the president saw it sensible to ask of us why clinics run out of medicines, taps run dry, poverty continues to debilitate millions, and Black people remain on the receiving end of structural violence. The president knows answers to these questions – or at least, he should. I refuse to believe that a Head of State is not being furnished with the data that is constantly being churned out by his own government about these very issues. If that were the case, then there is absolutely no reason for him to remain in office because to not know such critical details about a country that one leads is nothing short of a dereliction of duty. I refuse to believe he does not know. That leaves us with one other possibility – that the National Dialogue is yet another theatre of the performance of democracy, and that the president himself is the main character in the play. If that is the case, then this multi-million Rand process is everything that critics are characterising it as – a rehabilitation centre for failed leadership. Malaika, a bestselling award-winning author, is a geographer and researcher at the Institute for Pan African Thought. She is a PhD in Geography candidate at the University of Bayreuth in Germany.
