Whether she intends to resign in light of the failure to revive the SA National Defence Force and make way for new leadership that will understand the SA Defence Review of 2015; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details?
Reviving the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) requires a comprehensive approach that encompasses various aspects, including leadership, funding, training, and strategic planning. The South African Defence Review 2015 is, and remains, the National Policy on Defence. The Defence Review 2015 remains largely valid and appropriate, even though it was predicated on a steady-stream improvement in defence allocation, agreed to by Cabinet ...
(1) Whether, with reference to the SA Defence Force (SANDF) having sent a delegation to Russia, led by the South African Army (C Army), Lieutenant General Lawrence Mbatha, to discuss relating to military cooperation and interaction, the vist is contrary to our non-alignment position on the war in Ukraine; if not, what is the position in this regard;
(2) Whether this can be regarded as the most vulnerable time to be sending a military delegation to Russia after the United States has raised concerns over our flip-flopping in the matter; if not, why not; id so, what are the relevant details;
(3) Whether her department is in constant consultation with the Department of International Relations and Cooperation and Ministry of Finance to ensure that the Republic can weather the storms should sanctions be imposed as a result of the visit to Russia by the SANDF delegation; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, what are the relevant details?
(1) What are the details of the outcomes of the Second Board of Inquiry established to inquire into the non payment of the 815 members from the Umzimvubu Regiment who reported for training and deployment as part of Operation Prosper in response to the 2021 civil uprisings;
(2) Whether the specified 815 reserve force and regimental members have received the remuneration due to them for the period that they were at their base; if not, why not, if so, what are the relevant details?
1. The Board of Inquiry (BOI) on Umzimvubu Regiment is with C SANDF’s legal office for review and assessment on the recommendations made by C Army, details of which can only be divulged on the conclusion of the review process.
2. The members have not yet been paid because the BOI is still with C SANDF’s legal office for a review process, which will ...
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Whether she will receive military assistance from Russia to modernise the Republic’s capital military hardware; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details
The modernisation of the SANDF prime mission equipment is a process that is within the planned and budgeted for capital acquisition programmes. Whilst there are considerations for the modernisation of the SANDF, there has been no approaches to Russia for such.
There is however in existence bilateral defence relations within the context of the signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Defence Cooperation, within which ...
With reference to the website of the Department of Military Veterans with regard to the pension of military veterans under the heading Military Veterans Pensions Frequently Asked Questions under point 13 regarding limitations and qualifications, where it is stated that former conscripts as well as volunteers of the SA National Defence Force do not qualify for the specified pension, which is contrary to the law that acknowledges this category as military veterans, what are the reasons for excluding this category of members, as it is contrary to the definition of a military veteran?
1. The department has reviewed the policy based on the inputs received following the publishing and tabling of the draft regulations in Parliament in December 2022. The department has aligned the policy to the final 2023 Regulations following inputs received after gazetting the Regulations on the 25 April 2023.
2. The Military Veterans as defined in the Military Veterans Act 18 of 2011 will ...
(a) In which region and/or country, other than the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Mozambique, has the Republic deployed soldiers, (b)(i) what total number of soldiers and (ii) at what total cost and (c) what total number of fatalities has the SA National Defence Force suffered on the missions to date?
(a) The countries where the SANDF soldiers have been deployed in the past years are Lesotho, Burundi, Mozambique and Sudan.(b) Total number of:
(i) Soldiers deployed
a. Lesotho – 465
b. Burundi – 1 200
c. Sudan – 820
(ii) Costs incurred (period FY2000/01 to date) – Rb 5 325 961.
(c) Total number of fatalities the SANDF incurred during Peace Support Operations (PSO) ...
(1) What total amount has the deployments of the SA National Defence Force in (a) Mozambique and (b) the Democratic Republic of the Congo cost the Republic to date, noting that the President, Mr M C Ramaphosa, has just extended the deployments?
(a) Mozambique – R984 368 057.00.
(b) Democratic Republic of Congo – R 1 004 241 271.00.
In view of the 2023 Budget Vote wherein it was noted that R18,2 that is reprioritised over the next three years from the compensation of employees in the SA Military Health Services (SAMHS) Support programme, to payment for capital assets such as ambulances , radiology machines and other deployable field medical equipment. What (a) plans will be put in place to acquire the specified resources and/or equipment speedily and bring it is service? (b) What steps will be taken to ensure that SAMHS improve management in reduction on overtime work?
a) SAMHS has received Rm188 (and not R18,2) that was reprioritized from compensation of employees (overtime) for the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF). These funds are ring-fenced for the procurement of Main Medical Equipment and Prime Mission Equipment (Ambulances, Diagnostic Medical Equipment [X-ray] and Deployable Medical Equipment).
Rm60 is ring fenced for FY2023/24, Rm62 for FY2024/25 and Rm65 for FY2025/26.The procurement plan for the ...
(1) With Armscor as the contract manager, the SA National Defence Force and Denel having been instructed by the Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans to make a final determination on the future of Project Hoefyster, what is the status of the project (details furnished) since the project is an important project for the refurbishment of the SA Army’s Infantry capability;
(2) What will be the next steps towards making a final determination on the project?
1. The SA Army gave approval for the completion of Phase 1 (Development) and the acceptance of the indicated specification deviations, as well as acceptance of the already manufactured 4 Section Variants Pre-Production Models (PPM’s) updated to the latest status.
2. The next step will be Phase 2 (Industrialisation/Production) that entails the initial delivery of 1 Battalion (88 Badger ICV vehicles) to the SA ...
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Whether she has held any engagements with the Minister of Human Settlements, Ms M T Kubayi, and/or the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Ms T Nkadimeng, to address the obstacles, like the unavailability of serviced sites and a lack of project management skills in provincial departments, that hamper the delivery of housing to military veterans, especially in provinces such as KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape; if not, in each case, why not; if so, what are the details of the (a) dates and (b) outcomes of the engagements?
1. The Ministers haven’t met as yet. The two engagements held recently was the Deputy Minister of Human Settlements and the Deputy Minister of Defence and Military Veterans during the Human Settlements MINMEC session in Cape Town.
2. Following the Deputy Ministers’ engagement the two Departments teams held a two days strategic session on the 08th to 09th (Thursday and Friday) June 2023. Among ...
