Thank you very much hon member, in response to the implementation of the Defence Review - 2015, the Department of Defence's plan to arrest the decline was developed. The purpose of the plan was to intervene and stabilise the declining defence capabilities so that the current ordered critical operational commitments could be met.
The Department of Defence's plan to arrest the decline sets out five work packages against the following themes: firstly, work package - efficiency interventions; secondly, work package - organisational restructuring; thirdly, improvement of operational support systems; fourthly, enhancement to selected operational capabilities; and lastly, maintenance of comprehensive defence capabilities.
The timeline for implementation was envisaged to run over the two Medium- Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF, cycles, which is six years; commencing in 2018. This plan was presented to the Joint Standing Committee on Defence and in principle, received approval even though a concern was expressed on South Africa's ability to fund it.
An interdepartmental task team between the Department of Defence and National Treasury was established to ensure a full understanding of the plan and its deliverables and to confirm the funding trajectory. This process was concluded with the development of a comprehensive joint Department of Defence and National Treasury report for inclusion into the government budgeting process. I thank you.