Thank you for ... Hon
members, I think at this point in time, we all now have a responsibility of ensuring that there is appreciation of the fact that for as long as there isn't enough funding for the Department of Defence, we will continue to have a problem of implementing some of the critical decisions and programmes which we have set for ourselves. The Defence Review is one such programme.
You will recall that this Defence Review is called Defence Review 2015. It of course sets out quite a number of milestones. One of the critical milestones is that of arresting the decline of the capabilities.
We have done a lot of work in spite of the fact that we do not have
... it doesn't mean that because there is no money, no work is being done. If I may cite this: there is a project which is called Operation Thusano. Operation Thusano deals with arresting the decline for landward forces. In other words, we have a programme of repairing all our vehicles, some of which have been parked for more than 10 to 15 years. This is one way in which we can make do with what we already have because there is no budget allocation.
Operation Thusano is a programme ... I am inviting members to visit. It is a project which we work together with the Cuban government, which has transferred quiet a number of skills to members of the Department of Defence. We are doing all of these because we are saying the fact that we do not have the funding for the Defence Review should not mean that work will not be done.
There should be an understanding that there are certain things we can do with the little money that we have but of course there are
bigger projects which we may not be able to embark upon because of the fiscal constraints. Thank you, Chair.