He marched against some of his colleagues at the time who could not face hunger, and they remained in Cabinet.
As the Congress of the People ... [Interjections.] ... either of the two. [Laughter.] [Applause.] As Cope, we are worried about the reports that have been filtering through for several months now about the department moving from military might to a military Mickey Mouse outfit.
The parliamentary committee recommendations, budget review summaries, and the subsequent Auditor-General's reports reflect a lot of managerial, financial and strategic operational failures. In this regard, the department has failed to raise about R200 million to fund full military brigade exercises in the 2009-10 financial year.
The navy suspended its involvement in international naval exercises last year. Ships spend over 324 days per year docked and inactive. Allocations for this programme decreased significantly by just over 28% since the 2008- 09 budget. To illustrate this point, the first submarine acquired under the controversial 1999 arms deal, the SAS Manthantisi, has not left Simon's Town naval dry dock in more than two years. A R3 billion deposit remains uncollected from the Canadian Gripen helicopter suppliers whose contract was cancelled last year.
There was a budgetary shortfall of more than R7 billion in the current financial year, and a shortfall in operational funding of nearly R4 billion. Demands on the South African military are ever increasing. The planned target of 70 000 to 100 000 army reserves was not and has not been met. The Minister has just announced that an amount of only 16 000 reserves was met.
For your information, hon Minister, I attended a birthday celebration last week at 6 SA Infantry Battalion in Grahamstown, Eastern Cape. I spoke to a helicopter pilot from Durban who was very worried about the loss of pilots from the SA Air Force, in that the private sector is poaching highly qualified senior pilots who have been trained with our own tax monies, hon Minister. Something has to be done about this. Another issue is that the SA Military Health Service has a shortage of health care practitioners.
The continued nonattendance of portfolio committee meetings by the department's audit committee left an unpleasant constitutional void of accountability in the past financial year. I am glad that the hon Minister has offered to appear before the committee. It's intriguing, hon Minister, I must say.
Cope welcomes the establishment of the Civil Secretariat last year. This will help South Africa and the Ministers to enhance civil control, compliance and oversight. Cope supports the policy of citizen democracy, which will force the department to abide by its constitutional mandate and accountability through civilian oversight.
For the 2010-11 financial year, the department has ...