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Today's hearing at the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) with the senior management of the Department of Defence ended in disarray with the acting secretary and his team being told to go away and do their homework before they return to face the committee again.

MPs are clearly losing patience with officials who cannot provide explanations for poor financial management as reflected in the Auditor-General handing out qualified audits year after year. The DoD has received qualified audits for many years and on the evidence of today's hearing is a long way from being able to produce a clean audit outcome. We therefore believe the time has come for the Commander in Chief, President Jacob Zuma, to intervene and ensure that a competent Secretary of Defence is appointed as a matter of urgency. The current acting secretary, Tsepe Motumi, has been acting for more than three years and has clearly lost the confidence of all political parties.