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The Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, is going to have to step in and deal with the “meltdown” at the Armaments Corporation of South Africa (Armscor).

On 11 July 2012 the former Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Lindiwe Sisulu, wrote to the General “Mojo” Motau, Chairperson of Armscor, and effectively fired him.

The minister states:
“Having applied my mind to the functioning and operations of the current Board of Armscor, I have decided to appoint Ms R Mokoena as Chairperson of the Armscor Board and Mr EL Borole as Deputy Chairperson of the Armscor Board with immediate effect.”

However, “Mojo” Motau has reportedly refused to leave his position as Armscor chairperson.

It is not clear why the former minister fired “Mojo” Motau but one reason could be the controversial strategy designed to take Armscor into the 21st Century.

The strategy, entitled Repositioning Armscor: Strategy through the 21st Century was rubbished by Armscor senior management as “a document that shows an abysmal lack of understanding of the business in general and the technicalities in particular”.

The strategy was at odds with the proposal to establish at “Defence Material Organization” in the Defence Review. And the strategy was also apparently not supported by the defence department.

The (mis)firing of “Mojo” Motau” is the latest in a series of events which suggest that there is a meltdown at Armscor.

These events include:

• The Chief Executive Officer, Sipho Mkwanazi, has been acting in the position for months, despite a process being put in place to appoint a new head of Armscor;
• the board and senior management have been engaged in what amounts to a “civil war” for years;
• at the last minute Armscor cancelled two meetings on its Corporate Plan 212/13 – 2014/15 with the Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans; and
• there is no clear vision to position Armscor in the future.

Armscor seems to be the perfect case study for business schools around the country on how not to manage change.

The Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, is the executive authority responsible for Armscor.

She must now step in and deal with the meltdown at Armscor.

• The DA, therefore, calls on the Minister to make a public statement about the state of Armscor spelling out:
• Whether the Chairperson of Armscor, “Mojo” Motau, has been fired and when he will be leaving Armscor;
• whether Refiloe Mokoena has been appointed as the new Chairperson of Armscor; when a Chief Executive Officer for Armscor will be permanently appointed; and
• how she intends to take Armscor forward in the light of the proposals in the Defence Review.

We cannot afford to lose the defence acquisition expertise warehoused within Armscor.