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The Democratic Alliance (DA) believes that the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Lindiwe Sisulu, must move quickly to implement the interim national defence force service commission’s recommendation to undertake a properly funded and extensive Defence Review.

The final report of the Interim National Defence Force Service Commission has now been tabled in Parliament.

The report is a complete indictment of the political, civilian and military leadership of the defence force over the past decade. There is evidence in the report of the failure of military leadership, a breakdown in the chain of command, the collapse of military discipline, the implosion of the grievance system, shocking service conditions for soldiers, all of which have an adverse effect on combat readiness.

How is it that the army got itself into a situation where soldiers were “no longer obeying orders”, “idling about” and “reported for duty at 08h00 and left at 09h00 with the knowledge of their officers”? The fact is that the defence force – especially the South African Army – is in deep trouble and seems to have been virtually run into the ground.

The report makes far-reaching recommendations that will go a long way to improving the state of the defence force, provided they are implemented. Unfortunately, many of the recommendations in the report are disappointingly vague. The report, for example, recommends:

• “that the Chief of the SA National Defence Force find ways and means to produce a definitive statement on civil military relations”;
• “Military Command vigorously ensure that all SANDF members do what is required to maintain a properly disciplined force”;
• “the total revamping of career management policies and practices be carried out immediately;
• “the SANDF review its whole system of promotion and utilization in order to achieve a fair, transparent and efficient method of using the services of all its members”.

However, the recommendation that there be a properly funded and extensive defence review is particularly welcome. What is clear is that there needs to be a complete overhaul of the defence force. A defence review will provide an opportunity to completely rethink the mandate, capabilities and funding of the defence force.

The bottom line is that there needs to be a major intervention – in the form of a full scale defence review – in order to begin to professionalize the defence force and to build the disciplined military force envisaged by our Constitution.