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The Democratic Alliance (DA) is concerned by the appointment of the new permanent Secretary of Defence, Mpumi Mpofu. The Secretary of Defence is the defence minister's principle advisor on policy, the department's accounting officer and is the person that takes responsibility for managing the civilian secretariat of defence.

The fact is that the defence department is in a huge mess, and Mpumi Mpofo is a defence outsider with no defence experience. The key issue is therefore whether she has the "right stuff" to turn the defence department around. Hopefully, Ms Mpofu's experience at the top level of the public service will stand her in good stead and compensate for her limited defence experience.

The fact that a person was not appointed from within the department is symptomatic of the complete failure, over the past fourteen years, to develop a core group of civilian experts in defence policy, management and finance within the civilian defence secretariat.

The DA wishes Mpumi Mpofu well with all the challenges that lie ahead at the department. The biggest challenge now, is to finalise the draft defence policy and to table a green paper on defence in Parliament so that we can begin an open and inclusive debate about the future of the defence force.