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There are two major things wrong with the announcement by Defence Minister Lindiwe Sisulu that the SANDF will ‘aggressively' pursue business deals to supplement its budget.

The first is that it is bad practice to have government competing with private businesses to offer services. Even though private businesses tend to offer more efficient, cost-effective services, inevitably government departments will opt to use services provided by their colleagues in government - based on political rather than business considerations. The end result is that the service delivered to the public will probably be worse, and more costly to the taxpayer. This also crowds out private enterprise.

In addition, the temptation for the Department of Defence to make unfair use of its own structural advantages would be irresistible. Imagine how the results of a competitive tender could be skewed when one competitor specialises in the use of force and has its own, state funded, intelligence department.

As an example of the corruption that results one only has to look at a country like Indonesia which has allowed its military forces to go into business.

The second problem with this idea is that, once again, Minister Sisulu has taken her eye off the ball. The purpose of the SANDF is to defend the country. It should not be there as a job creator or an arm of the education department or to make money for government.

While we appreciate that putting the SANDF back in charge of the protection of South Africa's borders will cost money, that money should be provided by the treasury. It should not be left to the SANDF to find funds to do what it is required to do by government.