Date: 27/03/2007

Source: Department of Defence

Title: Lekota: Defence Dept Budget Vote 2007/08

Defence budget speech tabled by Mr Mosiuoa Lekota, Minister of Defence

Madam Speaker
Ministers present
Members of the Joint Standing Committee on Defence and the Portfolio Committee on Defence
Secretary for Defence
Senior officials
Officials
Generals
Admirals
Members of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF)

May I draw the attention of the House, to our 12 women generals present here today!

SANDF is in demand everywhere

Introduction

This year's budget speech takes places against the backdrop of the most diverse deployment of the SANDF troops since the birth of our democracy. As we speak, the sons and daughters of our nation are staffing missions in theatres of conflict in Africa and beyond.

They willingly face risks and dangers of varying degrees in order to advance national, continental and universal objectives of building a peaceful future for humankind.

Our troops are guardians of peace in Ethiopia Eritrea, they nurture burgeoning democracies of Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) ensured free and fair elections in the Comoros, Madagascar and Lesotho. Alongside sister African forces they monitor and enforce compliance with the Humanitarian Ceasefire Agreement in the sweltering heat of the Darfur in the Sudan, they are providing much needed support to the Central African Republic in repulsing waves of attacks by northern rebels intent on overthrowing a democratically elected government. As we speak they are supporting the Nepalese government in the disarmament, demobilisation and re-integration processes preparatory for elections.

The SANDF is the mainstay of most of these operations.

Not only has it distinguished itself in these areas but alongside the work our nation is doing on the diplomatic front, it is contributing in no small measure to the rising profile of our country. Indeed its performance is not only acknowledged in all these countries but the SANDF is now in demand everywhere.

For this we must raise our hats in salute of the troops and leaders of the SANDF. The best of the youth of our country who serve without compulsion but out of love and loyalty to their people.

Peacekeeping

Peacekeepers who are placed into conflict areas must provide security and protection for the civilian population. They must first and foremost stop the ongoing fighting. They must then be able to re-direct the energies of the people into reconstruction activities. They must be able to pursue integrated approaches to repatriation, resettlement, reintegration and rehabilitation of refugees, the internally displaced, ex-combatants and their families, paying particular attention to women and children victims of violence. They must plan and implement comprehensive and well-blended disarmament, demobilisation, rehabilitation and reintegration (DDRR) programmes as a basis for consolidating safety and security.

South Africa's approach to security: Security Sector Reform (SSR)

Central to making our interventions sustainable and in line with the principles of SSR, we have to ensure that the thinking of the leaders of new democracies is directed towards respect and loyalty for their Constitution.

Peacekeeping interventions do not end with elections. The alarming number of conflict prone countries underscores the need for a broader approach to conflict prevention, one that avoids an artificial divide between pre-conflict, crisis and post conflict. It also indicates the need for an appropriate mix of political, security, humanitarian and developmental responses. Securing a just sustainable peace in a conflict prone situation means building strong transparent states with professional, civilian led military and police. It means developing a democratic framework that tolerates diversity. It means building an open civil society that promotes democratic governance and personal security. And it means instilling in all state institutions but especially the security forces, a culture of democracy rooted in respect for the rule of law and individual rights and dignity.

The concept SSR encompasses democratic oversight, civil society, defence reform, intelligence and security services, border management, policing, justice, prisons and private security companies. The object of SSR is to create a secure and safe environment for the affected state and its population through the re-establishment of the architecture and structure of the State. Its inclusive nature includes all sectors of the security cluster. The activities in the security cluster are based on the concept of human security as stipulated and defined in the African Union's (AUs) peace and security committee's mandate, the Common African Defence and Security Policy.

Whilst the concept of SSR encompasses the transformation and stabilisation of the whole of the security sector, on our continent it deals predominantly with defence institutions. It is a political process and to be successful it must be participatory. It must involve local ownership and because it has to pay attention to non-State actors and security and justice institutions, its approach must encompass the whole of government. But it is more than governance, it is also about operational effectiveness. In other words when the strengthening of new democracies becomes a priority, the security organs of the state must be transformed and secured.

We are the main implementation arm of foreign policy

Defence policy is classically regarded as a subset of foreign policy. Our approach is that defence is politics by other means. In the current period the Defence Force must be seen as an instrument of politics. Defence strategy therefore is the art and science of employing the defence forces of a nation to secure the objectives of national policy. The Department of Defence will continue to contribute to African unity by focusing in on our common political objectives. This will require a lot of political work to ensure that other African countries understand unity as we do both at the level of political leadership and at the level of military leadership.

We continue to increase our diplomatic defence missions abroad. We now have defence representation in 31 countries, 17 of which are in Africa.

It requires careful calculation to place people in strategic positions.

Changed strategic environment

The appearance of non-state actors in different shapes and forms, including private security firms and private military companies needs to be reckoned with.

Private military/security companies are able to intervene in conflicts tilting the balance of power in favour of their paymasters. They have the potential to undermine legitimate, constitutional democracies. Whilst "terrorism" has been identified by the "developed world" as the biggest threat, we maintain that poverty and underdevelopment are the biggest threats to democracies in the developing world because it exposes our people to manipulation by those of wealthier countries. Competition for 'scarce' resources is another source of insecurity across the continent.

It is in this context that we can understand the situation in Somalia.

Transformation of defence industry

Very early in our new democracy, it was determined by the Executive that the defence industry was a strategic asset. Motivated by the desire to be self reliant, the government directed that all efforts should be made to retain as many of our strategic capabilities as possible. We remain committed to our Defence Related Industries as a result.

Our strategic capabilities are weighed against our threat analysis and our national security plans.

Consequently we encourage and are in support of all those initiatives which are intended to re-structure our defence related industries such that most of the home grown industries survive far into the future. When it comes to acquisition therefore, we will prioritise commodities which are either domestically developed or those in which South African industries have a stake. The South African defence industry is now under the microscope with a view to its growth and development. Emphasis is being placed on an integrated approach to the transformation of the defence industry. It is a key industry in the South African economy and all role players must participate in this transformation. This includes of course, various government departments, the defence industry itself and the private sector.

The Minister of Public Enterprises and I, working in consultation with the Minister of Science and Technology, set up several working groups to rationalise Armscor and Denel. The recommendations of the workgroups are now in the final stages of discussion. Denel, under the political direction of Minister Erwin has been re-structured and re-organised. Armscor, under the political direction of the Minister of Defence is being streamlined as an acquisition division of the Department of Defence. The research agencies and divisions of both Denel and Armscor, will reside in a new body called the Defence Evaluation and Research Institute (DERI).

Department of Defence (DoD) has to respond to these challenges. We have done extremely well this year. Despite all the problems, we were ready!

Republic of South Africa is currently the 10th largest contributor to United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operations. Our list of accomplishments is impressive.

Apart from what I have already said at the opening of my speech, the SANDF is also deployed in Mozambique providing humanitarian assistance and disaster relief due to the floods. We have yet another contingent in Mozambique to support efforts after the explosion at their ammunitions dump.

Until December 2006, 49 members of the SANDF were deployed in support of the implementation of the demobilisation, disarmament and reintegration process in the Ivory Coast. Our involvement contributed to the successful negotiations which have taken place there in recent months.

Last but not least, we have responded to a request from the World Cricket Cup to provide assistance with security in the West Indies.

The SANDF is in demand everywhere.

South African Development Community (SADC) Brigade

The Africa Standby Force was conceived by the African Union (AU) as a rapid reaction force. It is composed of five regional brigades. The SADC Brigade is being launched in August this year in Tanzania. It will have all the features of a rapid reaction force. It is very important that all the countries of our region participate in developing and sustaining peace and stability on the continent. The participation by all SADC member countries must increase interoperability and commonality. This in turn will strengthen our capacity to meet our challenges, whatever they may be. We must put in place a system or a process by which all requests from the AU or from wherever else are processed at the SADC level so that the SADC Brigade can be deployed rather than troops of individual countries.

Administrative processes

It has been very distressing for the leadership of the Ministry and the Department that once more we received a qualified audit in the financial year 2005/06. The slight improvement shown from the previous year does not provide much comfort. At this point, I do want to say the Department has already tabled impressive corrective measures before a committee of Parliament. The ministerial work session also scrutinised the situation last week and charted a way forward to eliminate the main source of the problem leading to this qualified audit.

I'm now in a position to say that I feel confident that very soon this qualified audit will be history.

Ministerial priorities

The priorities I have set out for the forthcoming financial year are as follows:

1. Infrastructure

Many DoD facilities are in urgent need of renovation. This is the result of insufficient resources allocated for repair and maintenance. We will be creating a 'works brigade' ensuring an in house capacity to attend to all our facilities.

In addition, we will be drawing up a master plan to deal with our infrastructure. This plan will include priorities, costs and the development of a phased approach.

2. Revitilisation of the reserve force

Progress continues to be made with the transformation and revitalisation of the reserve force so that it can fulfil its primary role of providing the majority of the conventional landward capability of the SANDF, whilst at the same time supplementing the peace support missions conducted by the regular force.

On any one day, the equivalents of two and a half battalions of reserves are deployed on external operations, on our borders, in guarding key installations and on administrative duties.

The initiative to revitalise the army conventional reserve, the largest component of the SANDF reserve force has resulted in a strength of some 11 000 members of whom 66% are from previously disadvantaged backgrounds, representing a 20% improvement over the past three years.

3. Information Technology (IT)

Like all other government Department we are working with National Treasury on the Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS).

This will greatly facilitate our administrative processes and upgrade our level of accountability.

4. The modernisation of the army

The modernisation of the air force and South Africa Navy (SA Navy) is well under way. It is now the turn of the SA Army to be modernised. This shall be our main focus in the incoming period. This will take place sequentially and in phases. First off is the necessity to align army vision 2015 with our medium term expenditure framework (MTEF) priorities.

5. Operationalisation of the defence review update

The defence update provides a cogent argument on the levels of defence required to respond to the strategic environment and the requirements posed by the foreign and security policy of this government to meet the three strategic defence objectives of defending the republic, promoting regional and continental security, supporting our people and continually improving defence capabilities.

Conclusion

I have devoted most of this budget speech to issues relating to the primary mandate of the SANDF.

This must not create the impression that we have divested ourselves from the secondary tasks of providing support to other departments.

On the contrary, we are forever seized with discharging our responsibilities in this regard:
(a) We continuously maintain capabilities and are ready to provide all of the necessary support to the Department of Provincial and Local Government whenever disasters occasion at home and in the region. It is in this light that our involvement in Mozambique recently has to be seen.

(b) We are similarly forever available to respond to any invitations from the South African Police Services (SAPS) whenever called upon to do so. And on a daily basis we are involved with SAPS in the battle against crime. And this is particularly top priority in this year when government has declared crime a priority task.

(c) The rest of government departments are equally welcome to call on our support whenever the need arises.

My thanks to the Deputy Minister who has shared the burden of work with me this year.

I would like to thank the Defence Secretary and the Chief of the SANDF who are co-chairs of the Plenary Defence Staff Council.

My thanks also to the team in the defence secretariat, the generals and admirals and all the men and women of the SANDF.

Last but not least, to my team in the Ministry.

I thank you!

Issued by: Ministry of Defence
27 March 2007