Chairperson, at this point I would also like to join the generals in asking for a salary raise and I am certain it would have your endorsement.
Chairperson, we are engaged in extensive upgrading of our facilities. Just to mention a few: we are dealing with two military hospitals that we had to upgrade; we are dealing with SA Military Battalion bases in Mpumalanga, etc. In all, I think that we have prioritised about 10 projects.
As of this year we have budgeted for an average of R425 million to deal with the upgrading of our facilities. I need to indicate to the member that, unfortunately, we are tied in a relationship where we are dependent on the Department of Public Works to do all the repair work and maintenance for the Department of Defence. We are hoping that we can move towards a situation and a relationship with the Department of Public Works where they will understand that it is possible for us to upgrade our own facilities. We are working on a memorandum of understanding in that regard.
We are hoping also that, from this year, we can put aside R1 billion which has been given to us to deal with upgrading of our facilities and annually we can put aside R1 billion for the next 15 years. If we are all still here in the next 15 years, we would have the kind of state-of-the-art accommodation in the Defence Force that I think they deserve, but that is what we have budgeted for. Thank you, Chairperson.