Chairperson, hon Minister, hon Deputy Minister, distinguished guests, I would like to begin by congratulating the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans Lindiwe Sisulu as well as the Deputy Minister of Defence and Military Veterans Thabang Makwetla on their appointment to the Cabinet.
I wish you both well as you tackle the many challenges facing the Defence Force, military veterans and the defence industry. I also hope that over the next five years we will work well together, and that we will tolerate not only different questions, but also different answers, always bearing in mind that we are putting the country first. I would also like to recognise and salute the many men and women who serve in our Defence Force and who have joined us here for the debate today. [Applause.]
Since this is my maiden speech in Parliament, I would like to make some brief remarks about my politics. My own political philosophy is, perhaps, best summed up by a quote taken from Helen Suzman, which reads:
I hate bullies. I stand for simple justice, equal opportunity and human rights. They are indispensable elements in a democratic society and well worth fighting for.
[Applause.]
I hope that I will have the courage to speak up for people who are hungry, to speak up for people who feel unsafe, to speak up for people who do not have shelter, and to speak up for people who are sick. But, above all, I hope I will have the courage to speak truth to power in this Parliament.
I was once a member of the Defence Force, serving as a submarine officer and a diver in the South African Navy and, for that reason, I am committed to working for a Defence Force that recognises the supremacy of the Constitution, is under civilian control and accountable to Parliament, comprises a professional full-time Defence Force, backed up by a reserve force, and is disciplined, properly equipped, properly trained and properly funded.
We are here today to debate the appropriation of R32 billion for Defence and Military Veterans in the 2009-10 financial year. The central question before us is this: What effect will the billions of rand spent on defence have on the combat-readiness of the SA National Defence Force? And the short answer to that question is: We don't know, because the Department of Defence will not tell us; or, perhaps more accurately, the Department of Defence will tell us but only on condition that we don't tell you.
The Minister appears to be doing her level best to cover up the state of combat-readiness of the SANDF. We were told that the Department of Defence would not provide a briefing on the state of combat-readiness of the Defence Force, because the Minister had not been briefed. But now we are told that the Department of Defence will not provide a full and open briefing on the combat-readiness of the Defence Force because it may compromise national security.
We can only wish for the kind of courage shown by British army head Gen Sir Richard Dannatt who recently declared:
I am going to stand up for what is right for the army. Honesty is what it is about. The truth will out. We have got to speak the truth. Leaking and spinning, at the end of the day, are not helpful.
We therefore appeal to the Minister to reconsider the Department of Defence's approach to the question of a full and open briefing on the combat-readiness of the Defence Force.
This is a hard problem, but rather than take the easy road and hide behind the Defence Force's favourite fig leaf - national security - let us take the hard road and grapple with and find a proper and responsible balance between secrecy and transparency. And let us do this, because in the words of one distinguished legal scholar, "A society that demonstrates no concern for this problem has ceased or is ceasing to be democratic."
The Minister, the Deputy Minister, the Chief of the SA National Defence Force and the service chiefs could not find time to brief the Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans. This amounted, in my view, to a false start, for the Department of Defence with the Fourth Democratic Parliament.
The Acting Secretary of Defence and Military Veterans, Tsepe Motumi, did, however, brief the committee, but was only able to introduce a draft strategic business plan for the Department of Defence. He was in an awkward position and was only able to make one and a half arguments in the briefing, namely that a task team would be set up on military veterans and, because he was anxious to avoid pre-empting the task team's recommendations, no information would be available on military veterans; and, here comes the half argument: the Defence Force is underfunded, diminishing its capability to ... well, to share that information may compromise national security.
And what does this all mean? We are expected to support a R32 billion appropriation, but we are not allowed to know to what effect the money is spent. How then are we supposed to properly exercise our oversight role of the Defence Force? We are not sure.
We may not know all the details about the state of combat-readiness of the Defence Force. What we do know, however, is that the Defence Force is in deep trouble. We have soldiers without vehicles; we have ships without sailors; we have planes without pilots; and we have military hospitals without doctors. And the result? We have soldiers in barracks, not in the field; we have ships alongside, not at sea; and we have aircraft in hangars, not in the air. We have an army that is overstretched; a navy that is understretched; and an air force with nothing to stretch. [Laughter.]
But, don't listen to me. Listen to Brigadier-General George Kruys (Ret) who was recently quoted as saying the following:
When making policy speeches, politicians showed no knowledge of the real state of the army ... The malfunctioning of army vehicles during peacekeeping deployments in Africa is a common problem.
The situation is now apparently so bad that we must ask the question: Is the Defence Force, in fact, able to fulfil its constitutional mandate and defend and protect the Republic of South Africa? We have our doubts. How did this situation arise? The Department of Defence would have us believe that the problem is that the Defence Force is routinely underfunded, but the real problem with the Defence Force is not that it is underfunded; the real problem with the Defence Force is that it is underled.
The outcome of the last Defence Review, carried out more than 10 years ago, was deeply flawed. It was corrupted by vested interests in the Defence Force, the defence industry and the ruling party, resulting in a force design that was simply not affordable. So, hard decisions have had to be made, but that is precisely what did not happen. Instead, the Defence Force was let down by politicians, most importantly a string of caretaker Defence Ministers, who for years dodged making the hard decisions about the future of the SANDF. And the result? Strategic drift and confusion.
This is nowhere better illustrated that the confusion surrounding the deployment of the Defence Force to protect our borders. We have an average of 3 024 soldiers deployed abroad per day, but only an average of 575 soldiers deployed at home per day. We appear to be more committed to keeping the peace abroad than keeping the peace at home. [Interjections.] The borders are simply not secure, making us all vulnerable to transnational crime.
Our 4 862 kilometre landward border is protected by 684 members of the SA Police Service. That is the equivalent of one police officer deployed for every seven kilometres of landward border. Our 2 798 kilometre maritime border is protected by an SAPS armada comprising two 20 metre patrol vessels and nine rubber ducks. [Laughter.] But perhaps most shockingly, the SAPS plans to spend more in this financial year on VIP protection services - R380 million - than it does on borderline security - R225 million.
We spend more on bodyguards than on borderline security. We urge the Minister therefore to review the Defence Force's strategic military objectives, and consider, together with her colleagues in the security cluster, permanently deploying the SA Defence Force to protect the borders in co-operation with the SAPS. And the Minister's statement in this regard was welcome. [Applause.]
There is evidently a defence policy void which is wrapped up in an even bigger national security policy void. Over the past few years the Department of Defence has produced a deluge of "visioning documents". We have the "Defence Strategy"; we have the "Defence Update"; we have the "Reserve Force Strategy"; we have the "South African Army Vision 2020"; and we have the "Human Resource Strategy 2010"; all of these being morphed, we believe, into the new "Defence Strategy 2025". But none of these documents has ever seen the light of day, and, in my view, they amount to an attempt at a defence review by stealth - a defence review by the Department of Defence, for the Department of Defence taking place behind closed doors.
The last South African White Paper on Defence was approved by the Cabinet in 1996, more than 10 years ago, and represented the defence policy of the Government of National Unity under former President Nelson Mandela. What we need is a new defence review which is conducted in an open and inclusive manner and which culminates in a new White Paper on Defence, Military Veterans and the Defence Industry.
We therefore challenge the Minister to table a Green Paper on Defence, Military Veterans and the Defence Industry in this House, and then let us begin a proper and open debate about the future of the Defence Force, Military Veterans and the Defence Industry in South Africa. I thank you. [Applause.]