Address by the Minister of Defence, the Hon. Mosiuoa Lekota MP,
     On The Occasion Of The Defence Budget Vote
 
(Source : South African Government Communications and Information Service; issued May 15, 2002)
    
Address to the National Assembly; Cape Town, 14 May 2002
    
 
 
Madam Speaker
Honourable members of the National Assembly
And invited guests

Last year we identified 5 challenges facing defence. They were:

--Firstly, to maintain a core force that is able to meet its commitments to deal with a wide range of contingencies. The force must have the capacity to expand to an appropriate size when necessary, to be able to mount Peace Support Operations, support for the SAPS and support for social delivery.

To date we have deployed 930 members of the SANDF in United Nations, OAU and other missions, covering a wide range of tasks including military liaison officers, military observers, staff officers, specialised teams, protection services and general military assistance. Members of the SANDF are deployed in Uganda, the DRC, Ethiopia/Eritrea, Algeria, the Comoros and Burundi. The SANDF is also participating in SADC initiatives to render planning assistance to the Lesotho Defence Force for support during Lesotho's national elections this month.

We will also be supporting the South African Police Service and the Department of Foreign Affairs in the inauguration of the African Union during June in Durban, and the World Summit on Sustainable Development in August in Johannesburg.

--The second challenge was the alignment of policy and budget."
This has been a problem we have been grappling with for some time. The mismatch between defence policy (found in the White Paper and Defence Review) and our defence budget allocation has forced us to re-examine our overall strategy with an aim of becoming affordable whilst still being able to deliver an effective defence force. When the department, services and divisions drew up a Force Structure to meet the needs determined by our policy, its estimated cost was Rb4.1 over its budget allocation. It has now been re-drawn and is in the final stages of discussion. Some hard decisions have to be made, and the proposal will be taken to Cabinet and Parliament before implementation.

--The third challenge continues to be the "absorption of new technology."
New technology, embodied in the weapons system being delivered through the strategic defence packages, impacts on every aspect of defence, from technical training and human resource planning, to maintenance. From a provisioning system (that is supply lines, spares, etc) to a new infrastructure (that is buildings and reticulation), and storage.

The Chiefs of the Navy and the Air Force have been working for the past 18 months on plans to accommodate and absorb the new equipment. Plans in this regard will be presented to the Portfolio Committee this parliamentary session.

--The fourth challenge was the need to develop capacity, to respond effectively to our "changing regional situation."

The situation in our region is changing all the time. This time last year no-one could have guessed that Angola would be ending its civil war, that DRC peace talks would be inching forward in Sun City and Pretoria, and that Zimbabwe would be trying to overcome its polarisation following its recent presidential elections. Democratic elections are taking place continually throughout the SADC region and the next in line is Lesotho.

--The fifth and internal challenge was "to qualitatively increase the capacity of the Defence Secretariat. This includes: problems of resource management; problems of transition identified in the Ministerial Inquiry; and the new Service System".


The Ministerial Inquiry, set up after the Tempe and Phalaborwa shootings identified a number of specific areas that needed attention. The Department has systematically and concretely responded in detail to that report. Consequently, the atmosphere in the SANDF has improved for the better.

However, the problems of crime within the Department continue to plague us. The control mechanisms in place are proving inadequate. Divisional managers still have to take responsibility for safeguarding the assets entrusted to them. Military discipline still needs to be internalised.

We are putting much effort into dealing with this problem and formally intend to turn that situation around inside of the next 4 - 6 months.

We have now taken the necessary steps to strengthen the Secretariat with the appointment of the Chief Financial Officer and the appointment of the Chief Policy and Plan. The departmental strategic plan is the first result of this change.

Madam Speaker, Defence is a large and complicated machine. Over and above its four services and 14 divisions - Finance, Logistics, Intelligence, Personnel, Joint Support, Joint Operations, Corporate Communications, a Chaplaincy, Military Police, Joint Training, Foreign Relations, Equal Opportunities and Affirmative Action and Acquisitions, it has its own language, its own traditions, culture, bands and buildings.

Over the last eight years we have worked at cultivating an integrated defence force, a new military culture, and policies appropriate to a democratic society. Our efforts are now bearing fruit and we are picking up speed. It has been an extremely difficult task to turn around this complex and costly machine.

Madam Speaker, we have no choice but to constantly educate and re-educate the public on the need for defence capabilities in peace time and in war.

The concept of security embodied in our Constitution goes beyond mere territorial defence - it embraces security of persons, environment, and an end to human conflict generally. We are constitutionally bound to maintain a force that can produce security and comfort for our populace and beyond. The recent debates on the strategic defence packages counterpoised defence needs to social needs.

This is a wrong approach to the question. Defence and social needs go together, because each re-enforces the other. If investors must invest and create jobs, they need a secure and stable investment atmosphere in South Africa and Southern Africa. Moreover, our coastline of 3,000 kms is our longest frontier and as we are a trading country with maritime resources, our harbours are strategic to our survival.

Lastly, as members of the United Nations and the Organisation of African Unity, we are deeply committed to the advancement of world peace.

Defence capabilities cannot be turned on and off like a light switch. They have to be maintained and improved from day to day and generation to generation. In the globalising unipolar world of our day, September 11 revealed that even the most powerful nation in the world cannot afford to wallow in complacency. New threats of a higher calibre are always lurking somewhere. Our nation must be forever vigilant.

Defence has now reached a turning point:

The Department of Defence is now reaching its target of transparency in defence management, good governance and accountability. This is a great step forward in the building of our democracy.

In keeping with constitutional prescripts and public sector reform initiatives, our medium-term direction for Defence is captured in the core objectives described in the Strategic Plan tabled in Parliament today. The implementation of these objectives is reflected in the operational plan for the Financial Year 2002/03.

These comprehensive plans facilitate direction and control of Defence at the political level by myself, and at the Departmental level by the Secretary for Defence and the Chief of the National Defence Force. Performance against these plans will be reported quarterly to enable corrective measures when appropriate. This provides assurance that Defence objectives will be achieved and officials may individually be held to account for their performance.

To ensure accountability, overall performance against these plans will be reported in the Defence Annual Report to be tabled in Parliament in September 2003. This report will include the prescribed audited financial statements and Auditor General's report.

We intend achieving an unqualified financial audit report as was achieved for the first time for the financial year 2000/01.

In completing my budget speech last year, I told this House that "to ensure that we are able to meet the challenges we face, we must make the right strategic decisions now. We must prioritise issues and choose what to do with the money we get."

These choices have now been identified and we have defined how precisely our goals are to be achieved.

We are putting together a new force design and structure that will both enable us to carry out our constitutional obligations in the widest sense, whilst being affordable.

A proposal will be placed before Cabinet whose salient points will include a comprehensive military strategy that has been drawn up based on available resources, government priorities and likely expectations of Defence. The strategy takes into account the importance of promoting regional security, regional peacekeeping initiatives, support to other Government departments like Foreign Affairs, Trade and Industry etc; and the maintenance of basic capabilities in the event of a conventional conflict.

Factors critical to the effectiveness of such a force are, to a large part, financially determined. Some of those factors are that the Defence allocation should maintain its level, that a new Human Resource Strategy must be drawn up, approved and implemented, and that routine internal deployments must be phased out in the next six years.

There are thus, a number of measures that need to be taken to effect these changes, ranging from inter-service co-operation, outsourcing, co-location, elimination of duplication and increases in efficiency.

We have now succeeded in finalising the integration process. Seven different military formations have been brought together and successfully welded into one South African National Defence Force. A single force, representative of the demographics of our country, uniformly trained, combat ready, with a code of conduct and a uniformity of purpose. What now remains for us is to pare the National Defence Force to its correct size and proportions. We are embarking on this process of rationalisation guided by a new Human Resource Strategy.

I turn now to the Strategic Defence Packages. The levels of expenditure of the Defence public programme have been set out in the main budget.

Government and Departmental expenditure will continue to increase from this years level of Rb6,3 to the peak of Rb7,7 in 2005. Thereafter expenditure will rapidly decline to under Rb1,4 per year based on the present forecasts of the exchange rate.

The Joint Investigation Team made comprehensive recommendations of the Strategic Defence Package processes. Most of the recommendations necessitated policy adaptations. The Department and Armscor immediately embarked upon a complete rewriting of the affected acquisition policy and a first draft of the new policy is almost ready for discussion. The recommendations from our parliamentary committees will be incorporated into this new policy.

Although only 16% of the Defence Industrial Participation (DIP) obligations has presently been contracted, it has already made a considerable impact on the design, development and manufacturing competencies and turnover of our local defence related industry. The DIP obligations have to date resulted in contracts to the value of USD 376 million as against a planned target of USD 308 million which means that we are presently some 22% ahead of schedule.

As far as National Industrial Participation (NIP) is concerned, equally good progress has been realised. By the end of 2001 some 18 projects covering diverse fields like engineering, aviation, agriculture and benefaction had completed the construction and investment phases and had commenced production. The current level of NIP related exports and investment stands at USD 400 million and are expected to generate USD 5 billion by the year 2004. The first large NIP milestone obligation of USD 3,9 billion is to be reached in the coming financial year.

African leaders, adopting the Constitutive Act of the African Union in July last year stated that: "we are conscious...of the fact that the scourge of conflicts in Africa constitutes a major impediment to the socio-economic development of the continent and of the need to promote peace, security and stability as a prerequisite for the implementation of our development and integration agenda."

It is important to remember that the African Union's principles are based on a number of antecedents, including those in the security area. What is new today however, is that we seek implementation in a post cold war period, within the reality of globalisation, and a widespread commitment amongst African leaders to democracy.

Amongst the principles of the African Union is the establishment of a common defence policy for the Africa continent.

The Inter State Defence and Security Committee (ISDSC) of SADC is working towards a regional partnership. It has agreed on a Mutual Defence Pact which aims to prevent conflict in the region and reflects a collective approach to security. This Pact will be presented to the Heads of State for signing at the SADC Summit later this year.

The key provisions of the Pact are military preparedness, a commitment to collective defence, defence cooperation between SADC states, and compatibility of defence equipment and systems, in particular communications.

The implications of the Pact place an unconditional commitment of States to the prevention of conflict to ensure peace and stability and security in the SADC region. Central to the success of collective defence and security is the will and ability of SADC member states to enforce the Pact.

How does defence envisage operationalising NEPAD? The key is to ensure defence efforts are put behind NEPAD.

We must build the capacity of regional organisations to implement the provisions of this Pact. We must build the capacity of national governments to improve security processes.

The joint security commissions set up with Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique, and Lesotho will facilitate a common understanding amongst SADC states of the need for strong civil military relations as fundamental to the working of a democratic state.

My thanks to all in the Department, the SANDF, Secretariat and Ministry, Armscor, BMATT, Advisory Bodies and Committees, NGOs, universities and other sections of civil society.

Special thanks to the Honorable Ntsiki Mashimbye, the outgoing chair of the now disbanded Joint Standing Committee on Defence, and all honourable members who served on that Committee. It has a proud record.

My thanks to Mr Mokoena and the Select Committee on Security and Constitutional Affairs.

And as always, thanks to the Chair of the Portfolio Committee, Ms Thandi Modise, and her Committee.

I thank you.

-ends-
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