delivery
31 March 2006
Readiness must be relevant
The President of the Palestinian Authority, His Excellency Mahmoud Abbas,
will this afternoon address us. His visit includes a mission to tap into South
Africaâs and other relevant national experiences of conflict resolution and
maintenance of enduring and sustainable peace.
This highlights the significance our national profile has assumed in the
search for peace in Africa and around the world. It explains why, together with
the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), we are now formulating a new White
Paper on International Peacekeeping. This White Paper will draw mainly, but not
exclusively, from our accumulated experiences in peacekeeping.
Relevance of readiness
Madame Speaker, this immediately brings us face-to-face with the ever
present question of readiness of the National Defence Force.
In order the best to respond to this concern we must ask the question: Ready
to do what?
We must proceed from there because readiness:
1. must proceed from the constitutional mandate placed on our shoulders;
2. must be linked to challenges (unforeseen sometimes), which might arise
3. flow from objectives that our government must achieve and
Madame Speaker, it is my submission this morning, that the National Defence
Force is not only ready but will continue to be readier in the year (and years
ahead).
Ready to do what?
In so far as national security is a function first of diplomacy and secondly
of the military, we are ready beyond our borders and shores to reinforce all
diplomatic missions our nation undertakes. We are busy with this critical
defence function.
Since the democratisation of our country and the consequent isolation of our
nation from the community of nations, Republic of South Africa (RSA) made a
paradigm shift from the mentality of the apartheid years. We think now with the
mind of a free nation at liberty to participate with other nations of the
world. We not only enter but are welcomed as a partner in all fora.
Consequently, our planning knows no bounds!
But we are not drunk with the excitement of this dawn of a new era. We
proceed into the wider world with the necessary prudence of one who understands
the limitations of their situation and therefore especially that priorities
have to be chosen carefully.
In this paradigm Africa remains the priority and central area of focus in
the conduct of our foreign policy initiatives: Therefore we are ready to
reinforce continental and regional structures, in particular, the African Union
(AU) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
In this regard, we are working closely with Department of Foreign Affairs
(DFA) on a programme to strengthen bilateral relations in execution of the
Cabinet decision of 2002 to ensure representation in each African country.
The Department of Defence (DoD) is already busy working to match DFAâs
ambassadorial postings with our own postings of Defence Attaches (DA) in order
to provide sorely needed defence input in the arsenal of diplomatic work. To
date the DoD has deployed fourteen Defence Attaches in Africa. We intend to
catch up with the diplomatic postings of DFA and then keep pace and are
planning to increase this number so that by the end of 2008 we will have a
total of 29 defence attaches on the Continent.
Ready to do what?
We are ready to support South Africaâs goal of promoting peace, democracy
and good governance in the continent.
Stability is the key to the attainment of this goal and that is why the
National Defence Force carried out the mission to secure Barundi leaders, and
led the African Union Mission in Burundi (AMIB). After the recent democratic
elections in that country, the South African National Defence Force (SANDF)
continues to sustain the burgeoning democracy there.
As institutions of governance firm up, the economy of that country revives
and national life normalises, the SANDF will be withdrawn and be available for
deployment in new areas of concern.
May I take this opportunity to inform the House that the Ministry shall, in
the near future, approach the President of the Republic and (Commander-In-Chief
of the National Defence Force) to take time and pay tribute to the members who
made the Burundi mission the proud success it is today.
Madame Speaker;
We are ready to continue to support the United Nations (UN), through MONUC
deployments, to sustain the stability of Democratic Republic of Congo
(DRC).
Yes, Madame Speaker, we are relevantly ready, as indeed we are already at
work, to help secure elections and promote democracy in the DRC by finalising
the integration of the armed forces of an emerging unified and democratic
DRC.
We, in collaboration with friendly countries, have already registered and
identified more than six battalions of that countryâs forces in preparation for
the security of the Presidential Elections on 18 June.
In keeping with the Southern African Development Community (SADC)
commitments we are giving all necessary support to the SADC Organ in order to
ensure that sister regional countries not only own the process but actively
make available what additional support may become necessary for the success of
the DRC process.
Madame Speaker, very recently, Cabinet approved the deployment of South
African troops to the Comoros to secure the holding of true and fair elections
there. The command of the National Defence Force promptly ordered the
deployment of some 371 troops to that country.
Madam Speaker, we are ready and are supporting stability missions in Darfur,
Eritrea and Ethiopia. Presently the National Defence Force is already assisting
the reunification of the armed forces of the Cote dâIvoire through technical
advice to the African Union (AU) Mediation team as well as to the Chiefs of
Staff as to how to go about the Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration
process (DDR).
In all of these missions the National Defence Force has deployed in these
theatres of conflict and tension, some 3 293 men and women, together with the
concomitant equipment.
But the readiness of the National Defence Force has to be measured also in
terms of its performance.
We exist for the purposes of executing successful missions. The success of
its operations is the only way in which the Department of Defence is assessed
and judged by our Government, other Governments and the international
public.
In this regard, I place on record that the Chief of the SANDF, General
Ngwenya last week returned from a tour of the operational areas, in an upbeat
mood.
He reported that he met the UN Special Representative in Burundi, the Chief
of Staff of the Sudanese Armed Forces, the UN Force Commander in Sudan, the AU
Ambassador in Sudan, the overall Commander of the MONUC forces in DRC (1 218
South Africans), and Brig-Gen Satya, Brigade Commander in the DRC.
Gen Ngwenya reports that without exception, all these individuals attest to
the outstanding contribution National Defence Force members have made and
continue to make.
I quote from his report:
â2 SAI Battalion Commander, Lt Col Sereko, was singled out for praise for being
a leader who ventured into territory where no other nation was prepared to go.
The discipline of the RSA forces was also mentioned as exemplary.â
What must further be placed on record is that National Defence Force is
ready to act, not on behalf of, but together with other countries of our region
and continent. To this end we are ready to expand joint training and joint
military exercises with other regional defence forces.
We must open up on this front in order best to capacitate our neighbours so
as to enable them to join with us in future missions of the region and of the
continent.
Added to this is our abiding responsibility to strengthen SADC headquarters
and other relevant structures by both seconding staff and contributing
technically.
Our relations, however, with sister regional states is a two way process. We
have begun to benefit from the Regional Peace Centre in Harare, Zimbabwe, which
is a SADC institution. Our Air Force has recently welcomed six Zimbabwean Air
Force Pilots and six Zimbabwean Air Force technicians to assist us with the
training of our own young people.
We have seconded a full time military officer to serve at the United Nations
HQ in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations. The United Nations is an
important area of operation for South Africa. On broader defence issues there
is a lot of interaction between the different countries of the world. It is
also an important forum for us to put forward our views, and to listen to the
views of others.
With all the successful deployments of the SANDF, we are ready to sustain
the Continental peace processes because they must eventually lock into the New
Partnership for Africaâs Developmentâs (NEPAD) process of development. We are
at all times working to ensure that peace is sustained and that our
achievements are not undermined.
These peacekeeping operations are conducted and managed in such a manner
that the possibilities of peace are firmly laid.
We are indeed ready and breaking new ground every day both on the Continent
and in the region. Our work with SADC is progressing well, and we are now in
the process of seconding full time officials from the Department of Defence
into SADC and its Inter State Defence & Security Committee structures in
order to build our regional capacity and empower these structures.
We have begun a process of seconding officials from the Department of
Defence in the Peace and Security Committee of the AU.
The SADC Brigade, the regional component of the Africa Standby Force, is
moving according to plan and we are hoping it will be fully operational by the
middle of 2006. The functioning of this Brigade will be a great step forward in
the development of SADC.
Our constitutional mandate also directs that the âdefence force must be
structured and managed as a disciplined military force.
It must be capable of training and preparing men and women who will be
imbued with skills to fit into all the deployments at home and abroad.
Based on our experiences in peacekeeping, the Strategic Business Plan,
tabled in Parliament last week, reports that:
âAt present the most important risks to the combat readiness of the South
African Army remain within the human resources and logistic domains of the
landward defence programmeâ
In order to meet our âreadinessâ requirements, two years ago we embarked on
the re-organisation of the top level of the Department. We have to get the
balance right between the needs of the Public Finance Management Act and clear
accountability, within the framework of command and control.
The re-structuring focuses on the areas of logistics and human resources
wherein lie out most serious challenges.
I believe that we have now found the correct formula to respond to this
challenge. Nevertheless the Deputy Minister will talk on this issue later
on.
We have taken serious count of the last report of the Auditor-General and
recognise the gravity of qualified audits. I would like to report to the House
that the Accounting Officer, the Defence Secretary, has identified areas where
there are problems, and he has proposed to the Minister and the Department,
plans to address and solve those problems.
Furthermore, the review of the Defence Review is nearing completion. The
complexity of budgeting for a new force structure and design pushed our time
frame to the right and the work took longer than we thought. But we are back on
track and expecting to present to Parliament after the winter recess.
Within the Department of Defence our concentration is on training relevant
training. Training which will prepare our men and women to execute those
functions which will produce the desired results.
Such training must include dispute resolution skills. It must imbue our men
and women with the skills to initiate post conflict reconstruction
activities.
This must be so because peacekeeping is more than just keeping warring
factions apart. On a daily basis peacekeepers need to do things that are not
normally considered âmilitaryâ. In short, peacekeepers need to be trained in a
range of skills that articulate responsibilities that go beyond the comfort
zone of the military base and military barracks. In many ways, modern
peacekeeping is a much more difficult task than fighting wars.
The lessons drawn from other peacekeeping deployments are being incorporated
into our training programmes at different levels.
Training must be aimed at improving our effectiveness. We are fully
utilising the expertise within the different sections of Government and work
closely with the other Departments in our cluster.
We are contributing to the national reservoir of skills. These skills will
be taken back into society. Within the context of the Accelerated Shared Growth
Initiative of South Africa (AsgiSA), we are contributing to skills development
where we train the youth in various life skills. We are forging relations with
the Department of Labour and the Dept of Education to discuss joint initiatives
like training. We are re-opening some capabilities that were mothballed and in
doing so we are training our own young people and thus increasing our
capacity.
The great Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu, writing on war 2 500 years
ago said: âone who knows the enemy and knows himself will not be endangered in
a hundred engagements. One who does not know the enemy but knows himself will
sometimes be victorious, sometimes meet with defeat. One who knows neither the
enemy nor himself will invariably be defeated in every engagementâ
In the current African scenario, and for the foreseeable future, our
greatest and most urgent enemies are poverty, underdevelopment, and
environmental degradation.
We understand that the roots of conflict on our Continent arise from these
problems. We have come to realise that the thrust of our preparations should
aim at the culmination of the defeat of these evils. And to be successful we
need a more âflexible forceâ, a force which is multi skilled.
It is in this context that the South African Army has embarked on its own
transformation exercise, Vision 2020, to achieve this end. Army Vision 2020 is
an in house plan to address the transformation of the biggest component of the
SANDF, the Army. It is our belief that it will reach maturity in 2020.
May I report further on some exciting progress on the Reserve Force
front?
Under the able leadership of General Anderson and the Reserve Force Council,
two Reserve Force infantry companies have been successfully deployed alongside
the Permanent Force in peace support operations in Democratic Republic of Congo
(DRC) and it is planned to deploy a minimum of a further two companies in
2006.
29 officers and 40 Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) successfully completed
their courses in 2005. A further 100 officers and 80 NCOs will be trained in
2006 thereby accelerating the rejuvenation process and improving
representation.
To date, 1 200 members of the Commandos have elected to transfer to the
Reserve Force and will undergo conversion training in the next year.
We have committed ourselves, in the Strategic Business Plan to ensuring that
the commissioning of the Strategic Defence Package equipment is implemented
within the budgetary guidelines and that the new equipment is fully integrated
and functional within SANDF doctrine over time.
May I pause to announce that on Wednesday we hosted members of the Defence
Committees of Parliament on board one of our new corvettes, the âSpioenkopâ for
the limited purpose of demonstrating to them the efficacy of this new
equipment?
It is not for me to comment at length of their experiences there. Suffice it
to say that the new equipment will be employed expediently and in such a manner
that safety and security are enhanced in the region. We are also ensuring that
representation is achieved through the training for the new capabilities.
The South African Navy patrol corvettes are in the process of being
integrated into service and are being prepared for operational deployment at
home and in the Continent. The first, SAS AMATOLA, was handed over to the SA
Navy in February 2006. Similarly the arrival of the Navyâs first Type 209 Mod
SA submarine on 7 April 2006 is eagerly awaited.
Our constitutional mandate to âSupport the People of South Africaâ is being
demonstrated by our continued support for government activities and initiatives
like the securing of major events i.e. local elections, Soccer World Cup 2010
and national events like Youth Day, Womanâs Day, etc.
The SAS Drakensberg is on her way to Cape Town, with the rotor for Koeberg,
which will switch on the lights in Cape Town.
Work on the reorganisation of the Defence Industry is now in full swing.
Together with the Department of Public Enterprises, we have set up work
groups to re-examine and align the interactions between Armscor and Denel. This
may result in amendments to the Armscor Act. The DoD is looking at Denelâs
re-structuring to ensure alignment with the requirements of the DOD.
The DoD requires a defence industry that is able to maintain strategic
capabilities. We are aiming for an Industry relationship that allows the SANDF
to maintain and develop those strategic and niche capabilities that secure our
sovereignty and ensure our ability to sustain our industryâs consumables
without being dependent on others. The South African industry is the largest
and most sophisticated in Africa and we must jealously safeguard it in order to
preserve our Continental interests.
Emanating from our Strategic work sessions, and guided by our environmental
scan, we have allocated the following monies as our Ministerial priorities for
2006/7:
* Military skills development system â RM100 (an intake of 4 300 is planned for
2006, which will bring MSD system members strength to 9 500 for FY
2007/7)
* Renewal of DOD information and communication systems RM50
* enhancing the capability of defence intelligence services â RM121
* Readiness and serviceability of operational vehicles â RM RM150
* defence infrastructure â RM10
* Expanded anti â retroviral rollout â RM26
I would like to thank the Deputy Minister for his contribution and support
over the last year. He has supported me give leadership to the Department
especially on the broader transformational issues.
My thanks to the three Parliamentary Defence Committees who work hard to
perform effective oversight of the defence function.
I would also like to thank the Defence Secretary, Mr January Masilela, the
Chief of the SANDF General Ngwenya, the leadership of the DOD as represented in
the Plenary Defence Staff Council, and my staff in the Ministry.
I need to acknowledge and thank the Chairperson and Board of Armscor, who
continue to grapple with the intricate issues of the transformation of Armscor
and the acquisition process.
My special thanks, as always, go to the rank and file, the men and women of
the SANDF, who make our country as a whole, so proud.
If the DoD is ready, able, and more than willing to ensure peace and
security across the Continent it is because these are the people who are ready
to serve whenever, wherever they are called upon.
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Defence
31 March 2006
