Despite facing stringent budget cuts, the military has paid out hefty merit bonuses – mainly to white officers, writes Mungo Soggot
The Ministry of Defence is probing the armed forces’ decision to pay officers R77-million in performance bonuses, nearly all of which went to white officers of the former South African Defence Force (SADF).
Amid hefty cuts in the military budget, senior officers in the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) quietly distributed the generous payouts late last year without the sanction of the Ministry.
The Minister of Defence, Joe Modise, is understood to be particularly alarmed by the disparity between payouts to former SADF officers and those to members of the armed wings of the African National Congress and the Pan Africanist Congress.
The skewed payouts, which come on top of 13th cheques, will inevitably fuel tension surrounding the integration of the former SADF with Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) and the Azanian Peoples Liberation Army (Apla).
SADF officers received an average performance bonus of R6 500 last year, compared with R3 840 for MK officers. Of the 12 082 officers who received 14th cheques, 11 412 belonged to the former SADF, and only 130 to MK and Apla.
The military remained tight-lipped about the payouts this week. The SANDF’s communications department failed to comment on any of this information before going to press. The figures are readily available to other senior army officials, who confirmed them for the Mail & Guardian.
Colonel Puso Tladi, communications director for the ministry of defence, confirmed that the “minister is on top of that situation right now, and is examining such payouts”.
ANC MP Tony Yengeni, chair of the parliamentary portfolio committee on defence, says he is aware of the wide disparities in the payouts and has asked Modise to answer questions in Parliament about the payouts when the national assembly reconvenes after the Easter break.
Explanations of the disparities from former SADF officers include pointing to the relative inexperience of the former liberation soldiers, who, they say, have been spending much time undergoing bridging training.
This justification did not go down well with a senior former MK operative asked for comment. “There is some truth in that, as many former operatives are on training and so cannot perform above average. But there are also scores of other senior officers including (former MK officer) General Lambert Moloi who have performed outstandingly and got nothing.”
There are about 18 000 MK and Apla members integrated into the SANDF which now comprises 77 000 uniformed members.
MK and Apla received only R500 000 of the R77-million. Former members of the armed forces of the so-called “TBVC” homeland states bagged about R3-million.
The payouts are particularly startling when compared with the R20-million that was paid out in 14th cheques in 1993 when the defence force enjoyed a far larger budget.
Public service regulations stipulate that performance bonuses can be paid out to 12% of a department, at the discretion of a department head and providing there are available funds. The bonuses paid out last year would have been vetted by department heads and then sanctioned by top officers.
The military’s budget has been slashed over the past few years, leaving it a fraction of what it was under National Party rule. Modise secured a budget of R9,95-billion in March, which included a R250-million allowance for salary improvement. All of which is about half what the armed forces received in today’s money 10 years ago, forcing stiff spending cuts and preventing the military from replacing ageing equipment.