OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 5.00pm.
THE appointment of two fairly inexperienced people to head the defence Cabinet portfolio was worrying in terms of continuity, Jane’s Defence Weekly Southern Africa correspondent Helmut Heitman said on Thursday.
Heitman said the appointment of former National Council of Provinces chairman Patrick Lekota as South Africa’s new Defence Minister, with African National Congress MP Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge as his deputy, deprived the defence force of any continuity at a time when it was undergoing a major re-equipment exercise, as well as transformation and re-organisation.
Heitman said his remarks were no reflection on Lekota or Madlala-Routledge, but it was possible that the new government did not realise the importance of continuity in this very important portfolio.
If the region was entirely stable, the appointments would not have been so important, he said.