JEREMY LOVELL, Cape Town | Friday
A CONFIDENTIAL defence department report has painted a grim picture of decrepit machinery and shortages of ammunition and fuel in South Africa’s armed forces – even as the country sets out to spend R30bn rand on ships and aircraft from Europe.
The report says a lack of funds means South Africa is unable to maintain its army, navy or airforce at anything near operational readiness, leaving its borders wide open to smugglers and illegals.
”The SA Army cannot…maintain its deterrent capabilities at an acceptable level and at the same time deploy the number of companies and platoons required for border control and support to the SAPS [South African Police Service],” it said.
South Africa had to limit its border patrols to the ”high risk” areas of Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Lesotho, the airforce had lost its ability to track smugglers and the navy only had 36 missiles and 12 torpedoes left.
The report said the army could only manage an average level of preparedness of 45% and only keep them operational for a maximum of 90 days.
It could field only 19 of the required 54 full-time force companies and only 23 of the required 49 reserve platoons.
The airforce would have to ground 88 aircraft and 46 helicopters and be able to fly only 67% of the required flying hours. It also no longer had an in-flight refuelling or electronic warfare capability.
Three airbases would have to close and the number of long range radar systems would be halved to three.
Only 17 of the navy’s remaining 24 vessels could be retained, of which only three would be fully operational. Within two years the navy would have no serviceable minesweepers left.
The navy had no mines left and would be forced to write off 10000 high explosive shells that were more than a decade old, the report said.
Armoured vehicles and ships would be cannibalised in order to keep the remainder going, it added.
The report described the condition of uniforms in the army as ”atrocious”, noting that there was not enough stock for a full uniform issue in the foreseeable future. – Reuters