The primary contractor in South Africa’s acquisition of four new corvette warships for the navy will be held responsible for ensuring the vessels are up to standard, Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota said on Thursday.
During a media briefing at Parliament, Lekota was asked to comment on the delay in the delivery of the first Corvette — due to faulty cables for the ship’s communication system.
Lekota said delays in any transaction of this nature and size were always possible, with South Africa signing agreements with the primary contractor, who in turn sub-contracted other companies for doing some of the work.
”But, we hold the primary contractor responsible for the quality of the commodity,” he said.
”If we are not happy with the quality, it is our duty to insist” that all specifications were complied with, as South Africa would not accept anything not up to scratch.
Therefore, the problem was a matter for the primary and secondary contractors, not for South Africa, Lekota said.
Last month, the German consortium responsible for supplying the Corvettes reportedly confirmed it was behind schedule in delivering the first vessel because of the supply of faulty cable for the ship’s communication system.
However, the consortium’s South African representative, Sven Muller, said the delay resulting from the need to replace the cable would be minimal, and that delivery was ”imminent”.
Asked at the briefing about the high average age of SA National Defence Force members and transformation, Lekota said this was an abiding problem in any defence force.
Keeping the average age of soldiers at a level to match defence force fitness requirements was an ongoing exercise. Part of this process was the current efforts to ”exit” senior officers in the defence force and draw in younger people for
training.
Significant numbers of young people were now being recruited for officer selection and training, especially for the navy and airforce.
With the emphasis on representivity, some of them were being trained to eventually man the new equipment ordered in the arms deal, he said.
Lekota said it had also been determined that the defence force should increasingly ”withdraw from policing civilians”, as this was not the task of soldiers and they had not been trained for it.
”We would like to see a reduction of its activity in this regard”, so that the SANDF could concentrate on its core task of defence. However, the SANDF would still occasionally perform functions in support of law enforcement agencies if needed.
Turning to the plan to phase out the commando system, Lekota said the commandos were effectively ”civilians in uniform”.
They could not be equated with the old Boer War commandos, who were soldiers in their own right. There were many allegations of commandos being involved in
incidents where black people had been ”brutalised”.
The commando system was also largely based within the white community, and South Africa’s constitutional order required that it be phased out and replaced with a constitutionally accountable structure, with the emphasis on the protection of all communities, Lekota said. – Sapa