SANDF Lieutenant-General Ntshavheni Maphaha is in the firing line for remarks he made at the funeral of one of the 14 South African soldiers who died in the DRC. Maphaha condemned the government’s “failure to secure South Africa’s borders”, saying politicians had turned the SANDF into a “Mickey Mouse force”. In response, Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans chairperson Dakota Legoete says: “We can’t have generals speaking in folk tongues. This general must account – if he speaks like this, the country is in trouble.” He added, “A crying general is not what this country needs.”
Army General Ntshavheni Maphaha to be taken through a disciplinary action by the SANDF over his honest comments he made during a funeral.
Maphaha said ‘ Politicians have made the SANDF a Mickey Mouse, leaving our borders open ‘.
The question is who is wrong between Dakota Legoete and Maphaha, are our borders protected or not.
The South African National Defence Union (SANDU) has backed comments made by SANDF Lieutenant General Peter Ntshavheni Maphaha over the weekend. Maphaha accused the government of running a “Mickey Mouse” defence force.
In the wake of 14 soldier deaths far from home and a highly critical review of the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) by Parliament’s watchdog public accounts committee, another call has come for a thorough re-assessment of the 2015 Defence Review.
Democratic Alliance (DA) defence and military veterans spokesman Chris Hattingh’s plea was made over the weekend coinciding with a veiled attack from the SA Military Health Service on politicians for ignoring reality and deciding on “a Mickey Mouse defence force”.
The attack was attributed to the officer in command of the only non-combat service in the SANDF – military health – Surgeon General, Lieutenant General Ntshavheni Maphaha. He was speaking at the funeral of one of the 14 soldiers detached to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the United Nations peace mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) killed by M23 (Mouvement du 23 Mars) rebels late in January.
Elaborating on him telling mourners South African politicians should be concerned about the safety of the country, Maphaha was recorded by Newzroom Afriak as saying: “We are not protected. Our borders are porous and they are porous because you as politicians have decided that you want a Mickey Mouse defence force”.
“If we are going to play big brother in Africa, what we give to the defence force should symbolise that. I am saying to the politicians, next time you sit and debate, think of whether you are protected or not.”
The Mickey Mouse reference was, to some extent, present in Hattingh’s plea which reads, in part, “our military is in freefall”. He notes further “it is concerning that we do not have a full picture of its decline”.
“The last SANDF strategic review was over a decade ago,” according to a statement that adds, “images of our troops in eastern DRC, while harrowing, were, sadly predictable”.
Hattingh calls for “completion of the re-assessment of the 2015 Defence Review,” saying it must be based on the type and size of defence force South Africa needs and be aligned to national security requirements as well as be fully funded. There are, for him, several non-negotiables in the re-assessment.
They are a full audit of SANDF “assets” including infrastructure to determine operational readiness and cost effectiveness; an in depth review of human resources; a full financial management evaluation; and an assessment of SANDF strategic capabilities. This must examine whether the SANDF is equipped to fulfil its mandate “particularly in foreign [continental] deployments and peacekeeping operations”.
Of the 2015 Defence Review, Hattingh maintains a re-assessment was initiated by former defence and military veterans minister, Thandi Modise, over two years ago and supposed to be completed by the end of October last year – which did not happen. He is critical of the 2015 Review, chaired by Roelf Meyer, which he says was “never funded with not one milestone reached”.
“The SANDF is now burdened with an ageing personnel corps, outdated and poorly maintained equipment, as well as severe mismanagement compounded by corruption. These shortcomings have placed both our troops and the country’s security at significant risk,” the statement has him saying.
Hattingh’s ‘re-assessment’ call is in line with what retired two-star general Bantu Holomisa, then one of two newly appointed deputy defence and military veterans ministers, told the National Assembly during last year’s defence budget debate.
“The 2015 Defence Review is still relevant,” he said, adding “effort was never made to implement it” which he laid at the door South Africa’s financial constraints. Holomisa offered the opinion that “new plans based on an appreciation of current realities can be drawn from it without wasting precious time”.
Elaborating on “current realities” he told Parliamentarians South African troops were deployed on continental peacekeeping missions in “volatile operational theatres” where they were “vulnerable”.
