With dwindling budgets, increasing loss of highly skilled technical staff and less spending on training and equipment, the defence force - according to military experts - can barely meet its constitutional obligations.

Increasing international demands and frequent internal deployments is placing further strain on the already overstretched arms of service.

Military analyst Helmoed Heitman said that, across the spectrum, the defence force was in collapse.

"We have huge sections of the budget spent on salaries with equipment and training left lacking. We are hopelessly short on manpower - 20,000 troops too few and porous borders which cannot be guarded properly," he said.

The department received just over R34-billion last year from Treasury. Its current budget is R37-billion and is expected to increase to R39-billion in the 2013-2014 financial year.

Professor Renfrew Christie, University of the Western Cape dean of research, said the military's budget needed a drastic increase.

"Currently we spend 1% of the GDP on defence. There are things out there far worse than not going to school. We need a military capable of looking after our country with the time now coming to increase spending to 2% of GDP."

He said peacekeeping and peacemaking requirements placed on South Africa by the rest of Africa dictated an increase in spending.

"To do our duty we need a bigger and better equipped military. The option of down-scaling our involvement north of our borders is not an option," he said.

Retired Admiral Chris Bennett, former naval chief of staff, said the massive "poaching" of technical staff had led to the crises.

"Our military, especially on the technical side, is being bled dry by both public and private industries as well as foreign militaries," he said.

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Sun May 19 05:51:38 SAST 2013 ::

Sep 25, 2012

Sgandy

Incompetence and shufflingand reshufling of Ministers,how can within 4yrs we have 2 ministers of this important department,this country is really going down,but we only have ourselves to blame by insisting on electing leaders with no vision and knowledge of how to lead..change is a must or we doomed.
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Sep 25, 2012

warry

Does the Shaik ring a sound in you? Durban will protect us. Let's look at this, Botswana is weak militarily, zimbabwe is cashless just asked for $100000 then Mozambique we married a wife there nobody attacks a son in law if he treats the wife well then Namibia we fought with them. Our enemy will get in by the side of cape Town, those guys there won't let them in there is lot of wine they will get drunk. In Durban we give them Currie with lot of spices they will be hungry and we kill them simple.Shaik is there also.
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Sep 25, 2012

LBS

Is there ANYTHING that isn't collapsing under this useless government?
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Sep 25, 2012

Mondi

What happened to one of the best Armies in the world!!??
An Army who build some of the best weapons and had dissipline!!!

ANC-that's what happened.
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Sep 25, 2012

Serene

for as long as u have people that are politically appointed, that is certain to happen.
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Sep 25, 2012

MorenaWaPolelo

This is not good, Zuma must fire defense Minister for not being vocal about asking for a bigger budget!!! This oversite is putting our lifes in danger!!! Sometimes deploying people without militatry experience to this positions can not be ignored!!!
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Sep 25, 2012

|Sinudeity|

Lindiwe Sisulu, the most incompetent MP in all of South Africa.
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Sep 25, 2012

Makhosini0408

|Sinudeity|
Lindiwe Sisulu, the most incompetent MP in all of South Africa.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Your forgot Modise, Lekota, Nqakula
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Sep 25, 2012

Papage

How much are the Black Soldiers salaries?
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Sep 25, 2012

Moffdat

Can someone mention the fact that you really cannot afford to have a fat soldier, which most i see are!
The women... sies man! Who are they going to defend if the can't even run???
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