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Military’s role Fiela should be terminated immediately: DA

Defence and Military Veterans Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula. Picture Credit: Gallo Images
Defence and Military Veterans Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula. Picture Credit: Gallo Images

Defence minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula can be glad she is not serving in the North Korean cabinet or she may be dead‚ Democratic Alliance MP David Maynier said on Tuesday.

North Korea’s supreme leader Kim Jong-un last week executed his defence minister‚ using anti-aircraft guns‚ for the relatively minor offence of falling asleep in a meeting‚ he reminded her.

“If this was North Korea‚ which thankfully it is not‚ the minister would no doubt have been dispatched‚ by anti-aircraft gun‚ long ago for offences much more serious than falling asleep in a meeting.”

Tuesday’s parliamentary debate on the defence budget vote revealed huge differences in the approach of the government on one hand‚ and the opposition on the other‚ to running the defence force.

In her budget vote speech‚ Mapisa-Nqakula touched on the peacekeeping role of the SA National Defence Force in regional unrest‚ including in the Central African Republic‚ Burundi‚ Nigeria and as part of the Arab Spring aftermath.

The navy‚ meanwhile‚ is kept busy combating piracy off the east African coast. Piracy is also on the increase on the continent’s west coast‚ the minister warned.

She also warned that South Africans are being targeted for recruitment by extremist groups such as ISIS.

Mapisa-Nqakula called on Parliament to expedite the process of ratifying the Defence Review‚ the delay of which is “costing us immensely as a defence force.”

Reacting on behalf of the DA‚ Maynier said everyone agrees that the defence force should be deployed internally‚ in support of the South African Police Service‚ in “exceptional circumstances”‚ only.

However‚ according to Maynier those “exceptional circumstances” no longer exist and‚ for that reason‚ the DA believes that the defence force’s role in the controversial anti-crime Operation Fiela‚ which has been described by some as “anti-immigrant”‚ should be terminated immediately.

Maynier pointed out that the Defence Review found that even with an immediate intervention‚ it could take at least five years to arrest the decline and another five years to develop a limited and sustainable defence capability.

“There is therefore an element of urgency; every day that is wasted talking about the Defence Review‚ rather than implementing it‚ accelerates the decline of the defence force‚” said Maynier.

He said the defence force has become a state-within-a-state and is beyond effective scrutiny and oversight by Parliament.

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