House Chair,
The ACDP would like to extend its deepest condolences to the families and friends of the brave SANDF soldiers who have died in action recently as part of the SADC peacekeeping mission to the DRC (SAMIDRC). They have paid the ultimate sacrifice.
The question that we need to ask ourselves is whether these deaths were avoidable. Our deployed soldiers deserve the highest levels of support to carry out their duties and return home safely. These recent attacks have highlighted the deadly consequences of inadequate resources and support. Losing lives due to preventable shortcomings is a travesty. The South African National Defence Union and other military experts have made it abundantly clear that there is a dire need for improved air support, medical facilities, logistical capabilities, and combat support, including crucial radar defence systems. It is time for decisive action to ensure that our troops are equipped with the tools they need to succeed and survive in their mission in the DRC or bring them home.
The famous lines from Lord Alfred Tennyson’s poem on the suicidal Charge of the Light Brigade comes to mind:
“Forward, the Light Brigade!”
Was there a man dismayed?
Not though the soldier knew
Someone had blundered.
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die.
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.”
Chairperson, we in the ACDP respectfully believe that indeed someone has indeed blundered. We have blundered in not appropriating a sufficient budget to the SANDF, and in ensuring that the budget as allocated is properly spent. The soldiers who are deployed may not question the decisions to deploy them – theirs is not to reason why, theirs is just to do or die.
It serves no purpose to wring our hands and say, as many today have said, that the SANDF needs more funds and do nothing. We as Parliament appropriate the funds and must accept responsibility. The ACDP appreciates the fiscally constrained environment facing the country. However we can and must exercise our powers in terms of the Monetary Bills and Related Matters Act to reassign funds within the existing fiscal framework to the SANDF. If the SANDF is expected to assist the SAPS domestically in maintaining law and order, then the funds should be re-assigned from the SAPS budget.
In this 7th administration, Hon Minister, and more particularly DM with your military background – we must ensure our troops have the necessary equipment or admit that we are not up to the task and bring them home now and rather focus on assisting the SAPS in combatting the many threats to our domestic security – including rampant crime.
Let us ensure that our soldiers are properly resourced or bring them home now!
I thank you.
