SA needs a functioning army to be taken seriously

We are a country not at war with anyone and so it is not surprising that, in the national discourse, the SA army is often not treated like an important subject. Unlike in the days of apartheid when the state had to keep a massive army with military equipment that dwarfed that of the rest of the continent, the democratic state does not feel militarily threatened by anyone, inside or outside our borders. Yet the post-apartheid army does play an important role both at home and abroad, especially in southern Africa, when it comes to management of natural disasters and the maintenance of peace in conflict areas.

The SA National Defence Force is also key to safeguarding our borders against those who seek to break internationally accepted laws by entering the republic illegally. It is therefore worrying that, despite the clear role the army plays, the SANDF is treated like an afterthought by those in authority. The story by our sister newspaper, Sunday Times, this weekend that some of our troops deployed in border areas sometimes go without food and medication due to budget cuts is more than troubling.

Readers will recall that one of the revelations in the aftermath of the July 2021 riots was that the army failed to intervene and save lives and businesses from being destroyed mainly because it did not have vehicles, petrol, weapons and other equipment the soldiers needed to protect vulnerable communities. That almost five years later, the troops are still confronted with the same issues suggests that those in authority still do not realise the dangers of keeping the country’s military weak and ill-equipped. At foreign policy level, SA often punches above its weight, demanding to be heard by the rest of the world on issues that most often treat as the preserve of the so-called world superpowers.

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But such ability to speak out independently is often backed by the country’s economic and military strength. In that context, who would take SA’s views seriously when it speaks out about the continued and illegal occupation of Gaza and other parts of Palestine by Israel or when it challenges the global north’s refusal to reform the UN Security Council so as to allow Africa and the Global South to be represented as full and permanent members?

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